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What is Small Gamut?
Small Gamut Inks are actually colour inks but the size of the “gamut” or colour range is dramatically smaller than that of a full colour ink set such as the standard inks from Epson, Lyson etc.

What are the advantages?
Black and White printing using full colour inks is virtually impossible because the printer has to make up a neutral grey from a perfect balance of cyan, magenta and yellow. This perfect balance is extremely hard to achieve resulting in colour shifts across the grey spectrum. Small Gamut inks enable black and white images to be printed without these colour shifts. The base colours in a small gamut set are far less vivid than their full colour equivalents. This means that when these colours combine, a monochrome effect is easily achieved.

Is Small Gamut easy to use?
Yes. Changing over from a full colour set to Small Gamut is a simple process. Simply follow the directions on the instruction leaflet included with your cartridges. Working with the inks is also veryeasy. ICC printer profiles have been written for the most popular printer/ paper combinations. These ensure smooth graduations and an even tone throughout the printed density spectrum. And don’t worry if you haven’t got the full version of Photoshop. Photoshop 3/4/Elements/LE will still work perfectly well with the Small Gamut inks when used with an Epson Stylus Colour 860 or 1160, traditionally the most popular printers for Small Gamut users.

Photoshop also makes it easy to introduce subtle colorations to your black and white images. This guide will take you through the most effective ways to do this, giving you complete control over the appearance of your images with no need to compromise.

This guide is split into two sections. The first will concentrate on a simple workflow for the Epson Stylus Color 860/1160 printers. The workflow does not involve printer profiles but instead gives recommended print driver settings that can be called up for all versions of Photoshop including Elements and LE. Basic Photoshop techniques for toning images will be covered here.

The second section will look at the installation and use of ICC Printer Profiles for the full versions of Photoshop from V5 onwards. This section will apply to owners of Epson Stylus Photo printers, and the Canon S800/900/9000 printers. More advanced terms will be used here including an introduction to the colour wheel and more soft-proofing options.

Download pdf Small Gamut User Guide