Simple workaround for Epson 3800 printing too dark

I've read the threads over the last year on this topic with interest. I have a 3800, run CS3 on a Mac Pro, OS 10.4.11, do regular monitor calibration have, custom profiles and am an experienced Photoshop & Mac user. My colour prints are way too dark, independent of the paper used, but since B & W prints are perfect I assume I can rule out monitor brightness as the problem. After tearing my hair out & getting as much expert help as I could in NZ & reading all I could find online, I've come to the conclusion that for some unknown reason, some 3800s just have this problem. My workaround is to duplicate the flattened image, setting blend mode to screen at between 15 & 25%, depending on the image. With experience I can now quickly gauge the % required – if I'm not sure, I run some test strips. Sure, it's not a particularly "scientific" solution, but it's quick, easy & it works. If others out there are still struggling, I hope this helps.

Just sorted my problem using the suggestion on this site>
http://www.photographyri.com/index.php/2008/11/11/photoshop-cs4-vs-cs2-print-engine-proble
I reset my printer as the Default Printer and now the prints are exactly(!) what I'm seeing on the monitor.
Wonder what the reset does apart from cure a bug?
Brill!
D.

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PS 6 & epson 3800 prints too dark

All prints are TOO Dark with PS 6 on Epson 3800 (using 27" IMac OS10.6) no matter what I have tried; HELP

I can print ok from Microsoft Word
Screen has been calibrated with Spyder
How do I fix this?
Thanks
Sidney S. Horowitz
Sent from my iPhone

Drivers for Epson 3800 printer

Hi, I am just beginning to learn how to print and would like to set up my Epson 3800, print from Lightroom, using Leopard. From reading all the issues folks have had, my first question is this: Should I even download the drivers that came with the printer, or do I use the new ones available on the Epson site? I gather paper profiles are included on the CD that came with the printer--would those also be on the download from the Epson site? Having never set up a printer to begin with, any help would be greatly appreciated.

OK ... A difference! In ColorSync Utility, I clicked on Devices, expanded Printers->Epson Stylus Pro 3800->Pro38 PLPP. Then, clicked the drop down for "current profile" associated with this paper, and chose Other and navigated to the Pixel Genius Epson Exhibition Paper profile, because this is the profile I want to use with EFP paper from LR. The driver paper selection is PLPP. Now it's associated with the profile I want to use. If I were to ever want to use PLPP paper, I would have to remember to reverse this in ColorSync I presume. NOW ... I went into LR and proceeded as if I would print using the PG profile from LR. When I went into the driver, I clicked on Preview and low and behold .... NO more green cast!! I can assume the output to the printer would be OK. Whether the PG profile is doing its job from LR, I don't know for sure. It looks from Preview the same as if I had specified Pro38 PLPP in LR. Anyone??
EDIT: I've CONFIRMED it! The ColorSync workaround DOES fix the 3rd party profile problem in LR! I specified Pro38 PLPP as the profile in LR, compared it with the PG Preview and there was a difference, proving that the PG profile was being used to render the print output from LR, now without the color cast.
BINGO! Just printed out the previous problem image, and it printed exactly as shown in Print Preview specifying the PG profile in LR for Epson EFP (which says to use PLPP in the driver, but that paper is now associated with the PG profile via the ColorSync Utility). At least there's a workaround fix to the the color shift problem printing from LR!
TIP: As learned from Jeff Schewe in his Camera to Print tutorial, remember to set Print Sharpening to High in LR to achieve printer output sharpening.

Epson Stylus Pro 3800 - Prints too dark.

I had a Hewlett - Packard pigment ink printer and until it bit the dust, it printed very accurate, beautiful and to the display prints. I have a cheap Canon printer that puts out prints that can match the display too. I just purchased a new Epson Stylus 3800 printer and my prints are much too dark, too much contrast and ever so slightly posterized.
I am using Photoshop CS2. I have checked and I believe the drivers on my printer are current. I have tried letting the printer determine colors as well as letting Photoshop determine colors and turning off the printer controls in the print setting dialogue. The prints are OK - ish, but just not what's on screen and not what I want them to be. My screen is calibrated well enough. It is not paramount that my prints be totally and completely like the display but close.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you one and all for all of this valuable advice. I have a professional coming in to tutor me. I know I can love this printer and want it to work for me as it works for some of you.
Ralph: The 3800 IS set as my default printer. I think I have the most recent drivers but am not positive because I can't find the driver folder to check the version. I know . . . . please bear with me, I try very hard. I have crashed three computers (crashed to the point of needing to be reformatted) and have learned the hard way, be careful when you download.
I used the in house (display calibration device) to calibrate my monitor. I feel it will do well enough for what I want to accomplish. The white point is set at 6000 and I set the tgarget gamma at 2.2 because I found the Mac Standard 1.8 made the display too bright.
My step by step printing settings are pretty basic: I use the embedded profile on one it is sRGBIEC61966-2.1 and on the other it is Duotone. Print With Preview, Let Photoshop Determine Colors, Black Point Compensation checked, and Rendering Intent set to Relative Colormetric. In the Printer Profile: I use the profile I downloaded from the paper's site OR an Epson profile. In the printer driver dialogue I make sure the 3800 is the chosen. Printer Color Management: I check the radio button for Off (No Color Adjustment) In the Print Settings dialogue (I have tried many with the same results.) The closest I came to what I wanted is when I used the front manuel feeder setting, with Velvet Fine Art Paper and checked Advanced Setting, Superfine - 2880 dpi and unchecked High Speed.
For the Let Printer Determine Colors I used Relative Colormetric. In the Printer Color Management I checked Color Controls. In Print Settings I used the same as above, Velvet Fine, Advanced and 2880dpi with High Speed off. The results were similar to the Photoshop settings but both were still too dark with very faint posterization in the gradients.
I have tried many combinations and I always go back to be sure, if I am letting Photoshop do the colors, to check and see if Off (No Color Adjustment) is still checked.
Jeff: Again to all and to you Jeff, thank you for your input. I AM trying but it's difficult. Around here there aren't many with the kind of expertise you have and so I have tried to learn this on my own. All I want to do is print my things. Just get the printer to do my things . . . . one good print at a time.
Sorry this is so long. I am going to get booted now. My server is going off-line to do upgrades. I am receiving my internet through low frequency microwaves and the little start up wants to make it better.
Thank you all for this helpful advice. I will now try to digest it.
Mary Ellen
If anyone knows were I can find the driver folder (exactly) I will look for it. When I open the Epson Utility it says Epson Printer Utility2 3.57 . . . . when I go to the Epson download site it says the version of the driver offered is 3.57 and so I think that I've got the right version.

Epson r1900 Prints too dark after upgrading to cs5 from cs3

Ok this one has got me stumped. While still in photoshop CS3 my epson r1900 was printing photo's just fine. After upgrading cs3 to Photoshop cs5 it now prints everything too blue. Nothing else has changed. My monitor is still calibrated, my printer paper profiles are still the same, the only change was upgrading to cs5. To me it looks all the world like ICM is being applied twice (in photoshop and the printer) but in photoshop I have selected "photoshop manages colors" just like I did in cs3, and in the print dialog box for the printer, I have selected no ICM again just like I did in CS3. But now the prints come out with a, to my eye, dark blue tint. Very very frusterating. I have deleted the color prefs file and let that recreate, but that did not help either. I am out of tricks. Any suggestions?
Thanks
Patrick

There were a lot of reports of "double profiling" with Epson printers when Photoshop CS5 was first released. I believe many people were seeing magenta-looking prints at that time.
Unfortunately, I don't think there was ever a resolution or even a good workaround... I recall at least one person bought a new printer to be able to continue to work.
Of course, double check to see whether Epson has released any updated printer drivers.
As I don't have an Epson myself, I can only suggest that you'll want to experiment with your settings to see if you can find a way to disable color management in the printer driver, so that only Photoshop does it - or disable color-management in Photoshop so that only the printer driver will do it.
-Noel

Epson R1800 prints too dark with PS CS5

I have been using Photoshop since version 2.5 updating each version.
I have a trial version of PS CS5 12.0.1. I have been trying to print from it but have been unable to get anything other than dark prints. I have carefully checked everything, used lots of ink and paper (Epson Ultra Premium Luster).
I have downloaded and reinstalled the Epson driver (6.12) several times. Deleting the printer and reinstating it again after the new driver is downloaded. I'm on a Mac Pro 3GHZ, 10GB running 10.6.4.
I have re-calibrated my monitor using a Spyder3 and using the Apple calibration. Both yield a very similar calibration.
I have carefully gone over and tried the solutions (2 and 3) offerred at: http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/834/cpsid_83497.html
I have tested the printer using other software and the prints come out fine.
I have searched everywhere for a solution. Is it possible to use 10.6.4 and CS5 and an R1800 to get decent prints? CS4 worked just fine.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

I have the R800 and was only able to get satisfactory results was to let the printer manage the colors as opposed to the "correct" way of PS doing it. It's a workaround at best. Luckily I have an R2400 here also. I've relegated the R800 to non-critical work.
See here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3669
There doesn't appear to be a real epson driver.
Regards,
Denny

CS4 - Epson R2400 - Printing too dark.

System: Vista x64
Monitor calibration: Eye One Display and basICColor Display software - profiled to basICColor's PrePress setting. Luminance is 130.
Paper: Hahnemuhle 'Photo Rag Pearl' (with Hahnemuhle's profile) and Permajet 'Oyster' (with Permajet Profile)
Settings in Print Dialog are: Photoshop Manages Colours, Paper profile selected, Perceptual Rendering Intent, Best Photo, ICM, Colour Management OFF (no colour management), Paper Type selected.
Image is perfect in Photoshop window and perfect in Print Preview, but prints about a stop under and with a cast.
What can I do to get prints that come close to what I'm seeing?
Right now I can only get them if I brighten them such that, in ACR, the file would be way overexposed.
This is very odd. CS3 was much better.
Any ideas?
Can I create a profile for my CS4/Vista x64/R2400/Paper Choice combination that will get me what I'm seeing on the screen? If so, how do I do this?
Thanks.
D.

Just sorted my problem using the suggestion on this site>
http://www.photographyri.com/index.php/2008/11/11/photoshop-cs4-vs-cs2-print-engine-proble
I reset my printer as the Default Printer and now the prints are exactly(!) what I'm seeing on the monitor.
Wonder what the reset does apart from cure a bug?
Brill!
D.

Epson prints too dark from LR on color managed MacBook Pro?

Hi all,
I have a newish MacBook Pro, calibrated with Spyder2, and printing to an Epson 2200. The prints are too dark, and don't really come close to matching the screen in LR. I've brought the images into PS2 for soft proofing, but the prints are still far too dark. It's not just out of LR, but DPP as well. I found this topic:
http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx/.3bc44027/28
Tthat seems to describe my problem, but it seems to be Adobe-specific. Doug doesn't say if he's tried printing from other apps. I use Epson's custom profiles, which actually seem to be worse than the standard profiles that come with the driver.
A new twist seems to be that profiled jpg images with sRGB profiles exported from LR also print too dark when I had them sent out for printing, which leads me to think that my screen is not profiled correctly, or there's some weird flaw in the Mac's color management engine that skews everything.
My first question: When I profile my screen using Spyder2, I have the brightness set at maximum. Should I bring it down, and if so, how far? The Spyder2 help says use "Factory Defaults", but the MBP ships with brightness set on auto-adjust based on ambient light levels.
My second question: Are there others who have this issue? Have any of you resolved them successfully, and if so, how?
Thanks!
Timmy

Time for a reality/sanity check for those who complain that "the "prints are too dark from my Epson printer"!
If you will just reduce your monitor's white-point luminance to the range of 80-90 cd/m2 when you edit your images, it's almost certain that the problem will be solved (assuming you're not making some other error in color management setup). Many people conclude that their problem must be a generic failure or defect of Epson printers (i.e., compared to HP, etc)-- or that the Epson paper profiles are defective. Well, perhaps there's some element of truth to that conclusion--to the extent that Epson printers have evidently been designed with typical professional editing environments in mind (i.e., the low brightness levels to which "serious" printers adjust their monitors and ambient lighting). Why would they do that: Well, who wants to spend many hours each day looking at the glare of a 200 cd/m2 monitor screen (and the reflections from a brighly lighted room)?
So, for getting "monitor-matching" prints from printers such as the SP 2200, you simply need to work (edit) with your images in a more-or-less "dimly lit" room using a monitor that is properly adjusted for such a low-light environment--(i.e., the screen luminance not higher than 90-100 cd/m2). Of course even with such a reduced screen luminance, the light used for print-viewing must be sufficiently bright(**)
It's possible that your monitor cannot be adjusted to the necessary (low) luminance level--or that you haven't any means to measure the luminance level. Those are correctable hardware issues, although may require $$.
(**)please note that a fairly bright viewing light is needed for prints (made as suggested above) to appear to be a reasonably close "match" to the monitor image.
Phil

The Epson 3800 printing dark problem Windows XP and 7

CS-4 on a dual boot machine that used to have an Epson 2200 (it died) connected that didn't have the problem with some of the same files.
Like many, I am having the "prints too dark problem. Does the European driver v. 6.61 September 3, 2009 (US driver is 6.50) solve the problem?
The copy the layer and set blending option to screen helps a bit.
Drop down to 8-bit color and lighten via Variations helps a bit.
Would transfering the files to another computer and printing through CS original or the version before that help?
I am following, step by step the manual, setting. Proof colors set to the paper, Driver shows proper paper. Driver color management turned off with Photoshop manageing the color, etc.
Any other suggestions?
Thank you and have a happy Thanksgiving.
Bill

Cured.
Uninstalled "latest and greatest" driver.
Reinstalled the older one on the included CD.
As I use Prophoto color space, now make sure that the gamma=1 in the driver settings.
Problem cured.
Bill

Images print too dark from Photoshop CS2 and CS3

Having used both CS2 and CS3 I now realise that the prints that I work on in either appear much brighter on the screen that they do when printed, as much as 3 stops darker when printed. I have also noticed that in other programs such as Google Picasa that I use as a viewing tool the images appear closer to the images from the printer. I have used various pro-labs that require their profiles to be used and my own epson 3800 printer at home and despite trying lots of different settings I am unable to get prints that look like they do on the screen they are always darker.
I am using windows XP on a dual core 2.4 PC with 2 Gb ram and an ATI Radeon X1600 series grafix card which I have just updated the driver on. The monitor is an LCD type and is calibrated weekly using a spyder 2 express.

First isolate whether your display is too bright or your printer is too
dark. I'd start by printing images from another source and see if they
look as they should. www.drycreekphoto.com has a number of calibration
images that should do for this purpose.
Once you've isolated the problem, we can take it from there.

Illustrator PDFs print correctly from PC, but print too dark from Macs

Photoshop and Illustrator PDF files (CS5 & 6) print correctly from my work PC, but not either of my Macs. See below:
At work, I have a Dell PC and an iMac, at home I have a MacBook Pro.
At work there is a big office color Ricoh printer for the Dell and iMac, at home I have a Epson 3-in-one laserjet for the MacBook Pro.
Both the work and home Macs will print Illustrator/Photoshop PDFs very dark/undersaturated/off color on their relative printers, but the work PC prints them correctly.
At work, If you hold up a print of a PDF file printed from the Dell PC, and one printed from the iMac, they are completely different looking - the Dell print matches the Dell and iMac screens, but the iMac print is very dark and dull.
At work, when I open a Illustrator or Photoshop PDF on the work PC and send it to the Richo printer, it comes out perfectly matching the screen, but, if I open it on the iMac and send it to the Richo printer, it prints too dark/off color.
These are the *exact* same PDF files I am opening on both the PC and the iMac - our files are saved on a server so I'm accessing the same documents on both machines.
Also, I create the files on the iMac and save them to the server on the iMac, but if I open them on the iMac it prints too dark, and if I open them on the PC, it prints correctly.
At home on the MacBook Pro, the prints are also much darker than the screen (despite color calibration with a ColorMunki as well as following all Epson's color calibration steps) and I see a similar color problem as printing to the work printer from the work iMac.
Someone please tell me this is just a printer profile thing and I can go in somewhere on my Macs and switch something so they print the same as the PC does!
Thank you in advance for explaining why my Macs are making me pull out my hair!

the iMac it prints too dark
your print space is off on the Mac
or you are applying the wrong source profile or both
on the MacBook Pro, the prints are also much darker than the screen (despite color calibration
EDIT: sorry i misread that as your monitor was also dark, if the mac displays the problem doc proper, you are targeting a bad print space, that's where i would look...
you app is apply the wrong source profile (or your monitor profile is off)
basing the source>print space conversion on the wrong source profile could account for your printing woes
be sure you are embedding an ICC profile in your doc, are opening it in a color-managed app, and it should display properly
be sure your workflow uses the embedded profile and your printer is setup to convert to the proper printer profile
color management theory
epson workflow

Some images printing too dark

I have two cameras that I use with iPhoto 6.0.4. A Canon G4, and a Pentax ist D. In iPhoto both cameras have nice looking images. The images from the Canon make beautiful prints, but the Pentax images print too dark. How can I fix this? Can I set different printing preferences for each camera?

whenever I calibrate my iMac with the Spyder2 hardware, I have to calibrate it twice because I always forget to turn off the Screen Saver and the Energy Saver 'Put Screen to Sleep' option.
another important thing about calibration. where is your 'book located during the calibration? what lights or on or off? is there any direct sunlight shining on the 'book?
personally, I prefer to calibrate at night with all lights turned off. if I calibrate at day, I shut the tinted doors and turn all (fluorescent) lights off. I realise that you are supposed to calibrate under your normal lighting conditions but I prefer this method

Exported Jpeg's when sent to photo lab print too dark

I have had consistent results with exported jpeg images that look fine on my monitor (as raw files)and show in the histogram in lightroom 2.5 as the highlights just starting to clip as printing too dark when sent to a photo lab in SRGB. Is this a fault of my monitor? I have calibrated the monitor, a Dell S2409W, using charts on the website at http://www.normankoren.com/makingfineprints1A.html but this still happens. Will darkening the Monitor help or will the images still clip at the same point? I have been able to send a second image with the exposure and or brightness boosted a bit and they print brighter, but this is a pain. What is the best way to correct this so that I can see the same image as I get back from the lab?

hello henrykipson,
you said that you want starting an professional laboratory business,i can talking about this because i had a laboratory until some years ago .i hope that you made some artistic study,so it's more easy for you to learn this topic.you must study,an pass an examination for take an artigianal licence that allow you to open this activity ,the licence given you the opportunity to work either for sale photografic material either to shoot and developing,one time that you had pass this examination you must gone to the police autority and inform these of your business (is under police control.because you work with chemical material,and also because you had a reservate people information,and they must given you their assent.)after all you can start to buy a good developer and print machine beyond to have a dark room.for manual print.you must decided if do you want work in black and white or color.You can do both but is better to specialize by one of them ,like you want.
Remember from the digital events many people print his image at home,you must deciding maybe is better to work with a professional photographer,that can given you more work.itsn't easy.you must have a good preparation because ,they are more exigent.The good results depend also from the quality of your works.a good machine,good chemical product,good upkeep,of your laboratory.(in italy this is the procedure,i think also in other country,because is a ticklish question licence.)I hope that this my little explanation are useful to you.Good luck .
cheers alessandra minotti

Epson 3800 Printer & Photoshop CS4

I've had the snow leopard disc since it came out some 6 months ago, but haven't installed it due to so many issue that I've read about.
1) Is anyone using snow leopard successfully with the Epson 3800 Printer? Epson has yet to release (if they ever will remains a mystery for owners of this printer) a full-fledged update for the driver.
2) Is anyone using Photoshop CS4 with snow leopard without issues?
Thanks.

Well Adobe did it again offering a discount to convert to CS5 just before they released a new version of PSE that is PSE9 for mac
Tested it and the colours come out perfectly just like CS5 and they acutally left in the option on the print screen to select "NO COLOUR MANAGEMENT". In CS5 they pulled it out and as PSE9 appears to be made up of CS5 they must have back tracked on this option after the yelling and screaming from the community.
However we now have(another problem) an issue with grey/cyan printing outside the image area being printed see
http://forums.adobe.com/message/3172635#3172635
cheers.

C309g-m printer, prints too dark

My printer always prints too dark.
The prints never come out like they look on the screen. I can manually change the lightness of the photo to compensate, but it would be nice if there were settings I could change in the printer instead.
Any advice would be nice..thanks!

What paper quality and paper type settings are you using? If you are printing on plain paper but have selected a photo paper then the result will be oversaturated. Also if your application gives the choice of RGB or CMYK then choose RGB. (The printer uses CMYK inks, but the driver is expecting RGB data.)
What operating system? Your driver may have settings for Advanced Color Control. In the Windows 7 dr.iver this would be found in Printing Preferences, Color, More Printing Options. You can change the brightness and saturation as shown in the sliders here:
Bob Headrick, HP Expert
I am not an employee of HP, I am a volunteer posting here on my own time.
If your problem is solved please click the "Accept as Solution" button ------------V
If my answer was helpful please click the "Thumbs Up" to say "Thank You"--V

Simple workaround for Epson 3800 printing too dark

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