Could I print an image that is out of gamut?

I tried to print a recent image at home with my Epson 2200 inkjet printer. PS CS5 showed that it is out of gamut (for almost 75% of the whole image area)with the Epson supplied profile for luster paper. The image is a flower with a very vivid red/pink petals.

I never have this issue and would like to know how to deal with it. I'd appreciate any help/pointers.

Eric

You can print it but you will likely miss some tonal variations. A situation like you describe is almost always due to the saturation tool. You should be soft proofing to insure the image as it will be printed on paper resembles what is on your monitor.

Eric, trying to print images with some colors that are out of gamut is pretty common. Although in your case if 75% of the area of the image is out of gamut due to vivid colors on the flower, then you've got a more extreme example of the case. While the Epson 2200 was a pioneering printer in its day, the inkset it uses doesn't have as large a gamut as the more modern inksets in current Epson, Canon and HP printers. Some flowers can be intensely colorful, as I've found myself. Combining these two facts can create challenging printing situations.

Also, be aware that your choice of paper and the quality of the printer profile will affect the gamut that can be reproduced on the printer. A more glossy paper typically will reproduce more of the maximum theoretical gamut of the printer's inkset, while a top-notch printer profile also can often squeeze out more of the theoretical max gamut. The generic profiles produced back in the era of the 2200 generally were only moderately okay at best, I would say. A custom profile on some of the newer glossy or semi-gloss media probably would be something to think about if you really want to stretch your ability to print with very saturated colors.

Having said all of that, all different kinds of devices have different native gamuts, and of course each image has a different range of color inherently present within it. The way to assess the situation is by soft-proofing, as E.j. say; in Photoshop or, better yet, in a more powerful tool like Gamutvision. Then adjust the image so that it better matches the capabilities of the printer. If you search the forum archives here on NSN for keywords like "gamutvision soft proof" you'll find many example discussions of dealing with this kind of thing; some of the examples are extensive. (Unfortunately the example screenshots in any discussions I participated in are unavailable right now because I'm transferring a web server and the old host of my screenshots and sample images is offline right now.)

Once you have the paper and profile situation optimized as best you can for your given printer, then the output gamut you've got to play with is fixed. Your task then is to adjust the image to bring its range of colors more closely in line with what the printer can reproduce. If you don't make the manual adjustments, the color management system will do it automatically while you print, based primarily on the rendering intent you select (usually Perceptual or Relative Colorimetric) and then how that rendering intent is applied by the printer profile in question. Whether the job done by the CM system is good, mediocre or actually bad, it's out of your control and will impact the image globally. Since so much of your flower image is out of gamut, the results may not be acceptable unless you take control with manual adjustments in Photoshop.

There are several ways to adjust the image to bring its gamut down. They essentially boil down to variations of Saturation, Hue and Lightness tweaks to selectively desaturate the image while maintaining the subtle tonal variations necessary to avoid the image taking on a "plastic" appearance where a whole bunch of colors are skewed or clipped to the same value.

Here's a past thread where some details are discussed for another challenging case...
http://www.naturescapes.net/phpBB3/view ... 4&t=162964

Royce,
Thanks very much for your detailed explanation. I read the thread you pointed to as well and definitely understand this better now.

EJ,
Thanks for your advice too. I decided to make a print to see what it will end like. Ended the print is much better than I thought. My image looks a little bit dull (but still ok) with soft proof. However, it looks terrible in the print screen of Photoshop. All the out of gamut area are grey which caused my initial grief. Now I know it's probably a Phoptoshop way to make an alarm.

Thanks very much for both your helps. I appreciated very much.

Eric

The idea behind soft proofing is to then make some adjustments in the soft proofed image to bring the image back to looking like you want without clipping colors out of gamut.

Always seems to be the reds/oranges with me... just use the Hue/Saturation finger-click thingy and take down the saturation and/or luminosity just a shade, and you'll get more detail in the print. The gamut warning will help.

Eric, I explain how to selectively get all your colors into gamut with minimal loss of saturation in my new printing eBook, available at the NSN store:

http://www.naturescapes.net/store/creat ... y-tal.html

Guy

Guy, thanks for mentioning your ebook. It is just what I've been looking for. I just purchased one.