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The HP Designjet Z3100 – printing, color management, and the gloss enhancer.
By Tom Hauenstein
This fifth installment of the color management series explains how to use the HP Z3100 driver. It also explains the use of the gloss enhancer, and how to create and use custom ICC profiles with the built-in spectrophotometer.
Tom Hauenstein
ImagePrint will soon release its drivers for this printer, as well as the Canon imagePROGRAF printers. ImagePrint increases image quality and makes the workflow much more efficient. Ideally, you should operate this printer through ImagePrint, but if you must use the driver, this document should be useful.
HP Driver
Printing through the HP Z3100 driver is very similar to printing through the Epson and Canon drivers. As with those drivers, when you’re in the Print with Preview dialog box in Photoshop you should select Let Photoshop Determine Colors. Then, select your paper profile and the correct combination of rendering intent and black point compensation, which is determined in soft proofing (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: Click image for larger version.
Advanced Tab
In the HP driver’s dialog box, there are six tabs. The first tab is the Advanced tab (see Figure 2). For the most part, the defaults are fine on this page. The only section I would change would be to enable the 16-bit App. Compatibility. Keep in mind that this switches to disable after the printer dialog box is closed, so you must switch this on for every print. There is no way to switch the default to enabled, which is kind of a pain.
Figure 2: Click image for larger version.
Printing Shortcuts
The next tab is the Printing Shortcuts tab (see Figure 3). This tab can be extremely useful, especially if you have one type of workflow you use repeatedly. There are seven shortcuts you can create for seven different workflows…
Figure 3: Click image for larger version.
For the Photo, Fine Art, and Digital Album options you can create and save the Document Size (page size), Orientation, Paper Type, Color Management, and Print Quality.
The Factory Defaults and B&W Photo options don’t allow you to determine color management, and are set to Printer Color Management. The Prepress Proof and Concept Proof don’t allow you to determine color management, and are set to Application Managed Colors, which is usually what you want anyway.
It would be nice if you could create new shortcuts or rename existing shortcuts, but this tab can be very useful nonetheless.
Paper/Quality
The next tab is the Paper/Quality tab (see Figure 4). This is where the bulk of your time would be spent and where the bulk of the important settings should be selected. The top left section is for selecting your page size. There is a large selection of almost every sheet size, or you can select Custom to create your own custom page size.
Figure 4: Click image for larger version.
You have to shut down the printer dialog box and reopen it in order for your newly created custom page size to be an option. Below this you will find Layout, where you can choose your margin settings or select Borderless printing.
For the Paper Source, Automatically Select is the recommended setting and works fine for both rolls and sheets. The Paper Type should be the same used to create the profile. Print Quality is an interesting section. You need to click on Custom options to print at 1,200 dpi. Otherwise you are printing at 600 dpi, which is considered less than photographic or fine art quality by the majority of the industry. This is also where you can turn the gloss enhancer on and off.
A Note about the Gloss Enhancer
HP’s Gloss Enhancer is designed to eliminate bronzing on glossy and satin papers. Without it, these papers will demonstrate significant bronzing. The first thing to consider is that this enhancer compromises the integrity of the paper’s finish. It will change the gloss level of every paper to which you apply it. Therefore, I recommend that you do not use the gloss enhancer.
To eliminate bronzing, you can spray or laminate your prints. The best laminator out there today is the Neschen Accutech 18XE liquid laminator. If you spray, then I would consider ClearStar Corporation’s line of products.
The second thing to consider is that if you do choose to use the enhancer, then a separate ICC profile needs to be created because it affects the color of the image. I encourage you to do your own testing with this setting, and choose what is best for your workflow.
Features
The Features tab (see Figure 5) will most likely not be a very useful tab for photographers or fine art reproducers. There are some basic Resizing Options, which I never use.
Figure 5: Click to view larger version.
The Paper Saving Options are for multiple page documents like PDFs, which you probably would never print with this printer anyway. Roll Options is by far the most important section in this tab. You can turn off the cutter for thicker media like canvas or banner material, and you can select Remove top/bottom blank areas, which saves paper if you are printing a smaller image on a large custom page size. There is also AutoRotate, which will attempt to fit the image in the roll width as economically as possible.
Color
At the Color tab (see Figure 6) you can select between color and grayscale. There are advanced color settings for both the color and grayscale options.
Figure 6: Click on image for larger version.
The Color Options (see Figure 7) adjust Lightness and the individual Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow channels. Color adjustments should be done in Photoshop, so you should never have to use this function.
Figure 7
The Advanced Lightness and Gray Balance Adjustments (see Figure 8) also allow for a lightness adjustment. The bottom half is to add tonality to your highlights, midtones, and shadow areas.
Figure 8: Click on image for larger version.
The preview you get of these changes is on a simple ball and not the image you are printing. This is very similar to how the Epson’s Advanced Black and White mode works. Since the printer is handling color management for black-and-white printing, you’re likely to spend time here adjusting gray balance and tonality.
Due to the lack of an accurate preview here, and in the Epson and Canon drivers, ImagePrint is a must for anyone who prints a lot of black-and-white images. ImagePrint previews the actual image you’re printing, so that you can see your changes, instead of guessing how the ball translates to your photo.
The most important section is Color Management. You should select Application Managed Colors if you are allowing Photoshop Determine Colors, which is recommended.
Services
The Services tab (see Figure 9) has two sections. The first section is a shortcut to the HP Printing Knowledge Center online. The second section brings you to the Easy Printer Care Program, if you select Status of My Printer, Troubleshoot my printer, or HP Color Center. If you select Access User Documentation you will be brought to the HP support website for the most recent version of the printer’s manual.
Figure 9: Click on image for larger version.
Easy Printer Care Program
In the Easy Printer Care Program you can find an in-depth Status Monitor in the Overview tab (see Figure 10).
Figure 10: Click on image for larger version.
The Job Accounting section (see Figure 11) gives you accurate estimates of ink and paper usage by job name, which is quite useful for pricing out jobs.
Figure 11: Click on image for larger version.
The Settings section (see Figure 12) has some basic features affecting the accounting tab, units of measurement, and some Web service features.
Figure 12: Click on image for larger version.
The Support Section (see Figure 13) is very important. You can access six different types of support, which is really a nice feature, and update firmware.
Figure 13: Click on image for larger version.
Color Center
There are six options you can access here (see Figure 14). You can Create and Install ICC Profiles, Install ICC Profiles, Manage Papers, Calibrate Your Printer, learn How To Calibrate Your Display, and access the HP Printing Knowledge Center.
Figure 14: Click on image for larger version.
The How to Calibrate Your Display and HP Printing Knowledge Center contain some helpful information for those not too familiar with color management. The Install ICC Profile section is used to place an ICC profile in the correct folder so that you may access it in Photoshop. The remaining three sections are for creating custom papers and ICC profiles. Here is the step-by-step process to do so…
1. Click on Manage Papers
2. Choose Add Custom Paper
3. Choose a name for your paper and select which type of paper it is (it is important to select the correct paper type so that the printer knows to use matte or photo black ink)
4. The printer will calibrate itself to that paper. It will print out patches of each ink color in descending saturation order. It will then decide which saturation lever is optimal for each ink color based on artifacting. This is done automatically and will take about 10 minutes.
5. Once finished, click on Create and Install ICC Profile
6. Select your newly-created custom paper from the list
7. Choose the settings you want to use with this paper (such as Gloss Enhancer on or off)
8. It will then print out color targets for the ICC profiles, let them dry for five minutes, and then read all of the targets automatically
9. Finally, it will install the newly-created ICC profile in your system’s color folder, so the next time you open Photoshop, the ICC profile will be available for printing
Tom Hauenstein is LexJet’s technical support director, and has helped hundreds of LexJet customers set up a profitable digital printing workflow. Tom will begin touring the U.S. in September, bringing his wit, wisdom, and expertise to a city near you. Contact Tom or your LexJet account specialist at (800) 453-9538 as details of the traveling seminar, Printing for Profitability in the Digital Darkroom, are finalized. You can access each part in this series by clicking on the appropriate links below:
Part 1: Capture, Cameras and Scanners
Part 2: Manipulation for Print, Policies, Monitors, and Soft Proofing
Part 3: Printing from the Epson Driver
Part 4: Printing from the Canon Driver