Without profiles you are guessing. However in the space pull down menu, there are perhaps 50 or more canned profiles. A long time ago, when I was learning, I printed a small print with each and every one of them. They all resulted in similar but different prints. A few were radically different. But you'll eventually find one that will show you the brightness and gamut of the inks. You could also put a strip of the 10 brightest possible colors below your photograph. This will show you how bright the inks can be. Also include a 21 step stepwedge, and see which canned profile handles the grays the best. This will just be ball park stuff, but you do learn a lot. Then when you decide on your papers, you can have them profiled. jerry Raymond Jackson wrote: > > Like Jerry Olson, I've got a 1280, the Gen5 inks, and an > NMC CIS on order. I've also ordered sample packs of lots > of different papers to try out. My goal is to pick three > papers: an inexpensive "proofing" paper, an RC luster/pearl > paper for photo prints I want to look like "real" photographic prints, > and an archival matte. I'll get a professional profile made for > each of the three finalists. > > How should I go about testing the papers? Since I'll be using > pigments I'll test for rub-off and metamerism. I'll also see > how the RC takes getting wet. I can look for dot gain and gamut, > though without proper profiles I won't really know how good any > given paper could be made to look. What else should I look/test > for? > > I'll be using qimage to do the printing. I'm planning to use sRGB > as the printer profile. What mode (Automatic/PhotoEnhance/Custom) > in the driver should I use? I' want to test each paper with one or two > of the driver paper settings to see how they handle different quantities > of ink. I assume the matte setting will be appropriate for the matte > papers. I use the film setting for colorlife now, is that a good setting > for the > luster papers? Which other settings should I test? What is the order of > the settings as far as how much ink they lay down? > > I don't have a good test image at this point; any suggestions? > Flesh tones are important to me and I'd like something that > will show shadow detail and fine detail, as well as some nice > bright colors. > > I've learned a lot from this group over the few months I've been > a member. I'd like to give something back by sharing the test > results with the list. Any suggestions for making the tests > better will be gladly received. > > Ray > > - > Turn off HTML mail features. Keep quoted material short. Use accurate > subject lines. http://www.leben.com/lists for list instructions. - Turn off HTML mail features. Keep quoted material short. Use accurate subject lines. http://www.leben.com/lists for list instructions.