Epson Stylus Pro 3880: Solution for Dull Colors

<p>In case anyone is having problems with dull colours on prints made with Epson papers an Epson Stylus Pro 3880, I have a possible solution. I recently switched from an Epson 3800 to a 3880, and found that all colours were tending towards brown. This was only a problem when I chose the "Photoshop manages colors" setting. When I selected "Printer manages colors" in the printer driver dialog window, the colours were acceptable. But I prefer the finer control that I have when I let Photoshop manage colours.<br /><br />To cut a long story short, the problem turned out to be that I had not completely uninstalled the old Epson 3800 driver and colour profiles before installing the 3880. I can only speculate that the 3880 driver must have been finding some old configuration settings or the Epson ICC profiles that were installed with the old printer. After removing the old driver (not merely deleting the printer), then uninstalling all Epson software, then rebooting, then freshly installing the 3880 driver, the problem was immediately solved.<br /><br />I don't know what this means for people who wish to use both a 3800 and a 3880 from the same machine. Nor do I know whether there is a similar problem with having other Epson printers coexist with the 3800 on the same machine. Also, as I encountered this problem on Windows (64-bit Windows 7, with Photoshop CS5), I don't know whether the same problem would occur on a Mac. But I hope this will save someone else from spending a long time trying to debug a similar problem.</p>

<p><em>But I prefer the finer control that I have when I let Photoshop manage colours.</em></p>

<p>..euh, theres no finer control per se in Photoshop or Epson driver.. the only difference is that you select the icc profile in Photoshop (that way you have acces to custom profile or other companie profile) instead of selecting it in the epson driver..both method work perfectly, both will give you the exact same print if in both case, you are printing correctly ; )</p>

<p>but thanks for the info.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>I just came across these comments (somewhat late) because I am having problems printing accurately on my Epson 3880. I am printing from Capture NX2 and when I have NX2 managing the printing I sometimes get a result that does not accurately match the image on the screen. If I print with the printer managing the printing I get a significantly better result. I was wondering how the printer "knows" what profile to print to in order to give the superior results. So Patrick Lavoie's comment caught may attention, namely "...both [that is application managed and printer managed] will give you the exact same print if in both case, you are printing correctly." With regard to this remark I would appreciate knowing:<br>

1) If both methods will give exactly the same results why is there so much talk about paper profiles and acquiring the correct profiles, why not simply allow the printer to manage the printing and be done with it? Are those who are concerned with acquiring the precise profiles for the paper they are printing to under somewhat of an illusion as to the excellence such preoccupations will bring? <br>

2) What do you mean by "if in both cases, you are printing correctly"? What exactly is meant by "correctly" here? For example, if one is printing with the printer managing the colours would doing this correctly amount to turning off the application and enabling the printer to take over? <br>

I ask these questions in all seriousness because I am one of those people who believe, for example, that printing using correct profiles for particular paper with the application managing the printing gives superior results (if, unlike me, one is able to get it right) as opposed to simply letting the printer do the job. But if I am under an illusion here I would really like to know. I would save a lot of time, effort and frustration by just letting the printer take over.</p>

<p>I just came across these comments (somewhat late) because I am having problems printing accurately on my Epson 3880. I am printing from Capture NX2 and when I have NX2 managing the printing I sometimes get a result that does not accurately match the image on the screen. If I print with the printer managing the printing I get a significantly better result. I was wondering how the printer "knows" what profile to print to in order to give the superior results. So Patrick Lavoie's comment caught may attention, namely "...both [that is application managed and printer managed] will give you the exact same print if in both case, you are printing correctly." With regard to this remark I would appreciate knowing:<br>

1) If both methods will give exactly the same results why is there so much talk about paper profiles and acquiring the correct profiles, why not simply allow the printer to manage the printing and be done with it? Are those who are concerned with acquiring the precise profiles for the paper they are printing to under somewhat of an illusion as to the excellence such preoccupations will bring? <br>

2) What do you mean by "if in both cases, you are printing correctly"? What exactly is meant by "correctly" here? For example, if one is printing with the printer managing the colours would doing this correctly amount to turning off the application and enabling the printer to take over? <br>

I ask these questions in all seriousness because I am one of those people who believe, for example, that printing using correct profiles for particular paper with the application managing the printing gives superior results (if, unlike me, one is able to get it right) as opposed to simply letting the printer do the job. But if I am under an illusion here I would really like to know. I would save a lot of time, effort and frustration by just letting the printer take over.</p>

<p>John,</p>

<p>I have had the exact same problem w/ NX2. I'd be curious if you would..........</p>

<p>print to a file (instead of actual printing) but make sure to use 'NX2 manages color'.<br>

using some sort of EXIF tool (like 'exiftool'), look at the file and see what color profile it used. In my case, it always picked the *display* profile, not the selected paper profile.</p>

<p>Howard,<br>

As much as I would like to view the requested information from my print-to-file file using the exiftool I am unable to use the command line window on my iMac to instruct exiftool to extract the desired EXIF information. If you could indicate quite specifically the syntax of the commands that are required I would be happy to give it a try. </p>

<p>John</p>