Followup to Costco large prints

Craig asked about Costco large prints the other day so just for grins I decided to try them out. I uploaded an image and that went pretty smooth. Because of the holiday I had to wait until tonite to pick it up...still not bad service.

Based on this print I would not give it higher than a D-.

The colors were nothing like when I printed it on my Epson R1900. They were soft and muted. The biggest single problem is vertical print lines all the way across the image. It would be completely unsellable. As a test print, it has some value but for marketing, forget it.

That being said, I intend to speak with Jamie on Monday and see what can be done to improve the quality. Maybe I need to send a larger file size or personally bring in the data on a flash drive. Those vertical lines are print killers for sure and they would need to totally correct that issue. The luster paper seemed OK.

Bummer, that's too bad, I guess you get what you pay for in most cases

I may still try this at my Costco to see if I have more luck. BTW, which Costco did you print at?

If you tell them about the print lines they will redo the print for free, they are well aware of these lines. It happened to me on one of my prints but I told them about it and they fixed it, I have been happy with 16x20 that I have had done, they look identical to whats on my monitor. I always upload at 300dpi, RGB and just before you order you need to check the 'Auto Correct Color' box. Works for me!

Jody..RGB or sRGB? How large are your file sizes for upload?

Craig, I used the Park Meadows location. I will show Jamie on Monday and see if we can fix the issue. It could be something on my end for color and something on their end for print lines. I will also show them my print from the R1900 and see if I can figure a profile that will work.

I've gotten a few 20x30s done, and this last time the print had banding from clogged heads. I handed it right back and aske for it to be reprinted once the heads were cleaned. No problem doing that and the next print was fine. My gripe is that the technician there shouldn't be handing prints like that to the customer, granted, this inkjet thing is new to them. That's why it's crucial we hand bad prints back to them, and let them know from our experience what the issue is. Guess we become inkjet trainers now, lol!

BTW, I've had prints from Costco that were dark, and others thy were spot on. It's basically a $9 shot in the dark. If it works, great, but for a well done image it's worth going to a real lab. Think of the Costco print as the Polaroid we used to take!

Jack,

RGB not sRGB, files sizes can be large, like I said make your resolution 300dpi, mine where also printed at the Park Meadows location.

Per what Jody said, he is correct on these parameters, however, you can drop to 240 dpi, as Epson's print engine is based on 1440/2880 dpi (/3 and /6, respectively), so it doesn't have to work 'as hard', if this makes any sense. Remember, these 7880s are getting alot of use, mainly from people who aren't too concerned about color management - or have no idea what it is. Personally, I wouldn't even submit a file with a color profile associated with it. They will check off the proper paper (Premium Semigloss of Premium Luster) and everything should be spot on.

Of course you could continue to use the uploader and see if it works - for $9 is a ridiculous steal, as a 20x30 print on premium luster costs me on my 7880 approximately $19.30 in ink alone, based on the ink usage report. And then there's the paper....

I agree Christopher. If I can resolve these issues, it's a bargain like no other. I'll rework the file for higher resolution and put it on my flash drive. They've been good in the past about giving me credit for a bad print and I'm sure we can get the whole thing worked out. It costs less to have them make me a 20x30 than it does for me to make a 13x19 here at home!

Jack, try these instructions from Dry Creek and make sure you use their color profile since they profile all the Costco printers:

http://www.drycreekphoto.com/icc/CostcoPosterPrinters.html

Get the profile from:

http://www.drycreekphoto.com/icc/Profiles/Colorado_profiles.htm#CO

The Park Meadows store has two profiles, so you may need to ask them which paper they are printing on or how you can specify in the order.

Looking forward to your results after following these instructions, since I will be using Park Meadows too.

Craig

Craig, just an FYI the papers listed on the Dry Creek Photo website aren't consistent with what they're printing, i.e. the PBSG (poster board) is really a roll of Premium Luster 260 or Premium Semigloss 150 - or whatever they have in stock (at least at Arvada), so be careful and find out what they're running at Park Meadows. The lab techs aren't too excited to talk about it either as I was surprised to see the machine at my local store. I can't stress it enough to either use AdobeRGB colorspace or none at all - they really don't calibrate the Epson print computers as often as you'd think - however, the Noritsu machines get a calibration every other day (allegedly). The whole Epson thing is confusing to some of the lab techs, for good reason, they truly are a pain in the arse to get going and maintain consistency.

Chris, thanks for the heads up. If the paper is truly not even what the profiles were created for, I think I'll skip this altogether or can you use a canned Epson profile for these professional printers and their papers? I don't see much point in sending an AdobeRGB image to the Epson, can't image that turning out too professional looking

I don't know much about the non-desktop Epsons, but I'm wondering what you mean by calibration; do you mean nozzle checks and print head alignment or something beyond that?

Thanks again,
Craig

Craig;

What I mean by calibration is simply the display they're using at the lab for proofing - and how the image looks prior to printing may affect the output if the lab techs are doing adjustments. Ideally, they should have made a custom icc profile for each paper they use at each costco, if they hired Dry Creek Photo to do this I have no idea. The custom profile is created with the paper being scanned by a device that measures color values from a large palette, then an ICC file is made for the proofing computer. As far as the papers go, they should be sticking with Epson papers and using the respective paper profiles for printing. If not, then this may explain color casts etc, but not banding. Banding is simply a clogged head or an alignment issue. I'm surprised that some members had banding issues as these machines are constantly used, which would mitigate drying out.

In terms of preparing an image to print, it doesn't matter too much colorspace what you're working in, because once you assign it to the color profile associated with the papers, it's all good. Adobe RGB is a wider color gamut than sRGB, but apparently there is a new one out there (Nat can you help?) which has an even wider range. At least this is my methodology, and it seems to work, but there may be other procedures that are equivalent.

Printing is still a complex matter. I remember getting my first 2200 back in '03 and having all sorts of fun problems getting prints to match my display. After awhile, I was able to streamline my print process and now I have carried it over the the 7880 (which sadly gets almost no use), and have had nothing but spot-on prints after the proof print.

Chris, thanks for the additional info. I had no idea that Epson put built in paper profile generation in these printers; similar to HP I guess. It is my understanding that Dry Creek was specifically hired to profile all of the Costco printers; Noritsu or Epson. Funny they have profiles generated for paper that is not even being used.

I don't think the paper profiles would need to regenerated every few days, more like every few months as long as the printers are kept in alignment and clog free.

For Costco's Noritsu printers, I have always followed the Dry Creek instructions on converting the image to the paper profile and sending it to Costco. Works every time with spot on results (unless they have an issue with the hardware; one of the lasers were out when I printed once). I'd think without proper color space conversion from the PS working space to a printer profile, either in PS by us or by the print spooler they are using, the colors would never be right.

I think I'll just have to stop in at Park Meadows and discuss it with the manager in the print department.

Thanks for all the help,
Craig

Sorry I think I may have been misleading; they don't have to cal the displays that often, however it is my understanding that the Noritsu machines - the 3100 series prior to the newer Frontier-based systems (3101?) need care as they run all the time and the chemistry gets loose.

Yeah as part of the Epson printer driver it installs ICC paper profiles for all Epson papers, glossy and matte. For 3rd party papers you need to d/l those and put them in the ICC folder thats buried so nicely in Windows.

Have you worked in the Noritsu colorspace? Notice how muted the color picker's primaries are? Very strange gamut there...

I guess I lost my faith in Dry Creek Photo a long time ago. Back in '04 I was using the Noritsu machines alot when I was doing art fairs and I was lucky to get 50% success rate on color using their profiles - always muted and dark, never bright and vibrant... grrr. I'm sure after 6 years they've got their act together...

PS if you talk to the Costco people at Park Meadows I'd like to know what they say. I shop at the Arvada store and they were using the Premium Semigloss rolls on that 7880 that clearly isnt consistent with the profile online... Interesting, they say its Fuji paper... sorry just caught that now, DOH