Very dull colours with Epson R2400

[chaseroonie]

Hi everyone
I've just bought an Epson R2400 for large format printing for portfolios and the like and am finding that all the prints coming off it have very muted and dull colours - nothing like those i see on screen. I have up until now used a Canon Pixma ip5200 and the colour reproduction is great. All my screens are calibrated correctly. I use CS2 and have tried "Let Printer determine Colours" and "Let Photoshop determine Colours" with Printer profile as "Working RGB" and also with the ICC profile "SPR2400 Premium Glossy" (the Paper I am using), yet still the prints come out looking as though they've faded in the sun really badly. I realise one way out of this is to get some printer profiling done but before i spend money on doing that i wondered if anyone could offer and guidelines from their experience as to how to get better colours?
Big thanks in advance,
Charlie

[Costas L]

Hi everyone
.... I use CS2 and have tried "Let Printer determine Colours" and "Let Photoshop determine Colours" with Printer profile as "Working RGB" and also with the ICC profile "SPR2400 Premium Glossy" (the Paper I am using), ....
Charlie

Welcome to the forum Charlie

The print with preview options should be

Print : document selected

Colour handling: "Let Photoshop determine Colours"

Printer profile: "SPR2400 Premium Glossy"

Try rendering intent: relative colorimetric as well as Perceptual


In the printer (properties) driver options, you need to select ICM then lower down make sure ICC/ICM profile, you have the OFF (no colour adjustment selected)

If that does not help post some more info, I am sure someone will be able to point you in the right direction.

[chaseroonie]

Thanks Costas.
I have all the Color Handling/Printer Profile/Rendering as you say.
Then for the next bit where do i go?
Page Setup
Printer
Properties
Then where?
I don't see anywhere to select ICC...
Cheers
Charlie

[Costas L]

Page Setup
Printer
Properties
Then where?
I don't see anywhere to select ICC...
Cheers
Charlie

In the Epson printer properties box - select the "Main tab"

bottom right; is there a button labeled "Advanced", you need to press that and the "main tab" box changes to show you some more options such as those I mentioned.

[bez]

Charlie
As Costas says, in CS2 your Printer Profile should be the paper profile, not Working RGB
Getting some custom paper profiles will only make a very small difference, if any. Most of the ready-made ‘canned’ ones work very well.

Choosing Perceptual or Relative Colorimetric rendering intent generally has very little effect on the colours, although if you uncheck ‘Black Point Compensation’ this will alter your shadows somewhat, so leave it ticked.

Another option is to try printing out a known test file, such as Vincent’s, top left on page 4 of the R1400 review. Click on the image to download it. http://www.photo-i.co.uk/Reviews/intera ... age_4.html
This will tell you if the fault lies with your printing setup, and not elsewhere.

[chaseroonie]

Hey Guys
I managed to lacte the ICM etc that Costas was talking about and after making the necessary adjustments ran a print off. Amazing! the difference is astounding and the colours are true to screen. Looks like i'm set now - just need to make a note of it all! Can't thank you all enough.
Cheers. Great forum and this will be my port of call for any issues/chat in the future!
Charlie

[Costas L]

Come back and chat anytime Charlie - we are always interested in how others are getting on with a printer.

[wrg]

I was having the same trouble with my prints. I found this topic, made the necessary adujstments and now have much better pictures. Thanks very much for the info here - much appreciated.

[Costas L]

Welcome to the forum wrg

Good to hear you have been able to make good use of the information posted here. If yoy have any tips for others, please be sure to post - after all thats how we all learn to improve what we are doing.