I've suffered with this problem for quite a while. Compared to my Epson 4000, my Epson R1800 tends to muddy up shadow areas and, in general, prints everything way too dark, particularly on glossy papers. I tend to light things up a bit just for the sake of printing, but that's really a hit-and-miss solution. I still don't get what I see on my screen when I print to the 1800.
My system is extremely well calibrated from input to output. Prints from my Epson 4000 match what I see on my screen 99.99%, regardless of paper (but it's at its best with semi-gloss to matte finishes). Prints from the Epson R1800 on matte finish (like Moab Entrada) are ok, but still too dark. Glossy is where the real problem is, though. VERY dark on the 1800.
I've heard others have similar experience with the 1800. I've wasted too much time, ink and paper trying to solve this one. Thought I'd seek some help and guidance here. Thanks...
I hate to ask the obvious but have you downloaded the premium (updated) ICC profiles for the 1800 from the Epson website? I had an 1800 until recently and never experienced this problem but did get better results with the premium profiles.
You can also try talking to or emailing Epson. I've done this and their customer support will respond. Eventually.
I have the same problem.
My system is calibrated as well (R 1800, iMac, intel, Leopard driver, Lightroom). I tried for many hours to find on the net a way to solve the problem. I recently downloaded the driver and the profiles on the Epson website but the same problem is still happening. Dark prints, black shadows.
The best result I get is when I don't use a printer profile and use let the printer manage the colors...
Perreault wrote:
I have the same problem.
My system is calibrated as well (R 1800, iMac, intel, Leopard driver, Lightroom). I tried for many hours to find on the net a way to solve the problem. I recently downloaded the driver and the profiles on the Epson website but the same problem is still happening. Dark prints, black shadows.
The best result I get is when I don't use a printer profile and use let the printer manage the colors...
I am looking for a best answer to this problem.
Yves
Yves: I've often resorted to using the printer's own color management. Sometimes it works fine. But with non-Epson papers ... like Moab's, which I use a great deal ... there's a lot of hit and miss and wasted ink/paper. I now use my Epson 4000 for most of my work, regardless of print size. It just does the job. All of the individual profiles work great.
Lately I've been using the Epson 1800 primarily for printing letters and 4" X 6" family stuff. I've decided to give up on figuring out the "darkness" thing.
I called Epson a couple of days ago. They say they don't know anything a "darkness" problem. And yet, like yourself, I've heard of others experiencing the same thing. Sounds to me like Epson is in denial of the matter....
I'm printing with a R1800, using custom profiles, and don't see the issues you're seeing. Obvious problems include monitor is just set too brightly, double profiling (both Photoshop and printer), not soft proofing, bad profiles.
Worth a look at this to make sure you're not missing something in your setup somewhere:
You might try letting Photoshop do color management it is a lot better at it. I am not fimilar with the 1800 I use a 3800. But every where I read (even in the Epson 3800 manual) Photoshop should be doing the color management. My own pratice shows much better results with Photoshop then Epson drivers. If you already tryed this sorry to bud in..........Peter
I am not on a Mac, but i have the R1800 and I do not experience the problem that you are talking about. Maybe you are somehow getting a double profile or something?
Perhaps, as has been suggested above, let Photoshop manage the colours. This is what I do and I am more then happy with the output, as are my customers.
Have you given this a try? I can list out my exact settings if you wish, but I am sure you know what they should be on.
ohenry wrote:
I'm printing with a R1800, using custom profiles, and don't see the issues you're seeing. Obvious problems include monitor is just set too brightly, double profiling (both Photoshop and printer), not soft proofing, bad profiles.
Worth a look at this to make sure you're not missing something in your setup somewhere:
Thanks, but my monitor is actually set to its lowest brightness, pretty standard with the Mac/Apple wide screens. Nor am I double-profiling. Color Management is turned Off in the Espon driver when I'm letting Photoshop and the media profiles do the color management.
I've done some more tests and comparisons between using the printer do the color management and setting color management with Photoshop. Using the printer's color management is turning out to be much better. Again, this is only with the Epson 1800, not my Epson 4000, which is doing great when I do color management from Photoshop using the media profiles.
veroman wrote:
Thanks, but my monitor is actually set to its lowest brightness, pretty standard with the Mac/Apple wide screens. Nor am I double-profiling. Color Management is turned Off in the Espon driver when I'm letting Photoshop and the media profiles do the color management.
I've done some more tests and comparisons between using the printer do the color management and setting color management with Photoshop. Using the printer's color management is turning out to be much better. Again, this is only with the Epson 1800, not my Epson 4000, which is doing great when I do color management from Photoshop using the media profiles.
That's really strange.... Hard to know what is going on there, as if you are using the correct profile for each paper type, etc then letting Photoshop determine the colours should work without any problems. Maybe the profile/s that you are using aren't up to scratch, have you tried a custom profile at all?
Probably wouldn't make much difference, but have you tried uninstalling all of the software and starting again, just in case something went wrong during the initial install?
I have an R1800 and a Mac, the prints are not good with the canned profiles. I would suggest a custom profile. I have not done it myself because I keep expecting to sell the printer b/c of how much ink it uses and how much I like the prints from WHCC.
I also have the Epson 1800, use PS-CS3 on a Windows PC.
My image looks fine on my calibrated monitor, and the Soft-Proof also looks okay.
But when I print the result is way too dark!
I use the latest profiles from Epson.
I recently published my second Blurb book, and the photos that they printed are fine. As were the ones they printed before.
I have tried several different modes and all have the same dark result with the 1800.
I have bumped the Gamma on the image to 1.50 and then get nearly the brightness that I need on the print.
It is not my settings or profiles that are the problem. It is quite frustrating, and I'm sure there will be a "simple" explanation and fix.....someday.
You write
".... but my monitor is actually set to its lowest brightness, pretty standard with the Mac/Apple wide screens." What makes you say that is standard? I have been using Mac wide screens for years. When I profile the monitor I have Backlight (brightness) set to just a notch or two off brightest setting and I have never seen such a problem.
I have the same problem and decided to try Profile Prism (not here, yet) to create a custom profile. I *hope* this will cure the problem.... if it doesn't, I'm going to have custom profiles made for the papers that I use. My printer uses way too much ink, imo, and dark prints, I'm sure, contribute to that problem. The cost of profiles/software should be easily made up in ink costs once this thing is printing correctly.
I have the R1800, have had it for a year. For the last 11 months I've been using it from a Windows PC and for the last month from a new Mac Pro. I have CS3 and Lightroom on both computers (still have the PC). I print from LR most often and always use Photoshop color management and make sure printer color management is turned off (no double profiling). And I get absolutely consistant results from both the PC and the Mac.... ALWAYS way, way too dark. I can, and have, literally printed from the same file copies from the Mac and from the PC to the R1800 and they are the same results. It is NOT a platform problem. I know others with the same problem. I've owned Canon printers in the past and never had this problem, I've always been able to dial in my print to match my monitor pretty close. The same prints I get that are too dark now I can send the EXACT file to a lab like Mpix, whcc, etc. and get great results. I am convinced it's the Epson/profile. If anyone comes up with a solution to this problem I would love to hear it. I am tired of bumping my file brightness up just for printing... a lot of hit and miss.
