Epson printer colours

[Phideaux]

Help!

I'm having great difficulty, make that impossible, to get my Epson Stylus Photo R220 to print the same colours as shown on my monitor, the prints all come out much darker. What should be a light grey background in portraits comes out a light brown. Skin tones that should be lightly golden end up as if the model has spent 4 weeks in Barbados.

I did wonder if it was my monitor, but feedback from images posted tends to indicate that others with calibrated monitors don't find the colours too dark.

I've tried all sorts of profile settings from no colour management; printer controlled colour management, Photoshop controlled c.m, sRGB settings; Adobe RGB (1998); and every combination thereof. So far I've got through a complete pack of Epson premium glossy and the only changes have been to image size (although the settings for page size were all set the same!).

I understand that dark prints are a common 'problem' with Epson. Well I'm thinking of getting a higher specification printer so that I can do the occasional A3 and if my experience with the current Epson is anything to go by, I think I'll try another manufacturer...

Or am I doing something wrong? :bang:

 

[Glen]

Hi Simon, if you haven't done so, go onto Epsons website and download the printer profile for your printer, you can also download a PDF that will show you what to set your printer settings to too.

I use ilford paper, which I've got the profile and settings for, its great paper and quite cheap too, if 7dayshop.com still do it, its £15-18 FOR 75 A4 sheets, I'll stick some in with your prints when I send them back to you, I'll also put in the profile etc, you can give it a wirl

PS I've scanned your pics and I'm in the middle of retouching them, hopefully will get them finished tomorrow

 

[Phideaux]

Hi Simon, if you haven't done so, go onto Epsons website and download the printer profile for your printer, you can also download a PDF that will show you what to set your printer settings to too.

I use ilford paper, which I've got the profile and settings for, its great paper and quite cheap too, if 7dayshop.com still do it, its £15-18 FOR 75 A4 sheets, I'll stick some in with your prints when I send them back to you, I'll also put in the profile etc, you can give it a wirl

PS I've scanned your pics and I'm in the middle of retouching them, hopefully will get them finished tomorrow

Thanks Glen. These printing issues are starting to get me down.

 

[Gandhi]

Ok.

If you're using a monitor you need to be aware that the nature of the brightness is never going to be the same on a print as you see on screen. One is backlit and the other is lit reflectively. The level of brightness you view it under, as well as the color of the light will affect how the print appears. Daylight is best.

That aside, Have you calibrated your screen? You say from peoples feedback that your shots seem ok, but it's hardly a scientific test. I have an r220 and get prints back from it fine. I only use adobe gamma to do my calibration and it seems to do the job to my needs.

I originaly found that when printing from the epson my prints were way too dark. I also found photoshop a bitch to print from. My stupidity and stupid programming didn;t make for a match made in heaven. I now use a program called qimage (you can download a trial version but it's only about a tenner anyway)

You'll then need the .icc profiles for the paper you're using. If you PM me your email address I can send you the ones for the epson paper and what to do with them. Ilford and other manufacturers have them for their paper also.

You can get your printer profiled to its specific idiosynchrasies but it may be better to get the basic bits right first.

Printing from Qimage is easy. You just select the correct profile for the paper you're using and the make sure that in the settings for the printer that ICM is turned off so that printing program manages the colour and everything should be rosy!

If you need any clarification or the profiles then just Pm me.

 

[Glen]

Sorry Simon can't seem to find the profile for their glossy paper, I Know I've got it on my PC (I'm on the lappy at the mo) so I'll have a look in the morning and keep you posted, but back to the ilford paper its definatley first class stuff!!

Simon I'll let you get the epson one from Gandhi and I'll sort some ilford paper and profiles out for you too.

 

[Phideaux]

I haven't calibrated my screen yet, but I'm in the proces of deciding what device to get for this - cheap like the Pantone Huey or something like the Spyder2Pro.

One of my problems is knowing which settings to use for colour management in Vista, along with the settings for the Epson R220 and PSCS2. Do I use absolute or relative colorimetric; should I set the printer or Adobe for colour management; should I use sRGB or Adobe (1998) for colour and does it have to be the same for the printer and the monitor and PSCS3?

I've just started reading 'Colour Management for Photographers' by Andrew Rodney, which is increasing my theoretical knowledge of colour and how various things work - everything except how to get the image to print as seen on the screen.

I've put two images below - one unprocessed in terms of colour temp, the other warmed from 4350k to 4700 with minor changes to levels.

Anyway, thank you for your offer to help with ICC profiles, I'll PM with my contact details.

 

[JPS]

Hi, I have an Epson R300 printer and to get the prints to look alright at the printing stage I need to increase the brightness +5, reduce the magenta -4 or -5 and the yellow between -2 and -3. Then I get a somewhat decent print. You may notice a difference in colour between Photoshop and the Windows Image Fax Viewer screen, the latter is much darker and way too red/magenta (on my system anyway). So if I'm printing straight from the fax viewer utility, I need to alter my printer sliders as stated.

 

[Chappers]

Hi

Andrew Rodney's book will be of a great help to you. This guy really knows his stuff. Personally I would calibrate your monitor first. Getting that set will help a lot. The Huey works fine, personally I use A Macbeth eye one, but that's a lot more expensive.

Once that's done you'll need to use the paper/printer profiles for your printer. Remember different printer/inks/paper combinations will make a difference, so to start off with I would suggest you stick with Epson paper and inks. You should be able to get the profiles from the Epson web site. If not email their Tech Support.

Next you'll need to set up the printer driver so that it dosn't try to manage the colour. You'll let PS do that. I don't know what you printer dialogue box looks like, but id it's anything like the R300/R500 series, you'll need to go to the advanced tab. Tick the ICM box and no colour adjustment.

Now for Photoshop

I don't know what version of PS you are using but the info if basically the same except the dialogue boxes are slightly different.

First select that PS does the colour management. second select the printer profile. It'll look a bit like SPRX500 RX510 Heavy Matt. That's the one I use for the R500 printer. Set your rendering intent to Perceptual.

Press the print button
I can send you a couple of screen shots that may help if you like. However Andrew's book should give the same information.

One point to remember. If you do get a monitor calibrator and you've used Adobe Gamma to set up you monitor, you must disable adobe gamma prior to profiling. On a PC this is done simply by removing it from the start up folder.

regards

John C



Remember if you are working in a colour managed workflow you will find that viewing images in non colour managed applications such as fax viewer and web browsers may ( probably will) give you different results.