convince me not to abandon my epson

[doug j. haass]

<p>Wow! Now you see what kind of responses you get when someone talks about color management and bad prints. I have an Epson 2200 and 3800. I haven't spent any time trying to get Lightroom to work with them, so I have never had any good prints from LR. It uses the ProPhoto RGB color space and does give different results from what I get from Photoshop.</p>

<p>If you have Photoshop, use it. Take it from LR by editing in PS, follow the basic instructions you have received (you seem to have the right settings already) and print away. If you have used a color managed workflow by calibrating your monitor, you will get nice prints. You always have to take into account that you are looking through a projected image versus a 2D print, so it will almost always be darker then the lcd shows it to be.</p>

<p>Adobe Gamma never allowed good prints for me. I used the Spyder 2 Basic version calibrating device early on and it changed my world. I don't think you can get a decent print without using one of the available brands out there. I now use the Spyder 3 Pro and it's fairly easy to use, even on a Dell 24" LCD with limited controls.</p>

[jeff_z.]

<p>David, Not at all sure if this will help, but here goes.. I have a Mac with Photoshop and the Epson 2200, and that is my only experience. I remember having trouble when first printing with this, and hopefully my solution will pertain to your situation.</p>

<p><em>If</em> you have P.S. and are willing to try using it with your printer, try calling Epson and try to persuade them to let you talk with someone knowledgeable. This is what I did, and I think if you approach them tactfully, but firmly, they might well help; imo, they owe a customer at least this much. If memory serves, he first had me open the p.s. Color Settings and told me exactly what should be selected/unselected, etc. This, along with monitor calibration would be the first steps I would take.</p>

<p>With all due respect to Andrew, Patrick, and anyone else that has recommended the after market calibration products, I must agree with John Kelly. I have printed with two different Macs, and at least partly out of financial necessity, used both the standard Mac calibration tool, and especially, the Adobe, and have not had any further problems with this aspect of digital printing. I calibrate about every six months or so. Perhaps this is Mac specific, I really don't know, but I find what John mentions to be true for me, and on two different Mac computers, one built in 2000, the other in 2006. I've also found John's advice on other printing related issues to be very helpful.</p>

<p>If, after this point, prints are looking too dark, try reducing the "Color Density" setting within "Paper Configuration" in the Print box. I certainly don't claim any expertise in any of this, but these things seemed to have worked for me with the equipment mentioned.</p>

<p>Good luck, and judging from the many posts related to this sort of issue over the years, it seems that the frustration you've endured is almost the rule, not the exception, if that is any consolation.</p>

[lizard]

<p>I've had a 1400 for over a year, and it took me a while of researching to figure out the settings, but I love the results I get. I have eye-one calibration, and an iMac, and I can't turn the monitor brightness down enough to match the eye-one, so I just brighten every image before printing it, and it works quite well for me. Don't give up yet!</p>

[patricklavoie]

<p>@ Bob, happy to hear you finally got it to work with a ColorMunki..for me its a piece of crap for paper profiling (also for the hundred other people who complain about the munki..but for the monitor it is excellent). Just hope that the profile made doestn compensate for a wrong way of printing that you had before. I have multiple epson printer, and they all print perfectly out of the box, and everytime i read someone complain, 9 out of 10 its a user error..it append again last week with in another thread where the user think he didtn have any way of chossing is printer quality option, but in fact the option was there but not active because of a little arrow not press.</p>

<p>@ Jeff, color management is not a Mac or PC problem related..its a digital darkroom way of life if you care about extraordinary result..not just test and 1 good print in your close loop. Any serious amateur and pro should and normally do it because it simply work when well done and when the user get a bit of knowledge.</p>

<p>Printing should be pretty plug and play with any printer; i never printed on a HP, i install one last week for a client, and whe got a perfect print the first time..i borrow a canon 9500 2 weeks ago, never touch that in my life, send the file and got a perfect print..i can plug any epson of any price categorie and also get a perfect print the first time. Why? because i know how to print using a colormanaged workflow, and what i see on screen can be trust.</p>

<p>Before tyrying to reduce that or reduce this, the user should be sure that he know how to print. You are not suppose to need to reduce anything to get good print other than your room lighting condition. If you need to fiddle with the setting theres is something wrong in the way you print.</p>

<p>As other suggest, try to print first from photoshop FOLOWING YOUR MANUAL..no one does that and it is well writen around page 50 for the 2880 (see in your manual "using color management to print or something similar).</p>

<p>Ask yourself a question; if everybody you know have a epson 1400-2400-2880 etc..everywhere you read people who have those printer they are amazed by it..why do you have so much problem whit your? it is because YOU are so use to excellence and YOU can spot the problem..or maybe that YOU are use to excellence but simply use the wrong setting? When eveybody i know get scrap print i put the fault on the printer, when im the only one who dont get good print i put the fault on me.</p>

[patricklavoie]

<blockquote>

<p>it took me a while of researching to figure out the settings</p>

 

</blockquote>

<p>..or you could have open your user manual from page 16 -27 and start reading how to print..take only 3min ; )</p>

<p>Epson also have a how to print with a color managed workflow call Managing Color Guide on there web site under DOCUMENT and MANUAL, page 4. It is for Element, but it is the same way of printing from Photoshop, and the same way to print from Ligthroom..with different looking menu.</p>

<p>User have to stop wining a bit and use google or at least the search engine on the manufacturer web site..most of the time ALL the info needed are there..under the right place.</p>

<blockquote>

 

</blockquote>

 

[digitaldog]

<blockquote>

<p>Bob, happy to hear you finally got it to work with a ColorMunki..for me its a piece of crap for paper profiling (also for the hundred other people who complain about the munki..but for the monitor it is excellent).</p>

 

</blockquote>

<p>My experience, on the Mac version is the profiles for papers rivaled those built using a $5000+ iSis Spectrophotometer and ProfileMaker Pro software. That was with the standard 100 patches too (no iteration which is an awesome technology). </p>

[manuel barrera houston,]

<p>Went with the Canon Pro years ago because of problems with my Epson printers of equal quality and value, never looked back and never regretted.</p>

[maxmalossini]

<p>David, I cannot really help you with your issues (I was relatively lucky with my 2880). I think nobody should go through all this unimaginable ordeal just to make some prints, I mean just look at this thread and all these opinions/experiences.<br>

These companies (computer/printers/software manufacturers) have a lot of work still to do.</p>

[tunyaluck_phuttal1]

<p>I replaced my dead 1280 with 1400. My frustration was I printed B&W pictures, they came out green and dark and blur and waste a lot of landfill for several months. I ended up using my all-in-one HP mostly, but I really need to use Espon 1400 for Super B size. Then, I found the solution. But for anyone using snow leopard and CS4 on MacBook Pro though.</p>

<p>Download latest driver from Epson. The driver must be "epson13185.dmg". Then use all easy install. When finishing first installation process, wait a bit, it will install 3-4 things more such as EasyCDPrint. I know you don't want those add-ons, but for Epson 1400 sake, let it go. You can uninstall later. Then, I restart my Mac. You don't have too, but why not.</p>

<p>Then, go to System Preferences, select Printer button, delete Epson 1400. Then add Epson 1400, and let it use auto function to find driver. You can then click the option button to see if the driver is version 6.1. Photoshop should also be restarted if you have it opened.</p>

<p>In Photoshop CS4, choose Print. At Print window, click Page Setup, choose the right paper size and orientation, and of course Epson 1400 if you have more than 1 printer hooked up. Back to Print window, choose Epson 1400, let Printer manage color, not Photoshop. Click Print, you will now be in Printer window, don't forget to choose the right kind of paper, print speed. For the highest quality, choose EpsonRPM, I don't know what it is, but it's good.</p>

<p>It will just print as easy as any early Epson printers such as 1280. Now, I get real B&W and exact brightness as I see on screen even on Staples brand photo paper.</p>