Shadow areas printing with green tint

I finally got myself a cheap printer for the house (Epson RX595), so I'm a print color noob and would appreciate some help. I've only ever sent prints to photo labs, so I've never had to deal with print color issues before.

I'm seeing a green tint in my prints, but only in shadow areas. I printed out this test image, and the colors in the color pattern look fine (close enough anyway) except for the gray square on the bottom row second from the right, which looks green. In the 0-to-20 grayscale bar toward the bottom of the image the blocks look neutral until blocks 13 through 17, and these blocks have a green tint to them that gets progressively worse from 13 to 17 and seems to be ok in 18-20. There might still be some green tint in 18, but it's too dark to tell for sure.

I've calibrated my monitor using a Spyder2Pro, but don't have printer ICC profile-generating hardware/software, so I'm using Epson's profiles for their photo paper although I'm printing on Kodak premium photo paper glossy 4x6. I see the green tint in shadow areas of my photos printing from both Lightroom v1.3 and Photoshop v7 (tried a non-ICC aware app also, but that print was a disaster, so forget that). I set my printer color management to ICM and "Off" (no color adjustment), so I don't think I'm double-profiling. I've tested the nozzles and they're fine. If it were a green color cast to the whole photo I'd have some ideas, but since it's only in dark gray areas I don't have a clue.

So anybody have any ideas? Thanks ahead of time for your help.

Problem with the 'Reference Print image' is that it has no embedded profile.
Not too good IMHO.

What have you done with it? Assign a profile?

Have a read in the link from my sig. Some more links to test images / sites there...
As well as a load of info concerning soft proofing.

Spyder2 Pro should have came w/ Printfix S/W to manually profile your printer.

How many colors (ink) do you have? Does it have a true black ink.
Have you tried any other paper other then Kodak? I don't like Kodak Paper on Epson printer, then ink don't seem to absorb right.
Have you tried cleaning the head?
Have you tried no color management (printer)?

I went to the reference image after seeing the green tint in prints of my images exported from Lightroom (LR automatically embeds a profile, right? JPGs exported from LR look different in PS than they do in non-ICC aware apps, so I assume so. Is there a way to check whether a JPG has an embedded profile?). I didn't assign a profile to the reference image--just opened it in PS and printed it with the settings I specified above.

I had already created a soft proofing profile in PS using the printer's "premium glossy" profile before posting, and the soft proof looks duller than the original as expected, but it exhibited no green tint in shadow areas. Could it just be a matter of using Epson paper instead of Kodak paper? Is it possible that the paper type could cause a color shift only in the shadow areas?

My Spyder2Pro came with Printfix. I think it was an option to purchase them as a package, but I didn't do that.

The Epson RX595 has 6 ink cartridges, and one of them is black. I haven't tried any other paper, but I'm probably going to try Epson's next. It's 3 times as expensive as Kodak's, but if it works then hey. I did a nozzle test which came out fine, so I haven't cleaned the heads (don't think it's the heads anyway since the problem only happens in shadows), and using the ICM and "Off" settings for color management supposedly turns color management off. The other 2 options besides ICM are "Color Controls" and "Photo Enhance", so ICM/Off should be the best option for what I'm trying to do, which is control the profile from the printing software, not the driver.

Printfix Pro offers the option w/ and w/o Spyder2Pro. Click HERE. But, Spyder2 Pro comes w/ printfix. Click HERE.

I get pretty good results printing on Kirkland brand Paper from Costco. Very good price too. But usually I use Epson paper.

Yohan,

If you find a solution please let us know. I've got exactly the same problem and cannot find a solution.

My colour images are fine, it's only the monochromes that give me the problem. I use Epson inks, Epson paper, Epson printer and am profiled up to the hilt.

Epson were no help at all. They pretended to be surprised and went straight into either A) Do a head clean, or B) You are an idiot and here's our standard printing waffle.

They give you B), because it's so long and basic, it stops you bothering them again. That came as a surprise, because in every other situation they have excelled themselves.

I've come to the conclusion that B/W is just a bit too difficult for a colour inkjet printer. It uses all its colours to produce the black, and just the slightest mismatch produces the cast we are both seeing.

Sadly, it has prevented me producing any B/W prints at home. If I need any, I have a good contact at a local studio who produces superb images for me.

Richard

For B/W prints you'll need a printer capable using grayscaled inks. Another solution is to change the ink to B/W specific cartridges. I think Media Street has such a product with matching profiles.

Just wanted to report back real quick. I bought some Epson "Premium Glossy" 4x6, and it fixed the problem I was having with greenish shadows. I used the same exact settings I was using before, and the problem doesn't happen with this Epson paper. I won't go so far as to generalize that all Epson printers and Kodak paper don't mix, but my printer and the Kodak paper I used definitely didn't. It's a real eye-opener for me how much the paper matters. I guess with photo paper the paper reacts with the ink, which can produce unpleasant results with the wrong combination. Gotta say that these prints are beautiful considering they came from an $80 printer. Time to go grab some 8.5x11 sheets and stretch its legs a bit!

Lowner,
I just now tried a b&w print. I can see that it's not absolutely black and white. There's a bit of tint to it, maybe red? This might be present in color prints also, but if it is it's very slight. For me personally it's not that objectionable, and framed on a wall will probably be perfectly fine. I can see whatever tint it is when I stick my nose to the photo, but from further away it looks ok. I don't have experience with b&w, but lostdoggy's explanation makes sense to me. Expecting a 6-dye inkjet with 1 black cartridge to produce perfect b&w prints might be expecting too much, so my setup is producing acceptable results for me. But if you were seeing the same shadow-only tint that I was, I believe that's a different issue than this overall red tint I'm seeing. Since my problem was fixed by using Epson paper and yours was not, the source of your problem must be something else.

lostdoggy,
Thanks for the heads-up on PrintFix. Unfortunately to do a custom profile I'd need the spectrocolorimeter hardware, which I don't have.

Yohan,

Custom profiles by an third party are not expensive to buy. Yes, you have to do a little work yourself - Print one or more test targets to exact instructions - but you do not have to own the expensive kit yourself. I paid less than £18 for my last profile.

Epson offer profiles buried in the printer driver, or you could search their web site. The top of the range pigment ink printers are well supported there, but you might get lucky. And it's free.

I gather the really accurate kit costs thousands, way more than the "hobbyist" kit on the market.

Yohan Pamudji wrote in post #4413693
I finally got myself a cheap printer for the house (Epson RX595), so I'm a print color noob and would appreciate some help. I've only ever sent prints to photo labs, so I've never had to deal with print color issues before.

I'm seeing a green tint in my prints, but only in shadow areas. I printed out this test image, and the colors in the color pattern look fine (close enough anyway) except for the gray square on the bottom row second from the right, which looks green. In the 0-to-20 grayscale bar toward the bottom of the image the blocks look neutral until blocks 13 through 17, and these blocks have a green tint to them that gets progressively worse from 13 to 17 and seems to be ok in 18-20. There might still be some green tint in 18, but it's too dark to tell for sure.

I've calibrated my monitor using a Spyder2Pro, but don't have printer ICC profile-generating hardware/software, so I'm using Epson's profiles for their photo paper although I'm printing on Kodak premium photo paper glossy 4x6. I see the green tint in shadow areas of my photos printing from both Lightroom v1.3 and Photoshop v7 (tried a non-ICC aware app also, but that print was a disaster, so forget that). I set my printer color management to ICM and "Off" (no color adjustment), so I don't think I'm double-profiling. I've tested the nozzles and they're fine. If it were a green color cast to the whole photo I'd have some ideas, but since it's only in dark gray areas I don't have a clue.

So anybody have any ideas? Thanks ahead of time for your help.

If you are printing on paper other than what the profile is for, then who knows what you will get. Try it with the Epson paper printed with the appropriate epson profile and tell us what you get.

J.

I actually totally missed the "although I'm printing on Kodak premium photo paper glossy " bit

I'm pretty sure the paper-profile mismatch is the problem. Done that before and weird things happen.

Agree