I just got a new printer. It's a real beast, weighing about 100 pounds.

Every time you get a new printer, you have to start from scratch. So I've spent the last two days trying to learn its idiosyncrasies and quirks.

I don't use color management in my printing and I do most of my corrections using the manual adjustments on the printer. I also make lots of test prints. Sometimes, at the start, the results are disappointing. Especially when the image has red, green, or blue tones. But there are lots of controls to tweak, and what works for some prints, doesn't work for others.

For those who use color management, the goal is to have the printed output match what you see on the screen. This is a good approach if your work is cut and dried, say wedding photography. You want your workflow to be quick and accurate.

But as an artist, I have different goals. I want to take the image as far as I can on the computer, then explore what can be achieved on the print. The two worlds are very different, with disappointments as well as pleasant surprises.

What's the result of all of this tweaking, of making a couple of dozen test prints before the final rendering on fancy paper? The goal of this exercise is to produce a print that's even better than what you see on the screen.