Hi! I am a Poser artist and made a card for my husband's birthday. The colors are great on my monitor which is a 22" Gateway Diamondtron NF CRT. I printed to my Epson 880 color inkject, which usually prints fine on glossy photo paper, but my pic came out darker and with a purple cast instead of the red car and natural skin colors. What is causing this? My monitor or printer? How can I fix it? Thanks, Sherrie PS .I use Photoshop CS2.

Attached Link: calibration tutorial

Hi Sherrie, I would first check your monitor and see if it's calibrated. There used to be a link here with an image that is useful for calibrating your monitor... here it is... http://www.renderosity.com/mod/tutorial/index.php?tutorial_id=77 I'm sure there are software packages out there that calibrate for you, but this works fine IMO. My images print the same as they look on my screen. Hope this helps! =)

Color management is the subject of countless tutorials, articles and books.  Your monitor and printer do not see color the same way, unless you calibrate and adjust them to do so.   Different monitors can also display your artwork with different colors.  And even different brands of paper can change color.   A color monitoring system and software are really the only way to obtain 'what you see is what you get' results.  Otherwise, you can use trial and error by printing, making adjustments, printing, making adjustments...etc.

Thanks! This is the first time I've had the problem, but both my printer and monitor are older and may have fallen out of adjustment. I do need a new printer, but alas, money.....

Unfortunately...it could be any number of things.

Printer calibrations...video cards...monitor settings...paper...certain fonts...etc.

 

Even the ink you buy could make a difference...High destiny cartridges, can (and do....no matter what the manufacturer says) print darker or lighter as the case may be.

 

If you get refills from a place like "Cartridge World" instead of the manufacturers ink...it could print differently. (although they say it's the exact same mix).

 

Typically...I'll buy a refill if I'm printing a lot of text..or may if I'm printing 100 CD labels to save a few bucks...but for Hi Resolution and/or glossy "Prints"....I'll usually cough up the extra money and get the manufacturers recommended high density ink.

 

Also:

 

Monitors "All" display differently.

 

A perfect example is:

 

I have a 256 meg 3DLabs Wildcat VP880 Pro dual output "Graphics Accelerator"... (3DLabs hate's it when someone calls it a "Video Card"...lol)

 

Which...by the way....I found out recently,that on Feb 24th of 2006, they "Refocused it's 3D business on the portable handheld device market and de-emphasized it's professional workstation business". They (3Dlabs) will continue to sell and support its current Wildcat graphics cards, but no future products will be brought to market..(It was US $499.00 So we're not talkin about some cheapo gamming card)

 Anyway...the "Graphics Accelerator" is set to display identically on both of my monitors (including dual (openGL)...and to make this test even more authentic...I have the exact same monitors as well.(HP pavilion mx 70's on this particular PC)...anyway...I've also set the monitor setting exactly the same (even restored to factory defaults and both use the same color profile.

 

**Guess what?...**one is darker than the other...I even physically swapped them on the on the "Graphics Accelerator" as well as swapped the default "First" monitor in the Driver, and again... set both monitors to default settings as well.....One is always just a bit darker than the other one.

 

And another "Guess What?... I got a brand new Lexmark X5470 all in one printer recently...and it's output looks different than what either monitor displays..

 

I just keep playing with the settings until I get it as close as I can.

 

You might try playing with the "DPI" setting on your printers driver as well...Maybe try 150...or 300.

 

Sure...you'll waste a some ink testing and re-testing...but once you get it right....you should be able to save those settings in the printer driver...and it should remain pretty accurate for most future images. But you'll likely encounter an image ( one that is perhaps lighter or darker in it;s nature) that will need to be tweaked and tested a bit.

 

It's sounds like a lot of work and troubleshooting, But I wouldn't run out an buy a new printer just yet until you try some testing first.

I usually temporarily scale the image down to 50% or even 25% during testing to save ink.

 

Good luck.

 

Tom

Another important factor to consider is the paper you use to print on.  Printers are calibrated based on a certain type of ink, paper, color gamut to devices , or profiles, ICM's.  Anyone of these can and often do change and that can easily throw off your printout, even if everything else is adjusted and calibrated.

There is no easy solution here when things begin to go bad.  It is a matter of trial and error to find out what is causing the problem. 

There are a lot of good ducuments on all of these subjects that are found on the web.

Do I hear an echo?

8 )

Tom

Check your yellow!

Bet it's clogged..

wow I thought I have problems with this too. I see I doing all the above. 
My landscape photos I print on my Epson R1800 comes out super as is. But I got a lot of UV lighting [blacklight] photos and they come out too dark. I played around with the settings and then sent Epson tech for help. Here is what they sent me and my letter to them 

Thank you for contacting the Epson Connection.

`If you are encountering a red or magenta cast when printing from
Photoshop, please try the following changes in the driver and color
profiles.

1. Open image in Photoshop. If Photoshop prompts you with an "Embedded
   profile mismatch" message indicating that the image's color space does not
   match the working color space, DO NOT convert the image or discard the
   information. Choose to USE the embedded information, otherwise important
   data about the colors in your image will be lost.

2. Go to FILE, PRINT (WITH) PREVIEW. (PRINT OPTIONS in Photoshop6.) Check
   SHOW MORE OPTIONS. Instead of OUTPUT use the pull-down arrow to select
   COLOR MANAGEMENT.
   -If printing in color, SOURCE SPACE should be an RGB format of some sort,
   ie "untagged RGB" or "sRGB". It may also reflect the profile used by the
   image's source, for example a digital camera or scanner ("sRGBie####").
   -If printing in black and white, SOURCE SPACE should be a greyscale or
   black and white format.
   -PRINT SPACE should be a profile that most closely matches the printer name
   to paper in use and cartridge loaded, for example:
         "SP2200 Premium Luster PK" (PK = photo black ink. MK = matte black.)
         "SP820 Photo Paper"
         "EPSON Stylus Photo 960"
         "SPR300 Prem Glossy"
   -INTENT can be either Perceptual or Relative Colorimetric. (Experimentation
   will tell you which looks best. More details on the exact technical
   differences between these settings is available in Photoshop' HELP menu.)

3. Go to PAGE SETUP. Ensure your printer name is selected.

In OS 9.x or any Windows version, click PROPERTIES to view the printer's
current driver settings. In PROPERTIES, configure the following:
-select Custom mode, then click the Advanced button. Turn printer driver's
color management OFF here by selecting "No color adjustment".
-Pick appropriate output resolution, DPI, paper type and paper size in use.
-If printing black and white images with the SP2200, ensure color ink mode
is selected.

In OS X, go the PRINT menu. Under "Print settings" be sure the appropriate
paper type and dpi are selected.
-Under "Color Management" there should be a dot beside "No color
adjustment".

Regardless of operating system, do not use the "Print Preview" from the
Epson printer driver as you have the Photoshop preview window to work with.

You are now ready to print. We find that selecting the appropriate
printer/paper/ink combination as the print space and then turning off the
rest of the printer's color management will eliminate casts and tones from
Photoshop prints. However, be aware that there are many possible profiles
and color spaces which could be used. These instructions are intended as
guidelines only. Experimentation will always be required in order to find
the combination of software settings that works best for you.

If you require further assistance with this particular issue, please ensure
all of our previous correspondence is contained in your reply, so we can
better track the history of this issue.

If you have a different issue, please submit another E-form via our website
(http://www.epson.com), and we will respond in a timely manner.  Thank you
again for contacting Epson.

 

Ryan R
Epson Connection

                                        --Your original question has been
attached below--

 

First Name: Jock
Last Name: Mc Gregor
Date: 20070202
Time: 18:29:21
Zip/Postal Code: 70517
country: usa

SYSTEM INFORMATION

Printer model name: Stylus Photo R1800
Date of Purchase: jan 2007
Serial Number: undefined
Computer Type: PC
Operating System: Windows XP
Cable type used: USB
Is the printer connected to a network? to a hub

PROBLEM REPORT
Software used during problem: photoshop7
File type being printed: tif
Digital Camera Card used: Memory Stick
Detailed Description of Problem:
I do art and I play with my photos in photoshop7.
I just bought the R1800 two weeks ago
When I print a photo it do super good. But I got som dark blues and black
in my art work and they do not print too good They come out too dark. I
read that the printer will ajust the contrast on the images. I did that in
photoshop7 to where I wish the contrast to be.
My question is how to turn off the printer contrast and let photoshop7
image print as I see it in the photoshop???
I have scan the print and look at it on screen to see if it my screen but
it looks just like the print.
Please help me. I just Registration thre printer at the first of this week
and did not get any mail from you. I also sent this question two days ago
but nothing . I thought maybe because I used a diff email than what I
Registration the printer and scaner
thank you
Jock A. Mc Gregor

I did what they say and it did not work. I think it because of the blues in the UV Lighting that is thowing the printer off for I did get the screen calibationed sothat is not it.

I still haveing some probles with the prints but I getting better to print them as I see them on the screen. I useing epson paper too Superb 13x19 matt[cannot find the glossy yet]  But here is what I set the printer settings on ... color control;  brightness +10;  contrast+2;  saturation 10 and the print comes out  as I see it on the screen.
If any one else have a better Ideal please tell me.

Oh I got a freeware on the net to calibationed the screen. and it works. got it with google by typeing in freeware calibation. real easy to use

oh I could not find all they say to do  lol but I trying my best

here is what I talking about . this is what Isee on the screen

here is what the printer printed. I scan it to put it back on the screen to see it is the screen . But it the printer

prints this type of photo as is ; no problems

Saturated colours, especially blues, give printers trouble. As well as calibrating you need to check the gamut (the range of printable colours) on your output device - unfortuntaelt most gamut warnings seem to be geared for CMYK output, it's quite tricky getting accurate warnings when you go out-of-gamut with RGB devices such as an inkjet printer.     

how do I check  the output device and what is gamut and where do i find it???

Thanks to all. Jocko, yours just looks a little darker than the original. Mine was really off. I got my old Epson 1200 working again by unclogging the inkjets with a little alcohol and it prints much better than the Epson 880. I still need to calibrate, though.

The gamut is the range of colours that can be printed (or displayed on screen) by a given device. The profile contains the information (if you are using an ink and paper combination which has a profile, if the manufacturer even bothers supplying profiles for their device) but getting PS to show which colours are out of gamut for a particular RGB profile is tricky. Just previewing should do it, but you have to have confidence in your screen profile to be sure that what you are seeing is the result of clipping (colours that can't be produced being replaced with those that can). You could try printing some gradients and see where they break down and start being muddier than the the on-screen version, as a warning of where the danger zones are.

A big part of my problem with the Epson 880, is that my house was struck by lightening a year ago, which took out a lot of our electrical appliances and all my network cards, PC speakers, and did something to the printer. The printer worked, but the Status monitor never worked again even after reformatting my hard drive and reinstalling the Epson Status monitor. I put that old printer with my laptop just to print out text. It works fine for that. I also downloaded the free monitor calibration software and ran it. Worked great.