Lightroom 1.3.1 Printing Problems with Apple OSX 10.5 (aka Leopard)

Question

Whilst the majority the majority of Leopard related print issues were addressed when Adobe updated Lightroom to 1.3.1 and printer vendors released updated drivers some issues remained and it has been left to users to establish workarounds. One such proven workaround is presented below:
Information and text by Jason Hicking
I've been having exactly the same issues running a nearly identical system but on a MacBook Pro with an external Eizo 24" monitor for critical work. My results also mirror yours ie slightly greener and darker prints from LR than PS.
I've spent literally hours troubleshooting this as I own a digital imaging company that offers printing and colour management to our customers, many of whom have the same setups and same issues. Well I'm glad to say that I seem to have found a (temporary) fix. Read on and let me know your thoughts...
If you go into the Apple ColorSync Utility (in the Utilities folder on your hard drive) then follow these steps I'm pretty sure you'll get accurate prints that match Photoshops output.
Step 1 Open ColorSync Utility and click on the Devices button at the top of the window.
Step 2 Click on the grey arrow to reveal the Printers list
Step 3 Click on the grey arrow next to "EPSON Stylus Photo R2400"
Step 4 Locate the profile that relates to the media setting that was used when you created your custom profile. For example I create most of my custom profiles for gloss or satin media using the Premium Semi Gloss media setting so in Colorsync Utility I choose "SPR2400 PremiumSemigloss"
Step 5 Click on the arrow next the text "Current Profile:" and choose Other...
Step 6 From the window that opens, choose the profile that you are using to print through in Lightroom, as an example I choose "R24 IlfSmGls PSG NCA" as this is the profile I made to print on Ilford Smooth Gloss and the one I'm selecting in Lightroom.
Step 7 Click on OK to accept this change and ensure that it's actually changed in the ColorSync Utility window. If everythings OK then close Colorsync Utility and return to Lightroom.
Step 8 Print from Lightroom, choose the exact same profile and rendering intent that you would normally, click on the Print... button, make sure the preset is set to Standard then select the matching media setting and quality settings that were used to create the profile (as you would when printing from Photoshop), remember to check that No Color Adjustment is set in this part of the driver.
Step 9 Click on the Print button and in a minute or so you should get a print that matches your Photoshop output and more importantly matches your 'calibrated' screen.
Step 10 Presuming this works save this setup as a template in Lightroom for future use.
This may seem long winded in text form but it's a one time operation and I wanted to make sure that every step was included for clarity.
What I feel is happening is that there is a double profiling issue with print stream from Lightroom to the the Epson driver (v6.12) and by selecting the identical profile in both places we are ensuring that no conversion takes place in the driver, something that simply setting "No Color Adjustment" usually achieves in Photoshop and other older applications that use a different print stream to Lightroom. Also note that even when your profiles are set this way in the Colorsync Utility there is no difference in accuracy or colour when you leave it set like this and print as usual from Photoshop.
Attached screenshot of ColorSync Utility provided by Ian Lyons
A Lightroom print tutorial is also provided at: http://www.computer-darkroom.com/lr_13_print/lightroom_print.htm

Answer 1

Well, maybe, CS3 is the only one fully compatible, but Photoshop CS and CS2 will work...mostly. There are a couple of niggling little problems, but I have been able to do what I want, one way or another, with CS1. Elements 2 is, like PS7, a dead letter in Leopard, but Elements 3 and 4 work. Of course, these older programs run in Rosetta, being non-Intel native, and so my MacPro runs them at the same speed as my old G4 dual 800. I'm looking forward to a speed boost when my Xmas upgrade to CS3 is installed.
Francine
Francine
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