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Thread: Screen Calibration & Printing 2

  1. #1

    Join Date
    Nov 2011
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    Neil

    Screen Calibration & Printing 2

    Rather than hijack the first thread can I also ask for observations and help.

    I have an Epson 1290 from which I got superb, exhibition quality, prints using Photoshop with correct ICC paper profiles, a calibrated monitor and no involvement with colour correction in the printer.
    This was using Windows XP but when I upgraded to Vista I got dreadful colour casts, only way to get a decent print was to let the printer manage the colours. I have since upgraded to Windows 7 and the same thing happens.
    I have a calibrated monitor, Spyder 3, correct paper profile available in Photoshop but if I use what I would consider the correct workflow I get a really bad blue cast with a dark print, but same image let printer manage colours and bingo I get prints that win camera club comps.
    I am happy that I can get decent prints but I would really like to know why I can't do this like I used to. I use Ilford Galerie Smooth Pearl with all the setting as per the Ilford website.

    Anyone any ideas what I am doing wrong?

    MOD EDIT - The other thread to which Neil refers in his first sentence above, is here.
    Last edited by Donald; 9th February 2012 at 02:46 PM.

  2. #2
    herbert's Avatar
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    Alex

    Re: Screen Calibration & Printing 2

    Hi Neil,

    My first two thoughts for possible culprits are:

    1. The Vista/Windows driver for your printer does not totally disable the colour management. Thus you are getting a bit of double colour management.
    2. You may have a bad profile that is being used by Photoshop.

    I am not sure what to do about #1. You could dig around some more in the print dialog settings to see if there is anything else you could turn off. The printer is quite old (2002) so maybe the drivers are not supported. A quick look on the Epson page for this printer does not list any drivers for Windows 7:

    http://www.epson.co.uk/Printers-and-...ivers-Support#

    I followed the link through to another page where it states that the drivers are canned within Windows itself. You add the driver using the 'Windows 7 Add Printer wizard'. Unfortunately I do not know if the driver was written by Epson (and likely to work) or Microsoft (and less likely to work).

    Perhaps just try uninstalling the printer and reinstalling. The wizard may ask if you want to connect to the internet to get the driver. This should ensure that the latest one is installed.

    To test #2 you could try a soft proof within photoshop. If you get the same cast in the soft proof then it may be that Photoshop is using a bad profile. Thus everything it sends to the printer will be bad too. This will require you to source out some new profiles for the printer.

    Alex

  3. #3

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    Neil

    Re: Screen Calibration & Printing 2

    Thanks for that, problem is this has happened with two computers and two versions of Photoshop CS4 & CS5. I am starting to think it must in some way be the printer its self, though I have no idea why or even how.
    I am happy that I can get decent prints but, being a curious person, I would like to know what could cause this.

  4. #4
    darkslide's Avatar
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    Ian (the other one)

    Re: Screen Calibration & Printing 2

    Just breezed in from the original topic - you know, I saw the light was on so I thought I'd drop in and say "Hi"

    "Hi"

    Back to reality - I think the idea of softproofing should point me in the right direction too (If I ever get my head around what the softproofing is trying to tell me) and I'm keen to try this at the weekend. However, if there is a noticable difference, modifying the printer settings is going to be fun...

  5. #5

    Join Date
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    Neil

    Re: Screen Calibration & Printing 2

    I have tried soft proofing and it looks OK colours don't change just a few bits of out of gamut warning but nothing like the horrid cast I get on the print. Interestingly enough the "out of gamut" warnings are all in the very dark green colours.
    Just at a total loss to explain it

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