Epson R1800 & ICC Profiles

TP
Posted By
Tim Porreca
Dec 10, 2005
Views
475
Replies
5
Status
Closed
I’ve been trying to use profiles with CS2 with no luck. I can let the print driver manage the colors and I can use the ICC profile from the print driver, but when I tell CS2 to manage colors and turn off color management in the print driver, my prints look like this. The one on top is driver managed and the bottom one is with ICC.

http://www.porreca.com/Photos/r1800.jpg

I’ve read every whitepaper on the net it seems. My monitor is profiles with a Spyder and this is more than just a hair off. Like I said, the profile works when selected thru the print driver. I’m almost to the point of uninstalling and reinstalling CS2. I’ve already tried the ctrl-alt-shift trick.

Thanks for any advice,
Tim

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J
Jim
Dec 10, 2005
"Tim Porreca" wrote in message
I’ve been trying to use profiles with CS2 with no luck. I can let the print driver manage the colors and I can use the ICC profile from the print driver, but when I tell CS2 to manage colors and turn off color management in the print driver, my prints look like this. The one on top is driver managed and the bottom one is with ICC.

http://www.porreca.com/Photos/r1800.jpg

I’ve read every whitepaper on the net it seems. My monitor is profiles with a Spyder and this is more than just a hair off. Like I said, the profile works when selected thru the print driver. I’m almost to the point of uninstalling and reinstalling CS2. I’ve already tried the ctrl-alt-shift trick.

Thanks for any advice,
Tim
Whose print profiles did you use? You will get better results if you make your own profiles for your own printer with your own inks on your own paper using Monaco or Colorvision.
The profiles that the print manufacturer provides fit the average printer with average inks on average paper. The differences may be slight, but they are present nontheless.
"My monitor is profiles with a Spyder, and this is more than just a hair off." Why is it off? If it is off, do it over.
Are you using a monitor profile for printing? That is a very solid no-no.

I am still using PS v7, but until I followed the above instructions, my prints were terrible. By the way, I turn off driver color management because otherwise the process tends to apply the profile twice with very bad results.
Jim
TN
Tesco News
Dec 10, 2005
The profiles that the print manufacturer provides fit the average printer with average inks on average paper. The differences may be slight, but they are present nontheless.
"My monitor is profiles with a Spyder, and this is more than just a hair off." Why is it off? If it is off, do it over.
Are you using a monitor profile for printing? That is a very solid no-no.
I am still using PS v7, but until I followed the above instructions, my prints were terrible. By the way, I turn off driver color management because otherwise the process tends to apply the profile twice with very bad results.
Jim

Hi.

Mostly very sensible advice, but the Profiles supplied by Epson are, as you say, for the average Printer, using Epson Ink.

There can be differences in Printers which make these profiles inaccurate, but they would be equally inaccurate when used in the Printer Driver, as in Photoshop.

I do not know why there should be such a big difference between letting Photoshop CM and letting the Printer CM. Any differences should be slight.

The main thing is that at present you can produce accurate colour using the Driver and the profiles, so until you discover why PS is failing you, just stick with your current workflow.

Roy G
BH
Bill Hilton
Dec 10, 2005
Tim writes …

when I tell CS2 to manage colors and turn off color management in the print driver, my prints look like this (dull) … Like I said, the profile works when selected thru the print driver.

Looks like Photoshop isn’t applying the profile. Can you describe the steps when you "tell CS2 to manage colors" … there are several ways of doing this that work and several dozen ways that don’t work … basically there is a numeric translation of the RGB numbers in your file to match what the printer needs to duplicate those colors as closely as possible, and from the looks of the image on the link you provided I don’t think the translation happened.

One way to do this translation is to convert a copy of the file to the printer profile for that paper. A different way (most people feel a better way) is to do these steps … assign the profile as a soft proof (View – Proof setup – Custom and select the profile for the paper and ink combo, and a rendering intent like Perceptual or Rel Col) … then do File – Print with Preview – check ‘show more options’ and for ‘source space’ check ‘proof’ and for ‘print space’ select the same profile as you did for the soft proof. Then do the steps you did earlier in the print driver setup to turn off printer color management and select the right paper etc.

This will always work (make sure the ‘print space profile’ hasn’t reset after you’ve made all the printer driver changes, it has a nasty habit of resetting).

Let us know if that fixes the problem.

Bill
J
Jim
Dec 10, 2005
"Tesco News" wrote in message
The profiles that the print manufacturer provides fit the average printer with average inks on average paper. The differences may be slight, but they are present nontheless.
"My monitor is profiles with a Spyder, and this is more than just a hair off." Why is it off? If it is off, do it over.
Are you using a monitor profile for printing? That is a very solid no-no.

I am still using PS v7, but until I followed the above instructions, my prints were terrible. By the way, I turn off driver color management because otherwise the process tends to apply the profile twice with very bad results.
Jim

Hi.

Mostly very sensible advice, but the Profiles supplied by Epson are, as you say, for the average Printer, using Epson Ink.
I am using both Epson and Red River paper. Profiles for one don’t work very well with the other.
There can be differences in Printers which make these profiles inaccurate, but they would be equally inaccurate when used in the Printer Driver, as in Photoshop.

I do not know why there should be such a big difference between letting Photoshop CM and letting the Printer CM. Any differences should be slight.
I meant to say, "don’t let both of them apply the profile." It seems rather easy for me to make this mistake. In my case, I usually notice a slight (or even very slight) red shift.
Jim
The main thing is that at present you can produce accurate colour using the Driver and the profiles, so until you discover why PS is failing you, just stick with your current workflow.

Roy G
TP
Tim Porreca
Dec 10, 2005
Bill,

Your workflow with the Proof works like a charm. It’s a few more steps, but the prints look much better than letting the print driver do the work. My skin tones look much more detailed. Thanks so much for your help.

Tim

"Bill Hilton" wrote in message
Tim writes …

when I tell CS2 to manage colors and turn off color management in the print driver, my prints look like this (dull) … Like I said, the profile works when selected thru the print driver.

Looks like Photoshop isn’t applying the profile. Can you describe the steps when you "tell CS2 to manage colors" … there are several ways of doing this that work and several dozen ways that don’t work … basically there is a numeric translation of the RGB numbers in your file to match what the printer needs to duplicate those colors as closely as possible, and from the looks of the image on the link you provided I don’t think the translation happened.

One way to do this translation is to convert a copy of the file to the printer profile for that paper. A different way (most people feel a better way) is to do these steps … assign the profile as a soft proof (View – Proof setup – Custom and select the profile for the paper and ink combo, and a rendering intent like Perceptual or Rel Col) … then do File – Print with Preview – check ‘show more options’ and for ‘source space’ check ‘proof’ and for ‘print space’ select the same profile as you did for the soft proof. Then do the steps you did earlier in the print driver setup to turn off printer color management and select the right paper etc.

This will always work (make sure the ‘print space profile’ hasn’t reset after you’ve made all the printer driver changes, it has a nasty habit of resetting).

Let us know if that fixes the problem.

Bill

Master Retouching Hair

Learn how to rescue details, remove flyaways, add volume, and enhance the definition of hair in any photo. We break down every tool and technique in Photoshop to get picture-perfect hair, every time.

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