Printing From Home
My advice is get to know your printer and find the settings that suit the paper you are using, adjusting brightness and colours, so that the print matches what you see on your monitor. This really does take time and patience. I bought a pack of 6x4 paper for this process as you do waste a few sheets.
After much experimenting I now process my image in Adobe Camera Raw and then resize and crop in Photoshop to suit my printer paper. I then print from Photoshop, using the profile I found that suits the Canon inks and Canon paper I have found to give the best results.
Paul
K1000, Espio 140, ist, istD, K70, K3iii and numerous lenses, just don't tell my wife.


My Pentax HDFA 21mm purchase is now going to have to wait until my birthday next june


Regards Flan
The only issue I get is some images are slightly darker when printed so I always adjust the Photoshop image to be just on the bright side.
The main thing is find a paper that you like and then set the printer settings accordingly.
Paul
K1000, Espio 140, ist, istD, K70, K3iii and numerous lenses, just don't tell my wife.

Actually, you won't save money doing your own prints, BUT you will have the convenience of having your prints whenever and however you want them.
When it comes to calibrating, you can ask a commercial printing company of your area if they have an out of date PANTONE color book they can sell to you at a good discount price. You just fan the catalog (uncoated sectio to avoid reflection) and take a picture of it in daylight with no processing, and you can see how far the colors are. Note that what you see on your monitor is not likely what you'll get on your printer. When you start the "calibrating game", you have to calibrate ALL the material you use. Even changing paper make or finish will cause color shift.
If you really want to be "dead on", you could try to borrow a Sekonic light meter with the accompanying software. It will allow you to get a profile of your camera(s) sensor(s) to actually know the exact dynamic range of your camera(s), so you can expose your picture with as little clipping as possible on the shadows and highlights side of the spectrum. From there, using a color chart to calibrate your monitor and printer will give you really accurate results.
If money is not an object, you can also get an X-Rite Eye 1 color profiler, or you could also look for a used commercial printer spectro-densitometer with the "LaB" reading capability. With such an instrument, you can calibrate any printers on the market. Sometime, they do pop-up on ebay at stupidly low prices. Just make sure if you go for one of these to get all the documentation and the densitometer calibration chart, as well as the charger. Gretag, X-Rite and Ihara are well known and very reliable machines.
Yves (another one of those crazy Canucks)





Good luck and don't forget to do those nozzle check prints every few days
Great photography is always on the edge of failure. - Garry Winogrand
Must stop myself falling over that edge all the time!
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One tip: dust is your enemy and regularly use a blower into the printer feed, and I use a blower on both sides of every sheet I load. Matt papers are worst for shedding minute bits of fibre but it is worth doing on all papers as fibres from the backs of coated papers can transfer onto the rollers. There is nothing more frustrating than looking at a print and seeing tiny white specks where the dust has fallen off and taken the pigment with it, this can happen right away or days and even weeks later and is especially important if you plan to sell prints.
Finally printing for me is the completion of the photographic process and gives me far more satisfaction than a digital screen image. Good luck and enjoy!

Yes I will run nozzle checks regularly if not in use
Thanks for the tip on the dust or fibres that some paper choices will deposit but I'm trying to prepare the box room for my tiny studio

Not to worry RobL, I'm aware of pigment based printers being of archival and fine art quality for selling purposes, a journey i won't be taking.
The prints from this thing et8550 if kept out of direct sunlight will last 30 plus years apparently
I also spray my prints with this spray to further protect them from UV light, fingerprints etc.
Take a look at Permajets Baryta papers. They do a sample pack you can try. Print paper that very closely resembles old darkroom paper. They're expensive but dang they feel so good in the hand!
Gareth
Welsh Photographer
My outfit: K1 gripped - K3ii - two Z-1P - Pentax D FA 24-70mm - Sigma 70-200mm OS HSM - Pentax modified DA* 60-250mm f4 - Irix 15mm Firefly - Pentax FA 35mm - FA 50mm - Sigma EX 20mm - FA 28-70mm f4 - Tamron SP 90mm macro - Pentax AF 540 FGZ II
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My PPG
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The epson SC P900 is, the direct competition to the canon pro 1000 for the pigment based fine art material that they can produce in A2 size format, all be it on the skill of the operator.
Ink costs on both are up for debate, hence my, on mature reflection choice of the ET8550


Do not worry, about the fact that the et8550 only has six inks, it will do an amazing job for minimal cost, despite the initial purchase price.
Happy Days lay ahead
Flan
Member
Having researched the heck out of it myself for the last 3 or 4 months, i have finally pressed the button on a Epson ET 8550 inkjet printer for learning and economy, along with four various test packs papers from Fotospeed and Hahnemuhle in A4 size.
I have watched the work of Kieth Cooper North Light studios, Jose Roddrigues and Fotospeeds own rep Tim Jones on youtube and they discuss everything about the modern printers etc.
Any thoughts on the subject are welcome as some pros on here probably have an Epson SC P6000 or a Cannon Pro 1000 at their disposal.