4. The printer at work

4.1. Interface with Photoshop CS4

The printer interfaces with Photoshop either via the conventional print dialogue or the EPSON Print Plug-In for Photoshop. The latter is the much smarter choice. It allows defining all relevant characteristics of the print with immediate graphical representation. The risk of double colour management, both within Photoshop and the printer driver, is absent as long as you keep the direct colour management option enabled; in this case the plug-in adjusts the behaviour of the driver accordingly.
But beware: the plug-in does not modify the driver settings permanently. You can access and configure the driver via the operating system and define e.g. glossy paper borderless printing as default, while in the plug-in your default might be a layout with 5mm border and Premium Luster media.
Yet another important characteristic: if the image aspect ratio is not fully compatible with the defined border size, the Print Plug-In software masks such that the border definition gains priority and acts similar to a passepartout frame, effectively hiding a little bit of the picture in favour of streamlined appearance.

4.1.1. Excursion: align image colours with printable gamut

Prerequisite: work in a dimly lit room with a calibrated monitor set to a luminance in the order of 100 cd/m² for best results!
One of the outstanding features of Photoshop is the ability to provide decent softproofing. It is quite easy to define proof conditions for various media along with rendering intents and paper simulation, store that under meaningful names and activate the proof preview whenever desired.
If you switch proof preview on and off, you see immediately how the capabilities of ink and paper will affect the resulting print. Generally, colours will appear washed out and contrast turns dull. Since image editing is feasible under proof preview, we can employ careful curve manipulations until the proof preview lines up with our expectation for image contrast.
Colour adjustments are more difficult. Before we tweak colours, it is wise to check where the limitations in colour gamut show up. Therefore, we need to activate the gamut warning (View -> Gamut Warning). Colours that cannot be printed are replaced by grey patches. Since these colours simply fall out of the colour space that the printer/ink can represent, colour mismatches must occur in the print unless we modify the affected colours such that these colours become replaced by something printable. If we leave this replacement job to the rendering intent, the “impossible” colours will be replaced by the next feasible match, but this is not accurately displayed in the proof preview. If we want to be on the safe side and maintain control of the rendering, Photoshop CS4 provides a neat way to achieve that through the Hue/Saturation palette. Activate the finger tool, the cursor should switch to the eyedropper tool. Pick one of the grey patches that indicate an out-of-gamut colour. This selects a range of neighbouring colours - which is exactly what we want - so the slider modifications affects more the appearance of a subject in the image rather than just an individual colour. Repeat the select-and-modify exercise for each concerned colour range until you are satisfied with the result.
Try for yourself with my Cornpoppy test picture. You will find that gamut warnings mainly appear in the magenta-red of the cornpoppy blossom as well as in the saturated blue of the cornflower. Not to a magnitude that calls for corrective action, but the gamut mismatch is there and knowing avoids unpleasant surprise. Now you know ;-) 

4.2. Interface with Photoshop Elements 6

The printer interfaces with Photoshop Elements either via the conventional print dialogue or the EPSON Print Plug-In for Photoshop. Exception: it does not work for PS Elements 6 under Windows7 RC Build 7100 at the time being.
The plug-in allows defining all relevant characteristics of the print with immediate graphical representation. The risk of double colour management, both within Photoshop Elements and the printer driver, is gone since the plug-in adjusts the behaviour of the driver accordingly when you keep the default direct colour management option enabled.
The plug-in temporarily supersedes the driver settings. You can access and configure the driver via the operating system and define e.g. glossy paper borderless printing as default, while in the plug-in you always use a layout with 5mm border and Premium Luster media.
PS Elements lacks all features of softproofing, hence prints may finally exhibit mismatches in colour rendition due to gamut limitations.
Same as with Photoshop: if the image aspect ratio is not compatible with the defined border size, the Print Plug-In software masks parts of the picture such that the borders gain priority, in favour of overall appearance.

4.3. Interface with Nikon Capture NX2

Printing from Nikon Capture NX2 software appears, at first, a little bit confusing since not all relevant settings are concentrated under one menu item. In particular, I am not 100% sure whether or not ticking the “Use this profile for printing”-box under Edit->Presets->Colour Management is subordinated when it comes to launching print jobs. Normally one should expect that a preset is not more than a default characteristic that can be overridden by settings in other menus. In the case of Capture NX2, I feel not so confident and propose to leave the “Use this profile...”-box unchecked.

Nice but slightly worrying is the Digital Proof feature (lower left corner of the image frame). Here one can enable softproofing according to the selected paper profile, the rendering intent and whether or not Black point Compensation shall be used. According to my tests a few months ago, Capture NX2 does not perform proper paper white simulation. This option is nowhere offered. Therefore, the Digital Proof feature is inconsequential. When it comes to tweaking an image for best appearance on the print media, the simulation of media white is of interest.
In other words, Capture NX2 does not allow tweaking an image to the same level of satisfaction as Photoshop CS4 does. This is particularly pitiful since CNX2 comes with the implementation of Nik “Viveza” software, here called Colour Control Points, which forms an excellent tool for colour range adjustments.
Fortunately, Nikon managed to apply consistency between the colour management settings such that the proof setting for an image is adopted as default into the Colour Management tab of the print dialogue.
This print dialogue of Capture NX2 shows a number of annoying limitations. One cannot select the printer freely; CNX2 picks only the printer that is set as default device in the operating system. The layout options as well as definition of borders utilize the cumbersome vintage Windows default interface. One may rotate the image but not define which way round. The layout preview does not reflect all settings correctly in a WYSIWYG manner...need I say more?
After all, CNX2 gives me the strong impression that it was not designed for easy and flexible printing.
Eventually I asked Capture NX2 to execute a print of a portrait image with precise 210*297 aspect ratio and 10mm borders all the way round, knowing that this was in conflict with the image aspect ratio. The layout preview showed symmetric white bars at each edge of the virtual sheet but no overall borders. What I got was a print with 10mm borders along the long edges and almost 14mm border along the short edge, effectively 10mm plus the white bars displayed in the preview. This proves that the print engine behind Capture NX2 performs neither modifications to the aspect ratio (which is good) nor masking (which is not so clever), it just scales the image smaller in order to stay within the defined borders.
Please note that Capture NX2 does not provide direct access to the EPSON printer driver settings through the “Print” command.
Users of Windows XP may (and should) access the relevant settings in the EPSON driver through Ctrl-Shift-P (page presets) and manoeuvre right down to “Printer” –> “Printer settings”. Check these settings each time before you print and adjust accordingly!
Users of Windows Vista and Win7 may just check the current printer driver settings from the operating system level. The integration of colour management is much more streamlined in Vista and Win7, albeit not as straight as in the MAC world.
Once all that was checked and done, my sample prints came out great.


4.4. Interface with Nikon ViewNX

When you invoke the print option of ViewNX you see that this software was not designed for sophisticated printing. Very fair, I did not expect that. However, the print dialogue of ViewNX allows you to access the EPSON printer driver at the second level of sub-menus, opening the door to all utilities, layouts and settings. We can select the printer to use on the fly, something that Capture NX2 does not allow me to do and I can invoke a nozzle test quite easily, again something that CNX2 does not allow me to do.
In fact, the supposedly inferior print capabilities of ViewNX turn out to be more powerful that the mighty Capture NX2!
The one thing that ViewNX really misses against CNX2 is a decent implementation of colour management such that I receive a colour managed preview of the print. What we see is nothing more than a view of the positioning on the sheet. I am not even sure whether ViewNX interprets embedded profiles correctly all the time.
Anyway since this is Nikon software as well as CNX2, you better check the actual printer driver settings ;~)


4.5. Interface with Fujifilm Hyper-Utility Software HS-V3

Hyper-Utility3 provides two options for printing. Number One, Preview and Print, could be characterized as “fast lane” since it is tailored to a single image per page, where image size and position can be individually adjusted. Unfortunately (and rather exemplary for the many brake-pads within this software), the layout settings cannot be saved. Printing two images with identical layouts means defining the layout twice.
Option #2, Print/Contact Sheet, takes you through a guided tour of selections that looks very much like pasted from the FinePix Viewer software package. It provides a lot of predefined layouts, many of them are combinations of miniature prints and selected EXIF data. Not bad for filing and record keeping, I suppose.
Likewise ViewNX, the Fujifilm software enables access to the EPSON driver, so tuning the page layout and using any of the EPSON utilities is easily possible.
Colour management is implemented in such an awkward manner that I don't understand what this software will finally take into account and what not. It just gives lots of room for guesswork and headache.
Hyper-Utility3 is top notch as far as converting Fujifilm raw data format files is concerned, but when it comes to printing, its lack of user-friendliness even undercuts CNX2.


4.6. Feeding paper media

High quality prints are susceptible to unwanted objects like dust and pet hair, of which even the slightest fragment can ruin the entire print. My cat loves to stay next to the keyboard while I am typing and clutter keyboard, printer and everything on the desk with hairs... therefore I gratefully appreciate EPSON designed the R2880 such that the device can rest completely closed, drastically reducing the chance for ingress of undesired objects. The R2880 features no paper tray like office printers normally do. Open the lids and feed paper when a print job is pending. Close them when done. Put a blanket over the printer if  you live in a desert. I find it easy to keep the device sufficiently clean and tidy; it is well designed.

Along with the selected media goes the feeder path to be used. As for paper media, three options exist, discerned by media thickness and abrasion probability.
The R2880 can deal with cardboard-backed paper up to about 1,2mm thick (1/20 inch). This is fed from the front, drawn in completely prior to printing and then printed in forward direction just like any other paper. Cardboard media were not amongst the sample papers so I cannot comment further.
The R2880 can deal with a variety of Fine Art media (all are matte papers) and provides a special paper path for some of them which supposedly minimizes the contamination risk for the regular feeder.
The regular paper path is meant for media that are not likely to release fibrous particles into the internals of the printer.
I tried the Fine Art media feeder and mostly the regular feeder. The regular feeder is virtually fool-proof, just mind to align the vertical guide not too tight to the sheet and happy printing is guaranteed.
The Fine Art media path demands a little more concentration form the user. See paragraph 5.2.


4.7. Printer Noise and storing prints

With respect to the bulk of the printer, the noise level is rather unobtrusive while printing and non-existent while switched on and idle. Just the paper feeding activity creates a fair amount of noise at the beginning, therefore I would not recommend invoking a print at night-time while a light sleeper shares the same room, but normally the R2880 will not raise annoyance due to printing noise.

Storing prints is something to think about before purchasing a printer. Letter sized prints are fairly easy to file and maintain organized, but the double sized A3 prints are playing in a different league. You will need space. Space for allowing prints to dry, space to store portfolios, space on the wall to mount the framed images. Consider your space requirements and options before purchasing the printer and definitely before you run your first batch of large prints.

Needless to say, storage in the draughty attic or the clammy cellar may be adequate for old suitcases and stuff, but not for Fine Art media prints. Fine Art media are mostly composed from natural fibres that are subject to environmental conditions, mainly humidity, temperature and illumination. Visit any museum and see how serious the exhibited images are protected from detrimental environmental influence. I would not go as far as to say that we all need to take similar measures. I just want to raise your awareness that serious printing calls for serious post-treatment as well.