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Epson Stylus Pro 4900 Part 2 - part 3 of 1 2 3 4

by Mike McNamee Published

HiGAM Patch Set
This set of patches test is intended to explore the performance of the printer with highly saturated colours right at the boundaries of the gamut. The USP of the Epson UltraChrome HDR ink set is that it can grab more than 98% of the Pantone swatch set. The Pantone set is not in itself a comprehensive collection of patches as the gamut of the HDR ink extends beyond the range of the deep blue and cyan Pantones. Additionally the saturation of modern acrylic artists pigments still exceeds the abilities of all ink jets. This is of concern to those who reproduce originals for artists who employ a highly saturated palette in their work. The higher gamut of HDR ink at least stacks things a little more in favour of the printer!

From a photographic point of view it is necessary to take steps to preserve the gamut at the image-creation stage (scanner or camera) - forget 'JPEGs and sRGB' it simply does not cut the mustard! Adobe RGB almost gets you there, but only ProPhoto RGB can really swallow the gamut of these UltraChrome HDR inks. The example in the table below shows the effect of the RGB colour space choice on the conversion error from Lab to RGB.

Fine Art Papers
We audited the 4900 using Epson's Digigraphie media Hot and Cold Pressed Bright and Natural Whites, a total of four surfaces. All performed well. The Colour Inconstancy Index was slightly higher than that measured with the Epson 3800 and this may reflect the additional colours being used to generate the greys. The overall colour accuracy was a little behind that obtained with our Epson 3800 but we made the point at the time that the 3800 data was quite exceptional. Our recently retired 3800 has been an outstanding performer all of its life so far so, in truth it was unlikely that we would surpass all of the data with the 4900. However, in the area that might be expected, the HiGAm, tests the 4900 performed demonstrably better in the side-by-side tests. The improvement in the saturation errors was around the 25% mark depending on how you look at the stats. The 4900 also scored higher in the Fogra swatch set although this would not normally be used for art papers (it is a proofing patch set).

Overall then, for art papers, our original comments remain valid. The USP of the UltraChrome HDR ink set is the availability of more saturation, where required.

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last update 09/12/2022 14:54:01

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