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Printing Hints and Tips

Color Profiles

Red River Paper offers free ICC profiles here. Using profiles requires knowledge of basic color management. Red River provides several documents for download to help you along.

Ink Configuration Tool
Epson 2200 driver software now comes with a handy tool called Ink Configuration. It allows you to adjust color density and increase drying time. Both of these features expand the number of compatible papers.

Figure 1

How to Reduce the "3D" effect on glossy papers -
Ink build up in more saturated parts of an image may create the appearance of high points or ink ridges in those areas. This is best seen when viewing the image at an angle in direct light.* The effect is most prevalent on smooth glossy papers like Red River Polar Gloss and UltraPro Gloss. The issue is certainly not limited to Red River paper, and will most likely appear on any resin coated gloss or satin. Luckily, Epson has provided a handy fix.
Figure 2
Reduce Color Density to -10% and print an image. You should see a marked reduction in the high points and resulting glare. You may need to do some adjustments based on your particular image. Please note this fix adds 1-2 minutes to your print time at 1440dpi.

*The above directions are not intended to correct the a similar effect caused by low points in the pure white areas of an image. This issue occurs less frequently. There is not a fix for this problem as of yet.

Color Correction and Management when not using a profile

With the help of the Epson driver software, you can add some punch to images in a couple of easy steps.

Go into the Advanced screen. (See Figure 1 above) Move the brightness bar to +10, and contrast bar to +5 to +10. The saturation bar is also available to add more ink volume if areas look faded or weak. You will need to experiment some with the recommended changes, but they generally add some life to otherwise dull images.

We have found the 2200 to produce a slight magenta cast on many papers. To quickly tackle this problem, go to the Advanced menu of the print driver and reduce the Magenta Bar to about minus 8. You should see a quick improvement in color balance.

Black & White Printing on the 2200

Making good neutral, cool, and warm black & white images with your 2200 is possible. However, file manipulation in Photoshop is a must to get it right. Simply changing driver settings or making an image a grayscale is unlikely to satisfy most users. Go to the forums, read up on making a file black & white in Photoshop, and get ready to do a little practice printing.

An alternative is a good color management solution. One that Red River highly recommends is ImagePrint from ColorByte Software. You can learn more about this product here.

Some Driver Setting Recommendations for B&W printing with no profile

Printing with Black Ink Only

When you choose black only printing in the Epson printer driver, you get this message:
Figure 3

Undeterred, we pressed on and found pleasing results. In general, you will need to print on matte or watercolor paper if you want to use black only printing. We tried printing with the Photo Black and Matte Black inks installed. There was a definite difference, with the Photo Black making warmer images and lighter details. Choosing the Velvet Fine Art or Radiant White watercolor papers worked best for our images. Make sure to choose at least 1440dpi print quality. 2880dpi, although time and ink consuming, did offer superior B&W results.

To summarize, we certainly recommend trying black only printing with the 2200. Some experimentation is necessary, but seems justified when your result is a beautiful neutral black & white image.

Good Luck!