Epson 4900 Custom Profiles?

Finally had an opportunity to set up the 4900 and I'm having a ball reworking and printing images. On most I can see improvement from the R1800 I had been using (and was very happy with). Thank you to those here that helped with that decision.

So far I've tried papers from Epson and Red River. Are the profiles that Epson provides with the x900 series good enough that I should not need custom profiles? How about the RR profiles?

Do some types of papers (say, Matt or Fine Art papers) benefit more from custom profiles?

Has anyone had custom profiles made for their 4900 and seen a difference between the std profile and a custom one?

thx, Dave

Hi Dave,

Up until recently I used Epson Luster or Semigloss paper exclusively (with a 4880). But they don't sell 17x25 paper, so on the advice of some here, I ordered RR Arctic Polar Luster. Based on the few prints I have made with this combo, I love it. I have not had any custom profiles made - the Epson/RR profiles to my eye (and at this point, based on limited experience) look fine - YMMV. I print essentially for myself these days and I do not have the time to critically assess prints using different profile/paper combos, fwiw. I am sure they will be others that comment.

Good luck and I am glad to hear you are enjoying your new printer.

The Red River profiles have never let me down on my 3800

I personally prefer custom profiles and have all of mine made by Eric Chan http://people.csail.mit.edu/ericchan/ph ... files.html who is a moderator here. Despite being relatively happy with the canned profiles, it is surprising the difference a good custom profile can make. Particularly if your monitor is calibrated well. My suggestion...try canned profiles with various papers until you find a combo you like. Then have custom profiles made for those papers. They are usually reasonably priced and never wear out.

Les Voorhis wrote: They are usually reasonably priced and never wear out.

Only as long as the ink/pigment formula is stable...