Photoshop CS5 (Mac) - Epson 3880 Bug?

I've run into a very odd issue with printing from Photoshop CS5 to an Epson 3880. It seems like Photoshop fails to transmit the correct print settings to the printer so even thought I'm telling the printer that I am printing on Epson Enhanced Matte paper it prints using Photo Black ink, which, of course, does not look right on matte paper. This is on a Mac running OS X Version 10.9.5. I've very carefully gone over the settings in the print dialogs to make sure there are no errant settings that could be causing the problem. I've worked with Epson support to re-install the Epson driver. And I've checked and confirmed that CS5 is up to date in terms of patches and updates.

 

I am using the usual recommended print flow where I let Photoshop handle the color management rather than handing this task off to the printer.

 

One key insight came as a result of the fact that this computer also has Photoshop CS3 installed on it. If I print an image from CS3 using the same settings I'm using in CS5 the printer behaves correctly and prints the image using Matte Black ink. Unfortunately there's some degradation in the image quality, I think because CS3 is so ancient (12 years old) and certain subtle aspects of the software have improved in newer versions.

 

Has anyone run into this problem? Does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix this? It makes it pretty much impossible to print on matte paper using this computer and printer.

I use Photoshop CS5 on a 2010 Mac Pro with High Sierra operating system. Printing from CS5 worked properly before I updated the OS from Sierra to High Sierra (should have stuck with Sierra). Now, trying to print from CS5 crashes the program. My solution has been to save CS5 files as tiff files and then print the tiff files from Affinity Photo, which works fine. Try Using the same approach, save your CS5 files in tiff format and then print them from CS3 (if that does not work properly, get a copy of Affinity Photo for $50, and print from there). Edited December 8, 2019 by Glenn McCreery