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Technical Newsletter:
Ability to print saturated red on HP
Designjet Z3100 Photo printers
March 9
th
2007
There have been discussions in several forums and through HP’s support organization
surrounding the HP Designjet Z3100 Photo Printer series’ ability to print saturated reds.
This is, in fact, very possible if you have the right information to get the best out of your
printer. In this document we would like to show you how to perform an easy test to check
your printer’s capabilities.
Making sure your printer is in an optimum state
The first thing to check is that the printer has the latest firmware and drivers. For optimum
results please make sure you have installed in your printer the firmware version 4.1.0.2
or higher
1
, plus the associated ICC profiles and drivers for this firmware.
The most recent versions are always published at the HP Knowledge Center at:
www.hp.com/go/knowledge_center/djz3100
1
If you do not know which firmware version you have installed, please have a look at the at the end of the document
Availability to print saturated red on HP Designjet Z3100 Photo Printer
Note: Look at the upper right corner of the page. Under the section “Product Downloads” you will find all
relevant links. “System Maintenance” refers to firmware. After you select an item, you are asked to register.
You can skip registration since this information is available for free. However, we recommend registering to
receive proactive e-mails with the latest information about your printer.
Concretely speaking about firmware version 4.1.0.2, it provides significant improvements
in saturated red for some papers, especially in glossy, semi-gloss/satin and fine arts
papers. Improvements in other paper types will be covered in subsequent firmware
releases.
After making sure you have the latest firmware available, please make sure you
perform a calibration first (max density and linearization), and create an ICC
profile afterwards. In our test that is described in the next section, we will use the
Hahnemühle Smooth Fine Art paper. You can also download the latest available from the
“ICC profiles” link in the HP Knowledge Center, but in anyway you have to calibrate to
optimize your results to your particular environment condition.
You can easily calibrate and profile from the HP Color Center
2
by selecting “Create
and Install ICC Profile” and follow the process:
Screenshot from HP Printer Utility (MAC OS X)
Once finished, your printer is in an optimum state for the media chosen.
During this process, the following question might come up: Why do the pure red, green
and blue ink patches in the calibration or profiling chart look more like orange, violate
and lime green?
2
HP Color Center is part of the HP Easy Printer Care on Windows or HP Printer Utility on the Mac
March 2007 Page 2 of 9
Availability to print saturated red on HP Designjet Z3100 Photo Printer
In general, there are no precise colorimetric meanings associated with color nouns like
“red”, “green”, or “blue”. The mapping between color names and real world colors “out
there” has been a subject of much study and debate. For an interesting approach to this
question, see
http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Nathan_Moroney/mlcn.html
In practice, printer primary ink colors are chosen to maximize the addressable color
gamut and smoothness of transitions while minimizing artifacts like graininess,
metamerism, bronzing, etc.
The RGB primaries known from monitors and the corresponding additive color spaces
(e.g. Adobe RGB) are rather different from subtractive RGB inks
used in printers like the Z
series. Nevertheless, primary ink colors of the Z series were chosen to add especially light
chromatic colors, which are where printer gamuts are traditionally lacking, compared to
monitor gamuts. The resulting printer gamut ‘pushes out’ in the direction of the RGB
primaries of monitor gamuts, like Adobe RGB, even though in isolation the printer RGB
inks look more like what we might normally call orange, (lime) green, and violet. We
have made these decisions since we developed the HP Designjet Z Photo Printer series to
closely match the monitor’s color
March 2007 Page 3 of 9
Availability to print saturated red on HP Designjet Z3100 Photo Printer
Red gamut test on HP Designjet Z3100
This section will propose to you an easy test to check your printer capabilities. To
evaluate the HP Designjet Z3100 Photo Printer’s performance on the color red, we have
printed a test image coming from Bill Atkinson (
http://www.billatkinson.com/). As
specifically established by Bill Atkinson in his web site: “These files are offered in the
spirit of one artist sharing brushes with other artists. I hope you find them useful, but
please understand that they come with no support whatsoever. If you need help, ask a
friend”
We have printed using HP Hahnemühle Smooth Fine Art paper and the HP Driver
Test image preparation
o Upgrade your printer’s firmware and host software to the latest versions
3
:
Firmware version 4.1.0.2 or higher
MAC OS X HP Driver 4.2.1 or higher
Windows HP Driver 60.63.62.0 or higher
o Download the test image from
o
http://homepage.mac.com/billatkinson/FileSharing2.html
o We will use the “Lab Test Page.tif” file
o Open the image in Adobe® Photoshop CS 2
o To enable soft proofing
4
, use the “View > Proof Setup > Custom…” menu
5
:
o Select the “HP Designjet Z3100, HP Hahnemühle Smooth Fine Art Paper” profile,
Relative Colorimetric intent, and Black Point Compensation.
Screenshot from Adobe® Photoshop CS 2 MAC OS X version
3
If you have doubts about how to check your firmware and driver versions, please have a look at the last section of this document
4
In order to properly perform a soft-proofing, you must have your monitor calibrated and profiled
5
Please careful read our appendix about soft-proofing results at the end of the document
March 2007 Page 4 of 9
Availability to print saturated red on HP Designjet Z3100 Photo Printer
o Turn on soft proofing using the “View > Proof Color” menu, and optionally
turn on the gamut warning using the “View > Gamut Warning” menu.
o In there you can see the color that the printer cannot accurately reproduce.
Test image printing
o Use the “File > Print with Preview…” menu, and active “Show More
Options”
o On the Color Management tab:
o Print: Document.
o Options > Color
Handling: Let
Photoshop
Determine Colors
o Printer, Profile:
“HP Designjet
Z3100, HP
Hahnemühle
Smooth Fine Art
Paper”.
o Rendering
Intent: Relative
Colorimetric &
o Enable Black
Point
Compensation.
Screenshot from Adobe© PhotoShop CS 2 MAC OS X version
o In the printer driver dialog:
o Select Paper Type/Quality in the drop-dawn menu:
o In the Paper tab select:
Paper Type > Fine Art Material > HP Hahnemühle Smooth Fine
Art
Quality Options: Standard and drag the slider to Quality.
March 2007 Page 5 of 9
Availability to print saturated red on HP Designjet Z3100 Photo Printer
Screenshot from HP Raster Driver for MAC OS X version.
o Now go to the Color tab:
o Select Print in Color.
o Select Color Management > Application Managed Colors.
Screenshot from HP Raster Driver for MAC OS X version.
o And finally select Print.
March 2007 Page 6 of 9
Availability to print saturated red on HP Designjet Z3100 Photo Printer
APPENDIX: Important notes about soft proofing and ICC profiles
Using Adobe® Photoshop’s Info palette you can read out both the original image’s
“Actual Colors” and the “Proof Colors” in soft proofing (preview) mode. If you convert the
original image to the printer’s profile using the “Image > Mode > Convert to Profile”
menu you can read out the converted image device values as “Actual Color” and the
corresponding colorimetry as “Lab
Color”.
The values shown in the Info palette
as “Lab Color” depend on the
“Conversion Options” chosen in the
“Color Settings” menu. If you select
Engine: ACE, Intent: Absolute
Colorimetric, Use Black Point
Compensation disabled, and Use
Dither disabled, the Lab values shown
behave like a virtual colorimeter.
Paper white will be displayed with an
L* value smaller than 100, and
printer black with an L* value greater
than 0. If Relative Colorimetric and
Black Point Compensation were
selected, the paper and black values
would be 100 and 0 respectively,
which obviously does not correspond
to any real print.
Screenshot from Adobe® PhotoShop CS2 MAC OS X version.
Not only Info palette “Lab Color” values, but also soft proofing in general and especially
out of gamut warning are affected by the Color Settings menu configuration. Some
factory printer profiles, specifically Epson, have Relative Colorimetric intent tags that have
Black Point Compensation built in (which does not conform to the ICC specification),
which will make their gamut appear larger than it really is, and will result in fewer colors
being apparently out of gamut then there really are. If the Color Settings menu is
configured to use Absolute Colorimetric without Black Point Compensation and device
black (e.g. RGB 0,0,0) values read out as Lab 0,0,0 in the Info palette, then you know
there is something wrong with the profile. You should not trust soft proofing and
especially out of gamut warning in this case.
March 2007 Page 7 of 9
Availability to print saturated red on HP Designjet Z3100 Photo Printer
APPENDIX: Checking your firmware and driver version on the HP
Designjet Z3100 Photo Series printer
Below you can find further details about how to find which version of the firmware and
driver you have install
o Firmware version: You can check it from the front panel
o MAC OS X driver version 4.2.1
o Go to: Mac OS X > System Preferences dock icon > Print & Fax pane >
o Press Printer Setup button.
o Select Name and Location Printer Info in the drag & drop menu.
“View your software version (Mac OS X)”: Screenshot from Print &Fax Preferences.
March 2007 Page 8 of 9
Availability to print saturated red on HP Designjet Z3100 Photo Printer
Windows Driver version 60.63.42.0:
Go to: Start > Settings > Printers and Faxes
Select on your printer (ex.: HP Designjet Z3100 44in Photo)
Select Set Printer Properties (left hand menu) > Select About tab
“View your software version (Windows XP)”: Screenshot from the HP Driver Preferences.
APPENDIX: Image quality problems
If you experience image quality problems such us banding or graininess, you can use the
HP Image Quality Troubleshooting Wizard located in the HP Easy Printer Care
on Windows or HP Print Utility on Mac. A more extensive explanation can be found in
the following technical newsletter
“Image Quality Problems”.
© 2007 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice.
The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such
products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for
technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.
Adobe Photoshop and PostScript are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated. PANTONE is Pantone, Inc.'s check-
standard trademark for color.
March 2007 Page 9 of 9
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