Epson 3800 EMP profile problem

I just got my Epson 3800 printer set up and printed one of my pictures on Epson Enhanced Matte paper using the canned Epson profile for the paper through Print With Preview in Photoshop CS2 as I always do. I noticed the deep saturated blues were almost black unlike my recently profiled monitor displayed. Other colors were darker too although the overall image looked pretty good. In addition certain textures in the image appeared "rougher".

One other thing I noticed was the paper came out "wet" with the paper (17"x22") curling/buckling slightly. After 30 minuyes it "dried" and the paper flattened. Is this a "feature" of this printer? Other papers (Luster) also felt a little wet too as they came out.

I then printed the same image using Epson Luster paper with its canned profile the exact same way as before and the picture was perfect. I think the profile for Enhanced Matte may be the culprit.

Has anyone else noticed any of these problema/features? I am in the process of having custom profiles made which I hope will correct the problem I'm having with the Enhanced Matte paper.

You can try cutting the ink density by 10 and(or) increasing the drying time per pass.

Turn off HS if you're using it on thin papers.

You may also have a profile for archival matte paper installed and a paper setting for it.It's the same paper but give it a try if you have the setting and profile.

The EEM paper is a thin matte paper that will show ripples when freshly printed on.

You'll never get the same saturated blues on the Enhanced Matte paper that you will on Premium Luster --they're outside of the Enhanced Matte's gamut, and likely will be even with custom profiles. This was true with my 2200 and is still true even with the K3 inks on my 3800.

Are you soft-proofing with Proof Setup in Photoshop before printing? The gamut difference will be obvious if you view your image simulating the Pro38 EMP output versus the Pro38 PLLP, or any matte paper compared to semigloss/luster/glossy paper for that matter.

No, the paper is not at fault because I compared the same image printed on the same paper from an Epson 4000 and the dark blues were very good - almost the equal of the Luster paper.

Thanks. I will give that a try.

Jim Gates said:

No, the paper is not at fault because I compared the same image
printed on the same paper from an Epson 4000 and the dark blues
were very good - almost the equal of the Luster paper.

Click to expand...

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I agree with EJS, if you have the Archival Matte Profile try that. It works well on my 4800 anyway, printed to Double Sided Matte which I understand to be the same surface as both Enhanced Matte and Archival Matte.

THe paper puckers a little naturally but it souldn't come out soaked and the ripple should go away in about 10 minutes of air drying not 30 minutes, so you might want to lessen the ink density a little. Also I tend to print to this at 1440 or even 720 using the single pass feature ( high speed off).

I know I'm probably taking through my hat since I don't have the 3800 but the 4800, still the info might apply.
David