Color calibration okay -- R1800 prints way too dark -- HELP!

FEBRUARY...

I bought an Epson R1800 printer. After calibrating a 20" iMac with a
Spyder2 and a few days of trial and error I had the system producing
"gorgeous" prints (according to a few pro photographers and printers
in the LA artist district...this was print quality, critique of the
content was not always that positive .

MARCH...

I've got about 150 prints, I lay off printing for a while and start
studying CS2 and Painter.

JULY...

Realizing it has been too long between system backups, I refresh my
backups. Didn't think to do a test print before committing to
redundant identical backups. Oops...

SEPTEMBER...

After accumulating quite a few Painter'd and CS2'd files I want to
seem them on paper. Prints look like doo-doo. If there was an
official color profile named "Black And Blacker" this would be it.

Murphy's law dictates that the backups are useless.

Ditto re finding a set of settings to produce acceptable prints.

All the detailed instructions I've found and followed to setup the
system, CS2 and the R1800 fail.

OSX and CS2 use the Spyder2 calibration; everything looks great on the
screen all the time in all applications.

I'm using Epson Premium Glossy with the updated Epson driver and
profile for that paper. All I want is a Premium Glossy version of
what I see on the screen. Frustration is entering the whimpering
stage; expert instructions aren't working; trial and error isn't
working; I need help.

The rules have changed,
It's not the same,
It's all the players in a whole new ball game.
...
I know what happened,
I read the book,
I believe I just got the good bye look.

Jeff

 

Hi

You updated the Epson Driver.

Did you remember to go into it and set it to NO Colour Management /
Adjustment in the Advanced Section.

Roy G

 

Yes.

(Also tried the reverse, having the driver do all the work,
cs2 little to nothing.)

Jeff

 

Have you downloaded and "installed" the latest ICC
profiles from Epson's web site? And the latest printer
driver, of course. I had similar problems with mine when
it was new.

Also, read *very* carefully pages 52-65 of the printer's
User Manual, in the section entitled "Managing Color
With Profiles." Pay **particular** attention to the
Windows (print driver) dialog on Page 60. Note that:

* Under the group of buttons labeled "Color
Management" you select "ICM," the last of three
choices.

* Under the group of buttons labeled "ICC/ICM
Profile" you select "Off (No Color Adjustment)" --
the first of two choices.

And/or read the PDFs that come with the ICC
profiles on the Epson Website.

Also: are you sure that the files you are editing
are properly tagged? What working space are
you (presumably) editing in?

FWIW, I've found the Epson profiles to be
excellent, and the soft-proofs surprisingly
accurate.


rafe b
www.terrapinphoto.com

 

I did that in February. I suppose I could unintstall, download in
case there are more changes, etc.

No, I followed the OSX instructions. ;-) They didn't work correctly,
but a trial and error mix of tips from Epson, Apple, Adobe and a dozen
other sources came up with a good solution in Feb. I just don't what
changed or why, and can't get it working again.

Yup. However, I switched to Macs to work in Photoshop's native
environment 1 1/2 years ago... huge mistake. I work in the color
space all the other programs work in... sRGB (with all the numbers
after it) which when selected as the profile for my monitor is
identical to the spyder2 profile, and it's what's coming out of my
cameras. I am extremely pleased with what I see on my monitor(s) and
simply want to see it on paper again.

Soft-proofing only goes 1/2 from screen to paper (splits the
difference). There is much more difference now between "working" and
"proofing" on screen, there was very little difference in February.

Jeff