Help with printer settings needed for a special application

[J Isner]

I have a Photoshop document with profile gray gamma 1.0.  The image is a "step table" of with eleven swatches evenly spaced between HSB=(0,0,0) and HSB=(0,0,100), that is

HSB = (0,0,0)   (0,0,10)    (0,0,20)  ....  (0,0,90)    (0,0,100)

If the document profile was gray gamma 2.2, the eyedropper K values would read

K = 100    90   80   ... 10   0

but because the document is gray gamma 1.0, the K values are

K = 100    99    97    93 ....   21    0

I want to send this gray gamma 1.0 image to the printer (an Epson P400 inkjet) and I want the printer to print it with the K values that I give it. I don't want the printer to change the numbers, just print them as given.  I know the print is going to be dark, especially in the shadows, but I want to see it that way.

Can you tell me what printer settings to use?  For example, will Color with "No Color Management" do it?  

[josephlavine]

I am not familiar with the Epson P400, but my initial thought since you are using an Epson is to print using their Advanced Black and White mode, which in essence takes over the color management. You'll need to test whether you prefer the Dark, Darkest... settings, but that should get you close with no color information.

warmly/j

[J Isner]

The P400 does not have ABW.  It has only Color and Grayscale.  Also, I selected Printer Manages Color and No Color Management.

[Conrad_C]

If you’re using recent versions of macOS/Windows, I don’t think there is a pure “no color management” workflow any more. As I understand it, the No Color Adjustment option was removed from Photoshop because the printing engines in current OSs didn’t provide a reliable way to ensure no adjustments were being made. Instead, you might have to use a workflow similar to printing a calibration target, which has the same problem: The color values have to be passed through without any changes (e.g., by profiles).

When the No Color Management option was removed from Photoshop, Adobe came out with the Adobe Color Printer Utility to allow unadjusted print jobs by bypassing all color management, primarily for the purpose of printing calibration targets. You might try that.

If you’re on a Mac, note that Adobe Color Printer Utility isn’t supported on macOS 10.15 Catalina or later. If you are running those versions of macOS, you might instead try a similar workflow by printing from the Apple ColorSync Utility that comes with your Mac: Try the Print As Color Target option, which Apple says “prints the document without any color management.”

Although I like making prints with the Advanced Black and White mode, I am doubtful the color values will pass through without adjustment. Although ABW mode doesn’t use ICC profiles, it does apply its own adjustments. The way color managment people talk about it, ABW mode is a closed Epson “black box” since it can’t be controlled through ICC color management and what happens inside is not exposed to users.

[J Isner]

I should have mentioned that I'm on Windows.  The Print Settings have a No Color Management option.

[Conrad_C]

According to this discussion linked below — see the comment by Adobe printing engineer Dave Polaschek — in Windows there may be a conversion to sRGB if the driver is set to No Color Management. Yes, it’s an old post, but the “moving target” aspect of this in the changing OS printer code that they discuss in the comments is why it’s hard to say whether you can rely on No Color Management today, and why Adobe released the Adobe Color Printer Utility.

https://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2010/12/a-no-color-management-print-utility-for-photoshop.html

Additional background here:

Why is printing with No Color Management not supported in Photoshop CC?

Both the person asking the question and the Adobe engineer who answered are color management experts (I have a reference book written by the guy who asked the question)

You can try No Color Management in the Epson Windows printer driver in case it works better than it used to. I’m just saying there are historical doubts as to whether it will work as expected. If it works, great! If it doesn’t work, the Adobe Color Printer Utility might work.

[J Isner]

Thank you for the references.  I see now that I mis-spoke.  The option I chose on the P400 was "No Color Adjustment" not "No Color Management".  With No Color Management I would expect the printer to ignore the embedded profile.  But since that is clearly not happening, I assume it is using the embedded Gamma 1.0 profile and converting Gray values to the printer's best estimation of how those tones should be printed.  E.g., K=100 in the image will print as the printer's maximum black and K=0 will print as paper white.

[davescm]

You cannot control the individual inks through the printer driver. The print driver will convert your colours to RGB then to it's own combination of inks. To get control of the individual inks you would need to use a RIP.

However using Advanced Black and White will limit the use of the coloured inks. You can produce a curve to linearise it if you have a device to measure the patches. 

You could also look at QuadToneRIP to print and make an ICC printer profile for black and white printing, although I'm not sure if the P400 is supported.

Dave

[J Isner]

I use QTR for all my "real" work (QTR is supported on P400).  I have two P400's one for normal color printing with the Epson driver / Ultrachrome ink, and the other for printing with QTR and Cone Piezography inks (I make digital negatives for darkroom printing).

I recently became interested in how other people print digital negatives from Photoshop, and so I decided to do some research, which led to this post.  If my image is grayscale gamma 1.0, what is the difference between choosing Color and Grayscale in the print settings?  Is it only meaningful if the image contains color?  Or does it imply that color ink (in addition to black) will be used to print a grayscale image which has only gray tones?  It is my understanding that the use of color in addition to black ink can (1) increase print density (2) make tones more continuous.  So knowing the answer would be useful.