Printer Setup Problem - Going demented

Ballyman

I have a printing problem that’s driving me demented.

I’m using an Epson r1800 printer and I print using CS3. My monitor is calibrated. I’ve think the problem is down to whatever way I am setting up CS3 to print as the colours I am getting are all severely washed out on my prints. Here is a brief of what I do currently:
I am using Epson ink and Ilford Satin paper.
I open the file in CS3 to print it.
Select file from the menu and then select Print. The print screen pops up.
I select “page setup” and this opens the R1800 printer properties screen.
Here the options selected are
Sheet
Premium Semigloss Photo Paper
Best Photo
A4
Landscape
Gloss is ticked
High Speed is clicked
Print Preview is clicked.
ICM is selected and Off (No color adjustment) is clicked.
I now click OK and am taken back to the print screen.
Here I tick center image
I tick Scale to fit media
Match Print Colors is ticked
Show bounding box is ticked.
On the right hand side, Color Management is selected from the drop down box.
Document is selected
Photoshop Manages Colors
Printer Profile is Ilford Photo Satin
Rendering is Perceptual and Black Point compensation is ticked.
I now click Print.
Up pops the select printer screen and I select Epson r1800 and press Print
Now up pops print preview screen. Here I can see that the colours are now waaaay out of kilter and look severely washed out and I press cancel for the millionth time. If I press print then the resultant print looks ridiculous.

Can someone, for the love of god, please help me. What am I doing wrong??

Can someone please give me a step by step guide on what I need to do to print properly or point out what I am doing wrong!!

PS. I have tried to leave ICM on and sometimes I do manage to get something resembling what was on screen but I want to be able to do it properly and consistently through CS3.

Please help me jebus.

Panhour

Ballyman, I have a similar set up to you, and I use printer manages colours and Black Point compensation is Not ticked! On the last printer screen before the preview is there any presets set?

O'Coonassa

Meh..this kind of stress always used to happen me out of CS3, I only print out of QImage these days.

Ballyman

I have three things I don't understand. I probably have lots more but these three for the moment.

I am using Ilford Satin Paper and have the appropriate profiles installed onto the computer. I am using Windows Vista and obviously CS3. My monitor is calibrated:

OK, so I open a xxxxxx.tif which has been exported from Lightroom as Adobe RGB (1998)

Under Edit, Assign Profile - What should I have selected here?
Under View, Proof Setup - What should I have selected here?
And in the printing page, Under Color Handling, Printer Profile - What should I have selected here?

What does soft proofing mean? I've googled it but as I don't know anything about colour spaces it makes no sense to me. Can someone explain it to me?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

nilhg

No help with your direct question, but I'm wondering if you have tried printing the file from Lightroom (with the PS edits, LR should import it back from PS and stack it with the original)? If you have, have you seen the same problems?

Ballyman

nilhg wrote: »

No help with your direct question, but I'm wondering if you have tried printing the file from Lightroom (with the PS edits, LR should import it back from PS and stack it with the original)? If you have, have you seen the same problems?

Yea, LR gives me the same washed out print.

nilhg

Ballyman wrote: »

Yea, LR gives me the same washed out print.

If you export out the file as a full size SRGB jpeg and print it through windows does it look OK?

Is the printer connected directly to the computer with PS/LR or through a network? I've heard reports of problems if it is.

Paulw

Does your printer support Adobe RGB (1998) ?? If it doesn't, then that would explain the washed out colours. Try converting your image to RGB and see how that prints?

It sounds like it has to do with the colour profile or ICM.

Steve would be the man to give you a proper (and correct) answer. I'm just guessing.

Ballyman

Cheers for the answers. I think I've managed to get some kind of success. What I've ended up doing is

Edit>Convert> and selecting Adobe RGB (1998)
View>Proof> and selecting the paper profile here. I also have Gamut Warning ticked and now there are shaded parts on the dark parts of the photo. What does this mean?????
File>Print>Document and selecting the paper profile where it asks for printer profile.

This actually gave me a result very close to what I was looking at on the screen!! I presume if I was to get an individual paper profile I would get even closer to whats on screen? What do the shaded parts of the phot with the gamut warning mean and how can I fix it??

smelltheglove

Ballyman I am having printer nightmare problems also, I got a wide format epson 7600 but cant get it set up right.

I have contacted sheldon photographic about it and they offer a service where they will come out and set it up for you. Expensive but in my case worth it as I will then be able to do almost all my own printing including canvas, I dont know your printer so dont know if you'd want to go that route.