Photographic testing with Epson Surecolor SC-P600-
So following on the testing we did last week with the comic style prints we wanted to try out the photographic print quality of the printer. In standard form the SC-P600 is marketed by Epson as a dedicated studio photographic printer for producing high quality photographic reproductions.
With that in mind we were expecting some good results; we were not disappointed! We used a nice royalty free stock portrait photograph of a lady which also included flowers. I felt it was a good image to test the printer as it included-
Skin tones
Fine detail (in the hair and flowers)
Detailed dark areas (in the hair)
Bright vivid colour in the flowers and lips
The print was produced using the custom ICC profile which we mentioned in the previous post, our Subli-TEXTILE high release transfer paper and the sublimate item was an Xpres Subli-Plus (XP520) t-shirt. The print was heat pressed at 200c for 50 seconds.
Photographic print-
Print on paper prior to testing-
Peel back to reveal transfer-
Final result-
Good skin tone achieved-
Good detail in the darker area around the flowers-
Sharp detail in the eyebrows and eyelashes-
Good detail in the shaded area of the hair-
The next thing to test was the printers ability to produce Black and White or Greyscale photographs. As many users will know greys have always been an issue to achieve with the majority of desktop sublimation printers. The SC-P600 has 3 graded blacks as standard so in theory it should produce a good Black and White image or photograph.
We had a couple of attempts at producing a good neutral BW version of the image posted above. We had a couple of issues to overcome (based on our tests these issues will only apply to BW photographic images and not full colour prints)-
1) The custom ICC profile produced a print that had quite a green colour cast, this is because the profile was made as a colour profile rather than a dedicated black and white profile.
2) We found that best results were achieved by using the printers 'Advanced Black & White Mode' which is found within the printing preferences. This mode is used and overrules the ICC or colour management.
3) We found the BW images printed much darker than onscreen so we opted to change the Tone from 'Dark' to 'Light' in the advanced area of the print settings.
With all the above sorted we achieved a good tonally neutral black and white photographic print on to the t-shirt.
Final Result-
Comparison of the colour and BW prints on the t-shirts-
Will hopefully update with a release date shortly (hoping for End of June 2018 - all being well)
Alex
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Originally Posted by Fletcher
