Dark prints from R1800 :(

[Yih Yeong]

Hi,

Not sure if anyone can help me.

I am quite frustrated after trying to get my R1800 printout match my LCD monitor. Colors are fine, the brightness of the printouts are always much darker than what I see on screen. (in PS, I have to sometimes +50 brightness to match)

Btw, my monitor is calibrated using spyder2 and I am using Epson's paper profiles. Set to no color management in printer and in PS, I let PS determine the colors.

I searched a lot of websites and some of them also can never get the brightness right on the R1800. Tried a few suggestions but so far didn't work. No reply from Epson helpdesk yet.

Anyone encounter this before?

[chankp]

What I did was: -
1) Select Adobe RGB (1998) color space all the way (camera, image processing software, printer driver)
From the print preview window: -
2) Select the right printer profile
3) Select perceptual for rendering intent
From the printer properties window: -
4) Select Best Photo
5) Select the right paper type
6) click the advanced button & select ICM for color management
7) uncheck the high speed option
And finally, print the photo

Hope this helps. Good luck.

[shutterbug]

I have R210 epson printer, and I have to brighten the photo too before print, just slightly. My monitor are calibrated too with spyder. The colours are perfect just like prints from any other pro labs.

[glensky]

i use 1800 software to print.<w the cd>got it 3 yrs back until now dont hav this prob.goodluck to u mate.

[Yih Yeong]

Thanks all for the advise!

chankp: The steps above are very helpful to me. One difference is that for the whole workflow, I am using sRGB.

For the rest, I have set the same as you, in addition:
1. From the print preview window, I selected "Let photoshop determine colors"

2. From the printer properties window, I selected "Off (No color adjustment) under ICC/ICM Profile.

Is the above correct? Thanks!
(Btw, my driver version is 6.5)

[chankp]

"Let photoshop determine colors" should be correct.
Give it a go. Good luck.
Side note: I stand corrected but as far as I know the sRGB color space is good if you send it to the lab because the lab equipment is setup for sRGB.
For inkjet you get better printout if you use Adobe RGB instead.
Just note that Photoshop allows you to change color space setting easily. You may one to try it out and see which color space gives a better inkjet finish.
All the best.

[littlefoot]

Hi, I found a website on printer calibration. Hope it helps!
http://www.normankoren.com/printer_calibration.html

Originally Posted by Yih Yeong Thanks all for the advise! chankp: The steps above are very helpful to me. One difference is that for the whole workflow, I am using sRGB. For the rest, I have set the same as you, in addition: 1. From the print preview window, I selected "Let photoshop determine colors" 2. From the printer properties window, I selected "Off (No color adjustment) under ICC/ICM Profile. Is the above correct? Thanks! (Btw, my driver version is 6.5)

[Yih Yeong]

Hi littlefoot,

Thanks for the link. I will read it and also dedicate this weekend to do more tries.

[Yih Yeong]

OK. Using a calibration test image to print, I am now able to very closely match the Monitor brightness/contrast/colors.

Before that, I have searched and used all available advice (internet forums, and above) and those solutions does not work well for my system. I have spent at least 5 hours googling. *whew* As recommended by Epson support line, I even tried Epson Easy Photo Print and it cannot make it too (at least 1-2 stops darker in print).

Through trial and error, the printouts now are very very close to monitor and acceptable to me. I let the printer do both the color determination and increase of the brightness. Whatever I see in PS is now replicable to printouts.

I have test prints a few photos and they are all good. Anyway, the screenshots are below.

[jsohhl]

Hi Guys

reference of the print step can be found here

http://tech.epson.com.au/downloads/m...ylusphotor1800

first of all to get from view to print
1) LCD monitor must be of exceptional good quality eg. Eizo, Apple Cinema Display and calibrated to the light viewing condition ( ambient light in that room which you are viewing the print)
2) printer with right media with right ICC profiles if you are using Epson Printer,
3) What kind of viewing lighting source you are using , right light source 5000k so you don have metamerism problem , which mean different light source will give you different colour tone on the image you are seeing

Epson Ultrachrome K3 ink have a very much reduce of metamerism

[Yih Yeong]

Hi jsohhl,

Thank you for the link. Very useful. However, I read through and that is the steps which I followed exactly, but resulting in darker prints. A few ppl on dpreview forum also encountered same issue.

But then again, for most people, the link above should work.

Thanks!

[Yih Yeong]

The email from Epson support:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Mr Chong Yih Yeong



Thank you for your email and we're sorry for the late reply.


We note that you're using Spyder 2 monitor calibration. This calibration is only for your monitor screen.

Other than Spyder 2 monitor calibration, are you using any other Color Management Tools for the printer?

Color Management Tools or Color Management System helps to match the screen and the printer printout.

As this item is not an Epson product, we’re unable to recommend any brands to you.

However, if you’d like to hear the opinions of Color Management from our authorized dealer – Cathay Photo Pte Ltd – we can arrange for them to contact you.

Cathay Photo has a good knowledge of color management tools in the market and can recommend one that suits to your needs.



You wrote about getting very dark printout and adjusting +30 of brightness in Photoshop to get similar brightness to your LCD monitor.



Most customers will find that the “color on screen is different from printout” and this is quite a common question.

We have this information at the site http://www.epson.com.sg/other/help/i...mmon_faq.shtml (scroll down to Q: The colors of my image on my monitor do not match the output from my printer. What is wrong?)

It is recommended that to get the images as close as possible to the images displayed on the monitor, customers need to calibrate the monitor, experiment with various Color Management Systems and settings.



How color is produced from the screen and from the printer differs.

A monitor displays color by transmitting Red, Green and Blue ( RGB ) light into your eyes.

Monitor with LCD displays and CRT displays gives different readings of RGB.

Monitor also displays a much wider range of colors than printers when they print on paper.



A printer uses Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black ( CMYK ) to represent the color.

Therefore, these two different color types will not match perfectly.



Epson Stylus R1800 is using Ultrachrome Hi Gloss ink – which is a pigment ink.

Although pigment ink are less vivid than photo dye inks – for example photo dye ink as used in Stylus Photo 1290 – pigment ink are more durable and water resistant when compared to photo dye ink.

Photo Black ink is suitable for most paper types, especially photo prints on Epson glossy paper.

And Matte black ink is perfect for high quality prints on Epson matte paper and plain paper.



We hope this information has clarified to your queries.
If you need any further clarification, please let us know.



Thank you.

[TME]

I also suffer from much darker prints from the R1800 compared to what I see on screen. However my screen is not calibrated using a hardware colour calibration equipment. I only use the Adobe Gamma software once in the past to calibrate the 19" SONY CRT monitor that I have been using. So I also have to push the brightness right up to get a decent print which is still way too dark... having heard Yih Cheong's case, I think I will reprint some of my photos with more agressive brightness settings in Photoshop CS to see if it makes a difference...

[tao]

Guys, it is not just about the screen/printer calibration.

Most of the time, you got to check the histogram of your image in your editing software, say Photoshop.

When the highlights in your images are lacking (ie. image is underexposed), your images will naturally turn out much darker than what you see on screen.

[Yih Yeong]

Originally Posted by TME I also suffer from much darker prints from the R1800 compared to what I see on screen. However my screen is not calibrated using a hardware colour calibration equipment. I only use the Adobe Gamma software once in the past to calibrate the 19" SONY CRT monitor that I have been using. So I also have to push the brightness right up to get a decent print which is still way too dark... having heard Yih Cheong's case, I think I will reprint some of my photos with more agressive brightness settings in Photoshop CS to see if it makes a difference...

Also: Try setting the increase of brightness at the printer driver and have no adjustment at PS.

[TME]

Originally Posted by Yih Yeong Also: Try setting the increase of brightness at the printer driver and have no adjustment at PS.

Actually the photo looks perfect on screen. I refer only to brightness (not colour). So in terms of the histogram, it's fine. I post-process the photo before printing. I seldom print as is... I am fine with the colour turned out by the printer - of course it does not match the screen perfectly since the monitor is not properly hardware calibrated. But the shift is slight and acceptable to me. The only quibble is the brightness now...

My settings are to let Photoshop do all the adjustments and switch off colour management by the printer. I also tried allowing the printer to do the adjustments and switch off all colour management by Photoshop. The results are identical. So I guess either it's the monitor calibration (which usually affects colour drastically) or it is an inherent issue with the R1800...

I will go try some permutations tomorrow when I have the time and report back. Will try shifting the Brightness slider to +30 or so...

[Umeiko]

It seems that monitor also plays a part in colour management. I tried to use a free utility to do monitor calibration but could not really achieve it.

Do you guys have any good monitor to recommend?