# Affordable printer with colour management.



## Gene_mtl (Oct 25, 2013)

I don't print often. I do occasionally print note cards / greeting cards.

I have in the past few months moved to calibrating my monitor and using colour management in my image processing. I have used commercial Lab printer profiles for some recent prints (5x7 & 12x18) Will probably do so again with a few 12x18 & 20x30 metalic prints via SmugMug.

My issue with my current inexpensive print is there are no ICC files for it (HP DeskJet3510), and when I do print the cards, I really need to push the brightness way up. There is no setting in the HP printer properties that allows me any control over how it will print an image, so I end up doing trial and error.

I'd rather not spend hundreds of dollars. I also don't see myself printing larger than letter size (8.5x11) Just want a print that is affordable (~$100) and won't require me to mortgage the house to buy ink refills.

Any suggestions?


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## Victoria Bampton (Oct 25, 2013)

So if you did have a nice profile, would the printer driver allow you to turn off the printer colour management? There are companies in the uk who will create a profile if you post them a print printed on your printer, so I assume the same is available elsewhere too.


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## Gene_mtl (Oct 25, 2013)

Thanks for the suggestion, Victoria. Unfortunately, my HP Deskjet has no such option to turn off colour management.


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## Gene_mtl (Oct 31, 2013)

Just to close a loop. Found a great deal on an Epson Artisan 50.  While not as robust in color management as some of its bigger bothers and sisters, it does appear to have some color management capabilities, particularly to disable color management in the printer and let software do the job.

*UPDATE*:

Printed out two items: a 4x6 from Lightroom and a note card from Corel's Paintshiop Pro using the supplied Espon Paper ICCs. Both images were softproofed in each application, tweaked to improve output and printed.  Results were super!  The Artisan may not have all the bells & whistles of the larger Epsons, but it is delivering for me super results.


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## Victoria Bampton (Nov 2, 2013)

Excellent news, thanks for the update


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