epson R1800 printer help....

This might sound stupid, but try taking a photograph of your print with your camera, and the flash on.

I thought that all of my prints were coming out dark (not an epson printer). I have a spotlight that I light my lounge with, that I thought was ok to view my prints by.
However, for some reason, having my sidelamps on, which are energy saving, is causing me to mis-interperet how bright the image truly is. I put a screenshot of an image I had test printed, and then a test-print next to it, and tried with several types of lighting. The taking of the image using flash was what set me onto this.
 
coldpenguin said:
This might sound stupid, but try taking a photograph of your print with your camera, and the flash on.

I thought that all of my prints were coming out dark (not an epson printer). I have a spotlight that I light my lounge with, that I thought was ok to view my prints by.
However, for some reason, having my sidelamps on, which are energy saving, is causing me to mis-interperet how bright the image truly is. I put a screenshot of an image I had test printed, and then a test-print next to it, and tried with several types of lighting. The taking of the image using flash was what set me onto this.
Click to expand...
No mate...these are way too dark, I,ve used loads ink & paper and got nowhere..tried loads of settings but still no luck :bang::bang:
 
I had this same problem till I came across a right gem of a tip which cured it. It is a setting in the printer driver....

Under "Print Settings" :: "Basic"

Change "Color Settings" to "Adobe RGB" then "Color Controls" to "Adobe RGB"


Once I did that my R2400 printed at the correct darkness
 
POAH

How do you do this
make sure your brightness is around 90-100cm2
Click to expand...

I've seen a few people say this but I don't see any control on my monitor that lets me set to a value.

I'm just interested as my Spyder Pro latest software has brightness and contrast settings in the software.
 
does your monitor profile software not tell you how bright your monitor is?

I use a spyder3 which autocorrects to what you set it to
 
POAH I'm sort of asking this on behalf of others.

The latest Spyder Pro software has a setup where you set the brightess on a scale and the same with contrast.

It's just you mentioned this setting but how does the avarage Joe Soap work out where to set the brightness, say with Espon Prfoiles and Epson paper but no calibration device for the screen.
 
cowasaki said:
I had this same problem till I came across a right gem of a tip which cured it. It is a setting in the printer driver....

Under "Print Settings" :: "Basic"

Change "Color Settings" to "Adobe RGB" then "Color Controls" to "Adobe RGB"


Once I did that my R2400 printed at the correct darkness
Click to expand...

I shall give it ago in the morning (y)mark..
 
unless you have a calibration device you can't get a reading of the output.

if your prints are dark then you can adjust your monitor angle first to see if that makes any difference then adjust the brightness/contrast to suit.

I'm currently using spyder3 elite unit with spyder3elite 4.02 software

ChrisH said:
POAH I'm sort of asking this on behalf of others.

The latest Spyder Pro software has a setup where you set the brightess on a scale and the same with contrast.

It's just you mentioned this setting but how does the avarage Joe Soap work out where to set the brightness, say with Espon Prfoiles and Epson paper but no calibration device for the screen.
Click to expand...
 
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Have you tried printing someone elses photo?
Without edits, like a calibration shot?
On my system, even though I have calibrated both the monitor, and the printer paper, I am finding that my monitor is still too bright.
I am in the process of getting a new PC and monitor anyway, so I am working around it.
However, I have found that there was a program called adobegamma running on my machine, which added around a stop to the brightness of my monitor. I also think that the settings I originally made with the NVidia card driver, may have brightened the monitor.

Edit:
Try this site http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article_pages/colour_management/prints_too_dark.html
Part way down, it has several test images, to print out and see whether the printer is producing them correctly. They re-iterate that the images shouldn't be edited before printing
 
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I thought the same. However, some online printers will modify your image brightness without telling you.
I have had two batches go through Snapfish for example, same snaps, one set came back very red and dark, the other came back as I was expecting them (i.e. like my over-bright monitor).

In your case, it could be the printer still at fault, but if you try one of the images from the northlight site for example, it is one sheet more, and might point in a different direction.
For me, I think it is a mixture of my monitor, which changes brightness depending on the height of the monitor to me, and the lighting I am viewing the image under. I am wondering whether this could be fooling /my/ calibration device.
 
Mark

I've an Epson 2880 and hhave no problems with screen/ print match.

Try this and see if it helps.

Recalibrate the screen with the luminance set to 120cd/M2. Contrast to 2.2.The screen brightness should reflect the ambient illumination in the monitor and viewing area. You may need to adjust this according to your own conditions.

If I remember correctly the X-Rite software did at one stage have a function for you to measure the ambient light level but this I think is no longer part of the package

Now in Photoshop, in the print dialogue box select Colour management = Document
Color Handling = Photoshop Manages Color

Printer profile = The profile for you printer and paper

Rendering Intent = Perceptual

Tick Black Point Compensation

In the print module in the Color Management section make sure that ICM is selected and the OFF ( no color adjustment) is ticked. These are in the advanced section

OK may be teaching Grandma to suck eggs, if so I apologies .

Now using a good test image make a print.

Now compare the test print to the screen. If the print is still to
dark then I would suggest that the screen is too bright compared to the viewing conditions. If so then drop the monitor brightness level to say 110Cd/M2 and see if you get a better match.

My screen is calibrated to 130Cd/M2 , which is probably on the high end of most calibration ranges but I get a good screen to print match, not only from my 2880, but also from outside printers
 
Chappers said:
Mark

I've an Epson 2880 and hhave no problems with screen/ print match.

Try this and see if it helps.

Recalibrate the screen with the luminance set to 120cd/M2. Contrast to 2.2.The screen brightness should reflect the ambient illumination in the monitor and viewing area. You may need to adjust this according to your own conditions.

If I remember correctly the X-Rite software did at one stage have a function for you to measure the ambient light level but this I think is no longer part of the package

Now in Photoshop, in the print dialogue box select Colour management = Document
Color Handling = Photoshop Manages Color

Printer profile = The profile for you printer and paper

Rendering Intent = Perceptual

Tick Black Point Compensation

In the print module in the Color Management section make sure that ICM is selected and the OFF ( no color adjustment) is ticked. These are in the advanced section

OK may be teaching Grandma to suck eggs, if so I apologies .

Now using a good test image make a print.

Now compare the test print to the screen. If the print is still to
dark then I would suggest that the screen is too bright compared to the viewing conditions. If so then drop the monitor brightness level to say 110Cd/M2 and see if you get a better match.

My screen is calibrated to 130Cd/M2 , which is probably on the high end of most calibration ranges but I get a good screen to print match, not only from my 2880, but also from outside printers
Click to expand...

tried these settings...worked brilliantly for the first time...green seems a bit out, only slightly ,It doesn't seem to like printing pastel colours,for some reason..still a little bit dark,but very slightly...thanks so much, mark...
 
Mark

Glad you are getting better results

You may find that "Soft Proofing" may help further. This shows the effect the profile has on the final print and also takes into account the base white of the paper you are printing on. This can make the print look darker and flatter than it does on the screen. It's not difficult to do.

In Photoshop go to VIEW and click on Proof Set up and choose Custom. Navigate to the paper profile you are using and choose it. It should now appear at the bottom of the menu with a tick against it.
Now choose Proof Colors ( keyboard shortcut cmd/ctrl Y ) you should now see a change in the appearance of the image. You can toggle on/off using the keyboard shortcut. Hopefully the image on the screen should look more like your print.

What you can now do is go to Image and select Duplicate. You will now have too copies of the same image. Resize both so they both side by side on the screen. Select one as the reference and one as the main image. Now select the main image and apply soft proof. Using the tools in Photoshop, match the main image to the reference. . You might at this moment use the Gamut Warning option to make sure that all your colours are within the printers working gamut or colour range. If all is OK print the main image. With a bit of luck it will print as you intended in the first place.

May sound a bit complicated but after a few attempts you should find it easy. Probably using the same paper/printer combination the adjustments will always be the same and you can do what I have and that is a simple preset that is applied prior to printing. However I would suggest you print a small test first just to make sure all is OK.

John C
 
mark richards said:
tried these settings...worked brilliantly for the first time...green seems a bit out, only slightly ,It doesn't seem to like printing pastel colours,for some reason..still a little bit dark,but very slightly...thanks so much, mark...
Click to expand...


sounds like you were double profiling before. did you have ICM turned off before?
 
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