R1800 and profiles

[Hellashot]

When I was printing on my Canon i560 I found the best results came from using the Print Space for the highest quality profile of my i560. When I matched the print profile to the color space of my image I did not get as good results.

Now when I print on my Epson R1800 and I attempt to use the Epson profiles for my printer they are very "brightened" as a print preview and they print the same blown out way. I think I've found that I need to match the Color Space with the Print Space when using my R1800. This happens on images from my Drebel, taken in Adobe rgh, and my Fuji F10, taken in sRGB.

Anyone else with an R1800 find the same thing? I print out of PSE 3 putting "no color management/correction" in my printer settings - I set the color settings in PSE.

[Jesper]

I don't have the R1800 (yet..... 8) ) but I've read on other forums that Epson has new profiles available for download somewhere on their website that work better than the ones supplied with the printer on CD. You might want to check...

Also have a look here: http://www.computer-darkroom.com/ps7_print/ps7_print_2.htm

It explains how to set Photoshop colour settings when printing (look at Figure 6 on that page) and also has an explanation of how to set the printer driver settings for various Epson printers, including the R1800.

[Hellashot]

I downloaded their current printer drivers the day I got the printer.

[gkas]

Now when I print on my Epson R1800 and I attempt to use the Epson profiles for my printer they are very "brightened" as a print preview and they print the same blown out way. I think I've found that I need to match the Color Space with the Print Space when using my R1800. This happens on images from my Drebel, taken in Adobe rgh, and my Fuji F10, taken in sRGB.

I'm not sure what the printer setup should be for PSE 3, but if I remember correctly, they have the EXACT instructions in the R1800 startup guide. I get fantastic results with PSCS with the new Epson profiles. In PS the Print Preview screen is not supposed to preview color. Is your monitor profiled? It sounds like your monitor is set too dark. You then make your images too light, then they print too light.

[Hellashot]

I think I probably have my monitor set as bright as it can go.

[MTalley]

Something that might help, if you loaded the software Epson bundles with the printer. RUn "Film Factory" and look for the "Printer Profile" option. It has you step through and profile your monitor first (you can skip this step for now), then it will print a bunch of the same picture on the printer with different gamma values. From that printout, you select the image that most closely matches what you see on the monitor, then set up the printer driver to print at that gamma setting.

I did that with my R800 and it helped quite a bit. I had the opposite problem in that straight out of the box, the printer printed much too dark. For a while, I was manually setting it up to print at a gamma of 2.2 and knocking the brightness slider up to +22.

[mbze430]

sounds like its working as it should. If you are soft-proofing your images on screen with the ICC profile from the printer manufacture correctly, what you see on screen is what you will get on paper.

So if you do a CTRL+Y to get the soft-proof of the printer/paper profile, and it's blown out, fix the gamma, lightness, brightness...etc...so that its not blown out. Print it, and it will be exactly what was on screen.

This is exactly what ICC workflow is.

Maybe you think the ICC profile is supposed FIX your prints? Than sadly it's not the case.

[Hellashot]

It turns out the brightness on my monitor is way down - at 23 because I use my computer in a very dark room. Contrast is at 91. And ctrl+Y does nothing in PSE 3. So how am I supposed to print a good image if I have a dark screen and want prints to print as they look on my screen?

And here's something else. I mainly shoot RAW, and when I open a RAW file in PSE and it chooses auto settings for the adjustment of the image - it basically looks good on my screen and always has. So why is PSE taking into account my brightness setting on my monitor? or is that just dumb luck?

[mbze430]

Well unfortunately PSE 3 doesn't have a serious ICC workflow. So having the ICC profile is COMPLETELY useless to you.

If you are not ICC profiled from the beginning to the end, it pointless.

In your case the best you can do is really look at the histrogram and ideally get it within "range", and than pray to your printer's driver to print out decent images. usually it does. The only draw back is that you might waste a few prints to "get within range". but once you figure out what that range is, it should be fairly easy to duplicate. Unless of course your lighting changes in the next couple of prints.

Good Luck.

[Hellashot]

What isn't making sense is why when I go and print preview using the Epson profiles does the image look very blown out on my dark monitor? So I'm just supposed to "guess" on a brightness value to decrease all of my images to every time I print? Sounds like I should sell the Epson and keep using my cheap i560 and wait until 24" wide printers come down in price and get a Canon.

And the R1800 manual gives 2 pages for "easy photo printing from PSE 3.0" and about 6 detailed pages on how to print from Adobe Photoshop. Thanks Epson.

[mdr]

CRT monitors deteriate over time, particularly noticeable through loosing monitor brightness.

[canon2od]

Why are you blaming the printer?? I have the 1800 and have PS Elements 3 and have printed approx. 50 4X6 prints and only one bad print (and that was my mistake). All I did was follow the set up instructions in the Epson and PS manuals.

[MTalley]

And the R1800 manual gives 2 pages for "easy photo printing from PSE 3.0" and about 6 detailed pages on how to print from Adobe Photoshop. Thanks Epson.

Here's a thought. Try printing from another application other than PS or PSE. Say, for instance, MS Fax and Print Wizard, or the Epson-supplied Film Factory. What happens then?

That would take any PS or PSE profile equations out of the picture (no pun intended).

If you're running a Mac, try some other 3rd party print software.

[Hellashot]

Why are you blaming the printer?? I have the 1800 and have PS Elements 3 and have printed approx. 50 4X6 prints and only one bad print (and that was my mistake). All I did was follow the set up instructions in the Epson and PS manuals.
I'm blaming the printer because I could print fine with my Canon i560 and PSE 3 using the profiles for my i560 as the print space with no problems in print brightness. But when I use the print space profiles for the R1800 prints come out way over brightened - far more than as appears on my monitor.

And to whom mentioned CRT's going bad. My monitor is 5 years old, but it's unlikely a monitor would get BRIGHTER over time. My brightness setting is 23 out of 100 so overall it's on a dim setting not an over bright setting.

[Hellashot]

I think I've found a setting that works. I can use my print space as "RGB Colormatch" or just colormatch can't recall which, in PSE 3 print setting. In the printer driver using "color controls" with gamma at 1.8. And it seems to print pretty darn good to what I see on my screen.

And this is for an sRGB image. I have not tried an Adobe RGB image from my Drebel yet, only sRGB from my Fuji F10.

[lostdoggy]

I've read some where that color management is suppose to be turned off on the printer and allow PSCS to manage the color, but that is PSCS. I only used PSE for about a month before I upgraded to PSCS. Although I've also read that PSE is suppose to be 70% of PS I find it too simplified.