Epson printer question

jgoetz4

Good Morning,
I purchased the Epson R260 printer the other night. After setting it up, I printed out a couple of test pictures. They turned out extremely well. I used the printer last night to print out a few more pictures and to my surprise, "Houston we have a problem"...:cry The first picture from last night was over saturated in certain areas, but the rest of the picture was really good, the second picture was grainy/spotty, but dead on with the color and contrast. I'm thinking maybe I need to update my driver, but not really sure. I'm using windows xp. Any help is greatly appreciated :bow
Thank you in advance and have a good day
Jim...

Poseidon

Did you use different paper, or different print settings?

jgoetz4

Epson printer question

Poseidon wrote:

Did you use different paper, or different print settings?

Hey Mike,
Yes I used different paper and settings. Originally, I used matte paper and both pics came out very good. Last night I tried 2 different glossy papers with different glossy settings. Still somewhat confused as to y the results changed that quick ... Thank you,
Jim...

This just in...is it possible I need to do a print head alignment so soon ??? Thanks

slapshot

jgoetz4 wrote:

Hey Mike,
Yes I used different paper and settings. Originally, I used matte paper and both pics came out very good. Last night I tried 2 different glossy papers with different glossy settings. Still somewhat confused as to y the results changed that quick ... Thank you,
Jim...

This just in...is it possible I need to do a print head alignment so soon ??? Thanks

I would run the print head cleaning and alignment utilities. I had some issues right out of the box with an Epson R1800, but the cleaning utilities fixed it right up. Running the cleaning utilites so soon is not indication of a problem with the printer, it has just been sitting in the box a long time without use.

Your problem may be different though. You will get different results from different types and even brands of paper. I would recommend sticking with Epson paper on Epson printers. The good news is they have a wide selection of papers that you can order directly from their web-site.

What program are you printing from? It is important that your settings correctly identify what type of paper you are printing on, whether the print job is color managed, whether color managment will be done by the printer or the photo editing program, etc, or else you will get unexpected results. I don't recall if the ICC profiles for the papers came with the printer or if I went online and downloaded them, but when I print from PhotoShop I select the profile for the exact brand and paper I am printing on.

If this is all new to you, welcome to the arcane world of color management!! Do some searches on color management, ICC profiles and printing and there should be a wealth of information to get you up to speed.

Goodluck!!

jgoetz4

slapshot wrote:

I would run the print head cleaning and alignment utilities. I had some issues right out of the box with an Epson R1800, but the cleaning utilities fixed it right up. Running the cleaning utilites so soon is not indication of a problem with the printer, it has just been sitting in the box a long time without use.

Your problem may be different though. You will get different results from different types and even brands of paper. I would recommend sticking with Epson paper on Epson printers. The good news is they have a wide selection of papers that you can order directly from their web-site.

What program are you printing from? It is important that your settings correctly identify what type of paper you are printing on, whether the print job is color managed, whether color managment will be done by the printer or the photo editing program, etc, or else you will get unexpected results. I don't recall if the ICC profiles for the papers came with the printer or if I went online and downloaded them, but when I print from PhotoShop I select the profile for the exact brand and paper I am printing on.

If this is all new to you, welcome to the arcane world of color management!! Do some searches on color management, ICC profiles and printing and there should be a wealth of information to get you up to speed.

Goodluck!!

Thank you very much I will do an alignment test later tonight as well as play around with the settings. I print from PS7. Never gave it much thought that the printer has been sitting around all that time without use.
Thanks again and have a good day,
Jim...

Poseidon

I don't know if you can load ICC profiles into the print driver for the R260, but if you can, Do it!

I use Ilford Galerie Smooth Pearl with my R1800 and it works very well, I just had to get the profile from Ilfords site, and I was in business.

As for printing from PS, you may get better results turning off the "Epson Vivid" and instead use the option to let photoshop determine the colors.

jgoetz4

Poseidon wrote:

I don't know if you can load ICC profiles into the print driver for the R260, but if you can, Do it!

I use Ilford Galerie Smooth Pearl with my R1800 and it works very well, I just had to get the profile from Ilfords site, and I was in business.

As for printing from PS, you may get better results turning off the "Epson Vivid" and instead use the option to let photoshop determine the colors.

Hey Mike,
I turned off the Vivid and used Standard, now everything is fine Thank you everyone for all your help and suggestions
Jim...