Epson Printer and Spyder question

k2c1959

i have a epson stylus photo r1800 printer and use photoshop cs9 and also calibrate my monitor using a colorvision spyder. when i use the icm in photoshop that epson puts out on the different papers the photos never match what the screen shows. should i be using the icm that spyder creates? i cant seem to get my pictures to print right. i never had this problem before i switched printers from a hp photosmart to the epson. has anyone else had these types of problems or am i doing something wrong here. i have even gone so far as to use recommendations in kelbys book for cs. still no change. im confused to say the least. 600 bucks for a new printer and my pics look like @*it!!....im open to suggestions....

ian408

do you have a proper profile for the epson? are you using it?

pathfinder

Epson printers using pigmented ink, like the Ultrachrome and K3 inks, get their nozzles clogged pretty easily if they are not used regularly.

When this happens, all of a sudden your prints look way out of whack - too cyan if yellow plugs, or too yellow if cyan plugs, or too green if magenta plugs. This can be confusing if you think is is a profile problem and not a malfunctioning printer. I know, I've been there often enough.

SO - make sure the printer nozzles have been cleaned thoroughly by the Epson printer utility. You may hav to clean the nozzles more than once. Epson likes you to keep the nozzles clean - ink ain't cheap

Then, you have two sets of software drivers that need configured correctly.. Photoshop's and Epson's printer driver.

Photshop's printing settings should look like this



You color space should be sRGB or Adobe whichever you usually use. (Since I post a lot of images on line here on dgrin and smugmug, my working color space is sRGB. Many prefer to use AdobeRGB, but if you do that, any image uploaded for the web needs to be converted to sRGB first or it wil look VERY flat.)
You need to select the paper you are going to print on - my box here is set up for Epson Premium Lustre - which means that the profile for Premium Lustre will be used. Relative colorimetric has to do with how out of gamut colors are mapped in the printer's space, but either Rel Colorimetric or Perceptual will do.

Now the Epson dialogue box has several pages and should resemble this...



You MUST have Printer Color Management turned off, NO Color Management in the Epson dialogue box. The color management in profile controlled work flow is being done by Photoshop.

There is another setting in the Epson dialogue boxes about Print Settings - Set this however you want the printer to print your image - I typically used the Advanced setting with SuperFine 1440dpi.


Once you have done this, you are ready to print the file.

The icm profile the spyder creates for your monitor, is the one that should be active for your monitor to look properly. I update my profile for my LCD about 1 a month.

Let me know how it works out.

k2c1959

pathfinder wrote:

Epson printers using pigmented ink, like the Ultrachrome and K3 inks, get their nozzles clogged pretty easily if they are not used regularly.

When this happens, all of a sudden your prints look way out of whack - too cyan if yellow plugs, or too yellow if cyan plugs, or too green if magenta plugs. This can be confusing if you think is is a profile problem and not a malfunctioning printer. I know, I've been there often enough.

SO - make sure the printer nozzles have been cleaned thoroughly by the Epson printer utility. You may hav to clean the nozzles more than once. Epson likes you to keep the nozzles clean - ink ain't cheap

Then, you have two sets of software drivers that need configured correctly.. Photoshop's and Epson's printer driver.

Photshop's printing settings should look like this



You color space should be sRGB or Adobe whichever you usually use. (Since I post a lot of images on line here on dgrin and smugmug, my working color space is sRGB. Many prefer to use AdobeRGB, but if you do that, any image uploaded for the web needs to be converted to sRGB first or it wil look VERY flat.)
You need to select the paper you are going to print on - my box here is set up for Epson Premium Lustre - which means that the profile for Premium Lustre will be used. Relative colorimetric has to do with how out of gamut colors are mapped in the printer's space, but either Rel Colorimetric or Perceptual will do.

Now the Epson dialogue box has several pages and should resemble this...



You MUST have Printer Color Management turned off, NO Color Management in the Epson dialogue box. The color management in profile controlled work flow is being done by Photoshop.

There is another setting in the Epson dialogue boxes about Print Settings - Set this however you want the printer to print your image - I typically used the Advanced setting with SuperFine 1440dpi.


Once you have done this, you are ready to print the file.

The icm profile the spyder creates for your monitor, is the one that should be active for your monitor to look properly. I update my profile for my LCD about 1 a month.

Let me know how it works out.

thank you!!!
fixed my problem, i guess i had a brain freeze there or something, the photos i had been trying to print were taken in sRGB and i was converting to adobe RGB... therein lied the problem, once i printed in sRGB, that corrected itself, my pics are back to astounding quality in print again. should not have paid attention to kelby's book or at least reread it anyway. I always shoot in adobe RGB, but the photos i was trying to print had been taken in sRGB. whew, i was thinking maybe i had a 600.00 boat anchor..
thanks again, this is twice you have helped me, man your good, lol..

pathfinder

Happy to help, KC

:slurp

pathfinder

Kelby's recommendation to work in Adobe is fine for folks who are going to submit their work to a major printing house, like for a magazine or a book.

But for most of us, sRGB works just fine.

It took me a while to fully accept this, when so many authors like Kelby, favor AdobeRGB, but Baldy really is right, that for web based images and prints going to web based printers or to your own desktop inkjet printers, sRGB works just fine.

Using sRGB certainly simplifies my workflow to shoot and edit and print in sRGB, rather than try and remember whether I am in AdobeRGB, or sRGB, or ProPhoto or what.