I already wrote an article about printing proofs with the Epson R2880, little more than a year ago. Since then, I tried out various approaches. Here’s what works best for me and what I still consider a “low budget” solution, compared to a professional RIP of course. ;-)
- First, the hardware: The Epson R2880 is a pretty reliable printer. If you use it frequently, that is. This printer needs to be used at least a couple of times a week to prevent clogging. Also, it doesn’t like low air humidity. Trust me, it *will* clog eventually. But otherwise, fantastic price/quality ratio.
- Second, the ink. Using OEM ink will most likely cause your budget to explode. My first try in refillable ink was efillink.com. They resell a pigment ink which is slightly less glossy than the OEM ink. Saves quite a lot of $$$. There’s also a german store, farbenwerk.com, which offers different brands of refill inks. Once I run out of ink, I’ll get my next batch from there (shipping’s obviously a lot cheaper from .de to .ch than from the US..).
- Third, the paper. Thanks to a friend of mine, I have access to original Epson paper with a small discount. Works for me.
- Fourth, the software. If you run OSX, there’s no way around Printfab Pro. I run it on my MacMini server, network sharing works perfectly and so does the RIP software.
- Fifth, and basically the most important part: The calibration. I use Spyder3 + color eyes pro for my iMac/Eizo CG24W screen-setup and Spyder3 PrintSR for printer calibration. This was the second largest expense all together, but well worth it.
- Sixth, the knowledge: RTFM. I’m not kidding. Color calibration is by far the most “cloudy” technology I came across and everybody tells you something different. Especially on the internet. :P It’s best to stick to the literature that’s shipped with your software and hardware.
This setup enables me to create combinations of settings/profiles for every known printer, ink and paper and therefore maximum flexibility at the lowest possible cost. And for the same price for which you have to buy a RIP software license, you even get professional screen calibration and a color spectrometer to read color patches and make your own ICC profiles – and not just for one printer.. I think this is by far the best quality/price ration that you can possibly get. Total investment: Around 2’000 CHF, including inks, paper, software licenses, all hardware.
The result is by far better than I expected and can be labelled “pretty darn accurate®”. Maybe there’s even a way to get this workflow FOGRA certified. :P But afterall, I’m not a printshop. If your client wants a FOGRA certified proof, it’s safer to order one from your printshop and have your client pay for it. The difference however is ridiculously small. There’s a bigger difference from one offset printshop to another.
Ed.: Forget Refill Ink. It stinks, clogs your printheads and makes you go nuts in all sorts of different ways. I switched back to original Epson Ink for the 2880 and in return have a loooot less problems. Unless you can’t afford to buy OEM ink. But then, why did you buy that printer in the first place?