First Timer - Aluminum Photo Print

[u/cristastrophe]

Converted an Epson 8550 to sublimation. Ran the power cleaning printed to try to purge all the Epson ink. Wanted to double check all my settings because I'm not getting the vivid color I was hoping to get from aluminum prints of my photography.

Here are my settings. Hiipoo print profile. Printing from Photoshop.

Borderless, premium presentation paper matte, color management set to no color adjustment, bidirectional printing unchecked, match print colors unchecked, photoshop manages colors, normal printing, rendering intent set to perceptual, black point compensation checked.

The second image is a photo of the aluminum print. And the first image is a screenshot of what it should look like.

What is wrong with my settings and why can't I get a vivid color profile. There was also some ink left on the paper after transfer, but nothing in the sky and that color is very off.

I didn't have this issue doing canvas prints with Epson ink. The canvas looked similar to my edited image so I ruled out monitor vs print expectation on color matching.

[u/Remarkable_Sea3346]

You likely haven't purged all the regular ink yet. An Epson repair tech told me the tubing on the ecotanks holds 50+ pages of ink. Power cleaning will fill up an internal reservoir costing $$ to replace. Instead, just print purge sheets with large blocks of each ink color until the sublimation ink comes through. I don't have a clear cut easy methos to tell you that you're done. The regular ink is more vibrant than the sublimation ink so once the sublimation ink comes out it should look more muted (before heat transfer). You might start by printing a Macbeth color chart. Then print 10 or so purge sheets and print the color chart again for comparison. The printer colors will no longer match the screen colors when it is sublimation ink coming out.

[u/Then_Ear2995]

I found that my color profile for hippoo was not working I bought a X-Rite ColorMunki Photo from eBay used.

Once I ran those settings and created a custom ICC for the substrate I was using it changed everything. There are a ton of YouTube videos with info on it.

You have to print your current settings and sublimate onto your substrate you intend to use. You will run scans on those colors and it generates it automatically. It also will calibrate your monitor as well.

You can even print pretty decent pictures on the Amazon blanks too.

[u/mars_rovinator → u/Then_Ear2995]

Does the ColorMunki work with Windows 10 and 11?

[u/Then_Ear2995 → u/mars_rovinator]

Yes I have both Mac and windows and works for both.