Epson Photo R1800 Problem - Dark Prints

I use JetTec compatible ink for my R1800 printer. I believe it to be a superior substitute ink.

However, I have just purchased a Spdyer3PrintSR to profile the printer output and have confirmed beyond doubt that my output photographs are very dark. This is a problem I have wrestled with for some time.

Printing the media setting check with Printer Colour Management firmly turn off, the output media setting prints are very dark. (With the colour management turned off in the R1800 as advised by the software, no correction to this is available) Subsequent attempts at profiling proved very difficult as some colours appear outside the range acceptable to Spyder3Print's measurement limits.

To get an acceptable profile which the device can easily read, it has been necessary to deselect ICM and 'No Color Adjustment' and then select 'Color Controls' with 2.2 Gamma, and + 20 Brightness. This is a very substantial correction and is not the recommended method.
However, this produces a media setting print which looks OK and allows a working profile to be produced with no problems.

The simple observation here is, "Ah, you are not using Epson ink." However, I find it difficult to believe a substitute ink from a very reputable company would be so far out.

Does anyone have experience with the R1800 and JetTec? Any ideas?

Did you have exposure problems when using Epson inks?

Monitor calibrated? How bright?
What OS / software?

Good question Rene.

Yes, monitor is calibrated using Spyder 2.

Software is the updated 4.1.1 from Datacolor.

Epson ink not used. Windows 7. Same with Vista.

Correct media settings? http://www.northlight-images.co.uk …pages/media_set​tings.html

1440 or 2880dpi?

Here's a review / checklist: http://www.northlight-images.co.uk …ofiling/spyder3​print.html

Yes, I sincerely hope so. I used 'Best Photo' but could NOT use ICM with Color Adjustment OFF as advised. Best Photo is 1440 x 1440 but that is irrelevant.

This produced a profile print out that was so dark that the scanning of the profile was almost impossible as the colors printed were obviously outside the range expected by the Colordata software.

Thus, to get the test media prints to be anywhere near close to the screen picture I had to select Color Controls, Epson Standard, 2.2 Gamma (that makes little difference if set to 1.8 ) and then set the Brightness Control to +20. This is a very large correction, it seems to me.

However, this gave an acceptable media test print and the software accepted the subsequent scanned test print with no problem and produced the profile. It is not perfect but not bad.

I have struggled with this dark print problem for some time. No one seems to have any idea what is happening other than Epson has produced a duff printer. Cannot send it back to them as they'll just tell me to use Epson ink. I'm just not that rich I'm afraid and have used JetTec ink with no problems on an Epson 2100. JetTec say their color control gives a high degree of accuracy but they would say that anyway.

However, I have no reason to disbelieve them. Their inks have a very good reputation.

Forgot to mention, media settings of course included Premium Photo Paper Semi Gloss, the recommended setting for Olmec 270gsm Heavyweight Satin

Well, as long as you use the same settings while printing, the profile should be reasonably close I think.
But I do find it strange that the patches get printed so dark they cannot be measured...

Have you tried contacting JetTec about this particular problem?

Have you tried other media settings?

No, I have not tried JetTec about this but I will.

Don't hold out much hope ....

Will let you know ...