Printing to an Epson R2880 results in bad color (only from Adobe SW)

Question

I've had a nice workflow that I've used for years.  I'm sure many of you would find it a bit tedious and I won't go into the details of it, but the important part is that I always printed out of Photoshop (CS6 Extended - now at 13.0.3 - yes I have the stupid Trial window bug, but that's another matter).  My monitors are profiled (no custom printer profiles, but I've downloaded appropriate profiles from PixelGenius for those times when I've needed them, and with my color management my prints have been fairly accurate.  I use and Epson Stylus Photo R2880 and I've been very happy with it.  I mainly work on a 24" iMac (2009 vintage).  Recently I decided to change my workflow entirely based on some of the tutorial videos I've purchased from LL.  I decided I was ready to integrate much more LR into the workflow, especially now that it includes soft proofing.  Because of the new workflow I was really looking forward to printing out of LR.  That should more or less get you current.
To date, I haven't printed with my new workflow and I'd say I haven't printed anything since 13.0.1 on PS and 4.1 on LR (not that I was printing from LR at the time).  Having not printed in a while I knew I'd need a head cleaning (sure enough I did) and, as is my habit, once the head was clean, I printed (from LR) a 4x6 of the image I planned on printing at a larger size.  It catches any lingering gunk after a cleaning.  The print just didn't look right to me (too dark and the colors were a little off).  I've encountered prints with bad colors once before and it turned out to be a driver issue.  In the process I found a great image that is indicative of some kind of problem and I keep both good and bad prints of it handy... just in case.  I decided to print this image, and sure enough it came out looking like the standard craptastic version I was getting with the bad driver ages ago.  Just to check out that it didn't have to do with my new process, I printed the same image from PS (which worked fine last time I printed this image).  It too came out all wrong (the same all wrong as LR).  Since the bad prints looked just like the old "bad driver" prints, I figured I knew what was going on and worked with Epson to reset my print pipeline and reinstall my printers (I also have a Workforce 845 for "throw away" printing and for my wife to use).
With new installs for my printers in place I went ahead and printed again... and again it came out wrong.  I was, to say the least, despondent.  As a final sanity check I loaded the image up in Nikon Capture NX2 (version 2.3.1) and did a print.  All of a sudden the print came out perfect.  It matched my old "good" prints and, just as importantly, was a dead ringer for the image on the screen.  This is where I find myself.  Apparently color management is broken in my Adobe products, but works fine in my Nikon software.  I'm at a bit of a loss.  I'm 99.999999999% sure that I'm printing out of LR, and especially PS, correctly.  Anyone have any ideas?  I'd love to be able to print again.  Printing out of Capture NX2 is really not a great option.
Thanks in advance,
David

Answer 1

I agree this whole issue is confusing. I have been on the issue (proper printer driver behavior and proper application behavior) using Apple's new print path for a few years now, so I will try to make an attempt to clear up as much confusion as possible.
If drivers and applications are working (written) properly this is how it is supposed to work.
When printer manages color is selected in an application print dialog then all functions of the printer driver are available.
When applications manages color is selected then Color Matching is grayed out defaulted to ColorSync, and the property written print driver defaults to No Color Adjustment (Epson) or No Color Correction (Canon).
See attached examples of both Epson 9600 driver version 8.19 and Canon iPF driver version 2.14.
Epson can and has definitely gotten it right with their latest drivers.
Canon on the other hand uses a special case file (AppColorMatchingInfo.xml) which list the applications that use Apple's new printing path. New application like Photoshop CS5 will need to be added to this file or the driver will default to color management when application manages color is chosen which results in double profiling.
I see nothing that indicates to me that neither Apple or Adobe have problems or bugs in this printflow. Only drivers (and old drivers) that are not written correctly for Apple's new printing path seem to have these problems with double profiling. That being said, do I agree with Apple's approach regarding the new print path? NO. It appear to be an attempt to idiot proof printing using application manages color printing, although it is claimed to be necessary for 64-bit applications. I personally would prefer to use the old print path (like still available in Indesign) where all options are available in the driver regardless of what CM setting I choose in the application print dialog. But it is what it is.
Doyle