Magenta cast on prints.

[gareth_hall]

Hi there,

I'm currently printing on Ilford classic gloss with my Epson 1290s and cannot get the

colour balance right. All the prints have a magenta/blue tint. I have tried using the

coloursynch function in the photoshop print dialogue and also tried taking out the

magenta but alas the prints get close but never look just 'right'.

I know I should be buying expensive profiling kits etc.. etc.. but i've blown all my cash on

paper and ink which is rapidly running out.

So the question, does anyone know how to achieve a balanced print with this setup (iMac

G5, OSX, Photoshop CS2, Epson 1290s) Do I have to download a colour profile? Do I set my

printer up differently, or do I save up and buy a profiling kit and not print anything until

then?

Thanks once again..

Gareth

[minicucci]

Gareth; Whenever magenta shows up, it's a clue that double profiling may be involved.

Double profiling means that you have PSCS sending one set of color info to the printer and

are also asking the printer to manage its own color output. Worlds then collide.

 

If you are using Print Preview in PSCS, look at the bottom with more options and see what

instruction set you are sending to the printer. If PS is controlling color, (using a profile), then

make certain that the Epson driver is set to no color management.

[finepics]

Hi Gareth,

 

Patricia's right about double profiling. The only other thing that might cause a severe colour shift is a blocked nozzle.

 

Colour mangement always seems to baffle people but it really is fairly simple once you understand how it works and what it does. The goal is to get out of the printer what you see on the screen.

 

The first and MOST important step is to get the screen right. Until you do that how do you know that adjustments you make in PS are right? It might not be a mile off but small shifts can produce big differences to printed output. So for ultimate control you need to calibrate it using a hardware device.

 

Now you can start printer profiling because now what you see is right you want the printer to match it. You can download general paper profiles from Ilfords website which will be sufficient, and sometimes are perfect, but there is no point getting custom profiles made (but they are not too expensive - 40 dollars) unless your monitor is accurate.

 

So, start saving and buy a monitor calibration device like the Eye One display or Colorvision Spyder Pro II (Spyder comes as a kit with a printer profiling device).

[fred_bonnett2]

Gareth:

 

Just remove some M and add some Y in the Epson print driver. Go to Main > Custom > Advanced to do these adjustments. Make a small print and run the paper through the printer multiple times until you get the correct combination of colors --- then save that profile for future printing.

 

Do a nozzle check first and perform any indicated cleaning cycles.

[Michael Eckstein]

The ilford site has downloads available of iic profiles for all their papers for different many

printers. Download the profile for your printer and paper type and select it in the print with

preview dialog box in PhotoShop and this will go a long way to solving your problem. Of

course the first step in color management would be to calibrate your monitor.