I need some help

[NV Whino]

I've been getting very dark prints out of my printer. I've gotten advice from "experts," the Epson people at MacWorld and everybody and his dog. They all basically say the same thing: turn off color management in the printer dialog box and let PhotoShop manage the color. Sounds good, but I can find no place to do that. I downloaded a trial version of CS3 thinking maybe 7 was the problem. Nope. Same old printer dialog box. I've downloaded the latest printer driver and I still get the same old dialog box. I think maybe the printer driver is not loading properly or there's another place to choose the new one or something. Yesterday I put a jpeg back on a flashcard and inserted directly into the printer to print. Success... sort of. It was the most color-true print I've gotten, but the damned printer crops the photo and prints at less than top resolution.

I have a Mac G4, PhotoShop 7 (and CS3 for a few more days), or Nikon Capture NX, and an Epson RX620 printer. (I did learn that the printer doesn't handle RAW files yesterday, which was part of the problem, but I'm still getting super dark prints from jpegs.

Anybody got any suggestions?

Oh yeah, I'm on System 10.4.11

[Adsos Letter]

1. ...sorry I can't be of help, NV Whino...

but Happy Valentine's Day anyway... :blush:

[jhain]

3. that's what I was going to say

I can't help, but I was thinking of you just a little while ago. Daughter says I should go back to school, get a horticultural degree and move to Napa to work on a winery. Can I stay with you?

BAWAAHAHAHHAHA- if offspring ruled the world....
she has been home from san fran for 10 days and I think she is going to be sad to leave after such a long visit...

Best of luck with the printing, NV.

[ConsAreLiars]

2. Assuming the Epson printer driver interface is similar to the one on XP:

When you print something, regardless of what program is used to create the image or document, I assume you see an Epson preferences window that includes things like paper type and size and such.

On mine there is an advanced settings page that can also be viewed - in this case a button labeled "Advanced" at the bottom right.

However you get there, if you find the a section labeled "Color Management" there should be a n option to choose "ICM." Once I select that, then, by some sort of magic, there appears another range of options. The first one here is "Off (No color managememnt)."

That is the settings selection you are being advised to choose.

Whether it helps or not, who knows, but give it a try.

[NV Whino]

5. Yes, that's what I'm looking for

But, I don't seem to have that dialog box that gets me to the "advanced" setting.

The best I can come up with is the printer dialog with a drop-down for "printer features." No "off" button to be found in that section. I'm sure it's because newer printer drivers that should have the proper dialog box aren't loading--even though they say they do.

Epson is totally useless. After I received their "prompt" e-mail response 4 days after I requested help, they essentially told me to make sure my printer was plugged in and the nozzles were clean.

No more Epson printers for me. HEAR THAT, EPSON?

[China_cat]

4. It's your printer management settings

not the graphic program.

[ET Awful]

6. The printer dialog they're referring to is not the one you see when printing from Photoshop

It's the printer dialog you'd see from your printer properties outside of any program.

I don't recall where to find it in OS X to be honest, I haven't used a Mac in a long time.

In Windows, you'd find it in Control Panel/Printers.

In that printer dialog, there will be an option to disable color management on the printer or allow programs to manage color, something along those lines.

[NV Whino]

8. Thanks for the hint

I've looked in the printer set up in system preferences and not found anything, but I will look again.

[flamin lib]

7. See it this helps

Load an image and click print. This is what I see at this point:



Click Properties and under color management (upper right corner) choose ICM.



Off is the first option.

If you aren't getting these menus, I'm no help.

[NV Whino]

9. That appears to be PC dialog boxes

So here's what I have on the Mac.

Assign profile--set as everyone has told me.


Color settings--set as everyone has told me


Here's what it looks like on the monitor


Here's the PhotoShop print dialog. Note the "PhotoShop manages colors."


Here's the printer dialog and where the problem lies, I think.


This is under the "printer features" shown above and the only thing I set in this dialog box. There is nothing that I can see to turn off printer color management.


And here is the crappy results.

[flamin lib]

10. I overlooked you were using a Mac.

First screen, Assign Profile, has an option "don't color manage this document". I assume you've tried that. It appears to be the only place to turn off color management unless there's something under "printer features" in the second PRINT screen.

Sorry I'm no help.

[NV Whino]

11. Yes, I tried that

but it applies to PhotoShop not the printer.

[ConsAreLiars]

12. Here's what looks like a good step by step walkthrough.

http://www.computer-darkroom.com/ps10_print/ps10_print_3.htm

I'm pretty sure it will do what the techs and even the CS2/3 settings dialog advised.

[NV Whino]

13. Yes, that's where I need to be

However, I can't get there from here. Look at the last two print dialog boxes in my previous post. That's all I'm able to get. I threw out my printer driver, installed the latest one, restarted the computer, tried to reselect my printer and just got the same old, same old. I go to print I get the same old dialog boxes you see above that won't allow me to turn off color management. Obviously it's the printer driver and obviously I'm not installing the right one or the right one isn't getting installed.

It's driving me nucking futs.

[ConsAreLiars]

14. On the second from last printer dialog box in your screenshots

select "ColorSync." See if that brings up something similar to the second dialog box on the tutorial page.

(edit typo)

[NV Whino]

15. Nope

That one only brings up filters you can add to adjust color, which is what I don't want to do. (Tried 'em by the way--yucky results.)

[ConsAreLiars]

16. I noticed that the tutorial was for a newer version of MacOS than you

seem to have. Here is a link http://www.computer-darkroom.com/ps10_print/ps10_print_2.htm to a tutorial where the dialog box looks very much like yours. The third section - Off (No Color Adjustment) - may "finally" be The Answer. (Or not, and if not maybe as in the Mac Users forum.

[NV Whino]

17. I've tried that

All that does is turn off the color management in PhotoShop and allow the printer to manage the color, which is what I'm trying to avoid.

It looks like a two hour (on hold) phone call to Epson is in the works for Monday given that their e-mail help sucks. I know it has to be a printer driver problem.


Thanks for all the help, though, guys. It's just confirmed that the printer driver is the culprit.

[ConsAreLiars]

18. Figure 8 turns off the color management by the Printer Driver

It may not solve your dark prints, but it is the correct setting to use if you want Photoshop to handle the printing through its color management controls.

[NV Whino]

19. Figure 8?

Do you mean F8?

[ConsAreLiars]

20. Sorry. That was rather cryptic.

The reference was to the dialog box shown as Figure 8 at the tutorial page at this link: http://www.computer-darkroom.com/ps10_print/ps10_print_2.htm

[NV Whino]

21. Yeah, I get the concept.

But the problem is I don't get the right dialog box. My dialog box says "printer features" and it doesn't allow me to turn off the printer color management under the "printer features."

As I mentioned before, I totally dumped my printer info and installed what is labeled as a new driver. I still get the same old dialog box.

[NV Whino]

22. On the phone with Epson

45 + minutes on the phone. I had to go through all the "check the connection" and nozzle cleaning questions all the while trying to tell the idiot that I had done all that and I knew what the problem was, just goddamnit, tell me what driver I needed. We finally got to that point and I downloaded a driver I had not yet downloaded. (I have tried five different drivers that appear to be the most recent but not that one.) So then he takes me through throwing out the old stuff. (Twice.) Fine. Then I say do you want me to install this driver now. No, he says, go to the printer set up and remove all old printers. Fine. Then he says add the new one. I can't because, even though the printer is listed, the "add button" won't highlight. So, he says, did you install the new driver. Well, no, you told me not to do that yet. ARGH!

So, eventually getting through the installation and trying a couple of prints I figure I can tell the idiot that everything is fine so I can get the idiot off the phone. Oh another laugh. (I'm laughing, right?) While things are downloading, loading and restarting, I tell him that Epson online "support" sucks. I tell him that several times. So when he's winding up and I'm trying to get him off the phone he says if I have any more trouble to call back or go to the website for e-mail support. ARGH!

Now, the interesting thing is I'm getting better printing results by allowing the printer to manage the colors rather than the application as I have been told to do by the "experts." It's going to take some more experimentation to get the perfect result, but I have to go get some more good paper. I've run out. Can't imagine why.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

23. I have found that "experts" are

frequently wrong on computer and image issues.

[NV Whino]

24. Yes. I've been ignoring most of what I've been told

and using the driver software been printing really nice prints all day. Imagine that.