Ilford Printer Paper Testing

For this example, I will be showing the setup I used for the Ilford Galerie Smooth Gloss in the ICC selection and the Printer Media Type selection.

ICM Profile used for Ilford Galerie Smooth Gloss in the Druckerprofil (Printer Profile) is shown in Figure 2.  Note in this figure, the Intent is shown as Wahrnehmung which is the German word for Perception.

Intent is a matter of personal preference.  In this review I tried a few different settings and received just slightly different results with each.  It is advised to use Relative Colormetric for photographic images and Perceptual for graphics.

They are in German (English)…

Sättigung = (Saturation)
Wahrnehmung = (Perception)
Relativ farbmetrisch = (Relative Colormeteric)
Absolut farbmetrisch = (Absolute Colormeteric)

But, the important thing for me here was the Eingabeprofil (German for Input File Type ICC Profile) in this case; it was a sRGB JPG file.  I had this setting incorrect for a couple of weeks and it was no wonder I was not particularly satisfied with my test results thus far.  After I got it strait, I was very impressed with the results.  Special thanks you shout out to Martin Lannon at Ilford for helping me to understand where I went wrong here.

So now to continue, the printer driver paper/media type for PGPPn, see Figures 4 and 5.

The printing software I use in my photo truck is Express Digital Darkroom Pro. So I had to also tell Express Digital Darkroom Pro what Print Media I was printing on in the Epson 9880. Figure 5.

Once I was happy that I could change the ICC profile for the different paper and which type of paper/media settings in the printer driver and Express Digital Darkroom Pro, I was then ready to start printing.

2. Test Methodology

I needed to find a test photo to print and compare the different types of paper with.  I wished to use a very complicated and very intricate yet colorful test photo.  I also desired to use the same photo per each type of paper to review.  This would give me apples-to-apples for comparison.

I found a test photo in the www.dpreview.com website which was a recent test sample shot with a Nikon D800, dsc_8318.jpg. This test image has plenty of detail, great color and contrast characteristics as well as the Kodak Grey Scale and the Kodak Q-60 Color Input Target chart.  This photo also provides the feathers and a paintbrush as well as a graphical pattern that could produce a Moiré pattern.  This photo shown in Figure 6 is allowed to be used in this review with the generous permission of Mr. Simon Joinson, General Manager & Editor Digital Photography Review, www.dpreview.com.

This massive 14.0 MB Nikon D800 raw file can be down loaded here or by control clicking on the figure.

My first print was using the Epson 9880 with the Epson Premium Photo Luster Paper 260g paper.  I have always been very happy with the amount of color and sharpness of detail in this A2, 16”x24” size print from this paper.  Figures 8 and 9 are two ~100% Crops of a studio shot Nikon D3s RAW file of the print out from Epson Premium Luster Photo Paper.   In this review, this will be my reference print for comparisons.  Naturally, I was delighted with the results from the Epson Premium Photo Luster Paper of this test image.  I have been using this paper now over four years and I am very accustomed to and happy with its quality and “Sell-ability”.

Following that, I printed out samples of Canvas, Fine Art Matt, Gloss, Pearl and finally the Silk.  The Silk was printed using both color and B&W image of the sample test image dsc_8313.jpg in my photo truck, see Figure 7.

More articles that might interest you

Lowepro podcast review - Street&Field modular system

Tamron SP AF 90mm F/2.8 Di Macro 1:1 Model 272E Lens Review

Sigma 500mm f/4.5 EX HSM Review

FAQs - What tripod