Awful Color on Epson 2200 after Snow Leopard Upgrade

Question

I'm an experience photographer and printer who has done extensive printing on the Epson 2200 under previous versions of the OS using CS4. As a beta tester for Snow Leopard I had used it extensively on another machine before the release, so I did not hesitate to upgrade my photography production computer as soon as it was available this past weekend.
The problem I now have is that print colors are all wrong - very greenish (bluish?), which is typically a symptom that nothing is managing the printing out of PS. (Reddish/purplish prints are often a symptom that color is being managed by both PS and the printer's own software.) I have changed nothing else in my workflow or printing process besides doing the upgrade - I have a solid workflow process that works consistently and accurately, or should I say it DID work so until the upgrade.
I have installed the updated 2200 drivers from the Epson web site. I have removed and re-added the printer in the preferences panel. Still no joy.
Help? Advice? Anything to try that I haven't thought of yet?
Thanks in advance,
Dan

Answer 1

Thanks for offering a possible solution - but it doesn't work if one prints in the recommended way out of PS CS4 and lower. The normal and correct way to print is (as the person following your post mentioned) to select "Photoshop Manages Colors" by selecting this option in the first print dialog box, click the "Print" button at the bottom left to bring up the next "Print" dialog window, use the "Color Management" tab and select "No Color Adjustment."
The awful print is just as it was before the process you described, I'm afraid.
Are you perhaps choosing "No Color Management" in the first print window and then "Color Controls" from the "Color Management" dialog in the second window? This turns color control over to the printer, which is not the best or most accurate way to print. With this option I do, as I mentioned earlier, get a print that is "less awful" than the horribly bad dark green/blue and unusable version when I print the correct way - but the colors are not right. The effect may be subtle if you are not very critical about printer output, but I'm comparing a print made a few days before the upgrade to the best I can get using this second-best method and the print is noticeably bluer and darker - not consistent with the print output I need.
The Gutenberg option sounds interesting, but I have yet to hear of anyone getting a simple and consistent method of precisely duplicating the results using the normal "Photoshop manages colors" approach. And with high quality printing, consistent and predictable results are absolutely critical.
One person reported online that he had contacted Epson, whose representative told him to "get a new printer - do you expect us to support a printer that is six years old!?" Very bad attitude and awfully poor customer support if true. If I ask Epson today how long their new printers will last, do you think they'll tell me "no more than six years after the printer was first introduced?" And don't forget that most of the prints were not purchased on the day of introduction "six years ago," but were purchased perhaps several years after that. If this continues to play out this way, one would be very wise to reconsider purchasing any Epson printer but the very newest model right after introduction - and it might be a better idea to compare support with other manufacturers of excellent photo printers. HP photo printers are every bit as good as Epson and Canon has been doing an increasingly fine job recently.
It also doesn't help that the Epson site is completely silent on the subject of this and many other printers relative to Snow Leopard. I would not like it, but if they really don't intend to support the 2200 and other printers, where is the list of those that they no longer support? (Apple issues such a list from time to time.)
Dan