Printing too dark in CS4

I own a Epson R2400 and I have had this printing dark problem on and off for years - dark photos by 1 to 1.5 stops (I own a MacPro 12 core, Aperture and CS5).  After doing a lot of searches going all the way back to 2006 with the r2400, I have finally realized that Epson has had a long history of this throughout all printers of the professional level.

I think they have Driver problems that have never been fixed or even acknowledged. I can not find one person that has figured out how to print normally the way you should be able to. Everyone thinks it's Photoshop or monitor problems, calibration problems but I believe it's and Epson Driver issue.

Just start doing Google searches for Epson printers: "Epson R2400 printing Dark". Put in any model number of the professional level printer and you will find a long history of this.

We should all start trashing Epson because they have a historic problem and they need to fix it.

P.S. I have tried to print the exact photo that printed perfectly 4 months ago using: Aperture, Photoshop CS5, and Preview on my MacPro and my MacBook Pro. It doesn't matter it always prints dark.

Thanks,

Jim

Greetings all.  This thread has become stale, so I thought I'd freshen things up a bit. 

All kidding aside, I wanted to make sure that you all saw that Epson has posted a new driver (updater, really) for the Epson Stylus Pro 3800.

I just discovered it tonight, so I have not tested it at all. 

I will post results when I can.

In the meanwhile, if anyone has experience with this updated driver, let us all know how it went.

Cheers,

grayscapes

SO if you check the Epson website, they say that they are fully commited to supporting Snow Leopard, but the drivers for the SP 3800 are not available yet (I did not check the others).  (They have some work-around that involves Rosetta, but I can't say that I understand it or want to monkey with it.)

Maybe this will be the opportunity for Epson to fix their drivers to work properly with Apple's revised color management scheme.

Here's hoping, anyhow.

~grayscapes

This is clearly an Adobe problem. The printer HARDWARE is fixed. My R1800 worked fine with CS3! And while the CS4 Upgrade has offerred some incredible upgrades to the Suite Harmony, it don't mean much if I cant PRINT.

I have tried ALL of the suggested "Fixes" and none worked. I have gone through 100 glossy sheets and 2 full sets of Inks tryin to get these prints right for a client. The only thing I found that comes close is to set everything to "Adobe Manages Color" and then go to "Printer Setings > Advanced" and set brightness to 24 ... And then the GAmma (2.2) is slightly skewed.

BTW, I use a Cannon die sub printer (Shame on me ... But Costco had a great deal) and it needs the same +24 brightness adjustment for my "On Site Prints" at events.

This was NEVER a problem with CS3 or CS2,

The printer didn't run off in the night an change itself. This is Adobe's problem and for what I pay to stay current with my suite, I expect them to fix it!

Dennis Logue

aerobat@att.net

I'm having the same problem with rgb files.

I sent the following email to Epson Support today.  I will let you know if they respond.

There is a persistent problem with the color profiles used by my Stylus Pro 3800 (and certain other Epson high-end printers) that results in documents being "double-profiled" so that B&W prints come out too dark when color managed by Photoshop CS 4.  There is a lengthy posting and discussion thread about this issue here: http://forums.adobe.com/message/2086443#2086443

I have called Epson Technical Support several times and have been given only half-baked work arounds.  Epson needs to update its printer drivers to work properly with Apple's OS 10.5.x and Adobe's CS4 and Lightroom.  This is a critical issue for pro photographers and Epson's reputation as the leader in printers for this market is on the line.  People are jumping to other manufacturers out of frustration with this.  Unfortunately for me, I do not have the luxury of spending thousands of dollars on a printer only to junk it after a couple of years because Epson will not fix the problem.  Please review the link above and provide us with an indication about when we can expect to see properly updated drivers for the affected printers.  This printer has been great for me, but it causing me no end of problems in the past 6 months over this issue.  Please help.

~grayscapes

I have recently moved to MacPro and Photoshop CS4 and have the same problem you recite.  I have contacted Epson support, and I had the impression that they had experienced a problem with CS4 and Epson (my printer is the Epson Stylus Pro 4000) printers relative to the existing canned ICC profiles.  I do not know if new profiles will be forthcoming.  There was a suggestion that this same problem had occurred when CS3 first came out, and that Adobe came out with a fix in a driver update.  I do not know whether this is true, but I have tried every possible fix for this printing issue without solution.

I spent some time experimenting this weekend and have come up with a method of printing in Advanced B/W mode that seems to more or less work properly. By "work properly", I mean that the prints match the appearance of the display fairly closely-- close enough to be usable. My setup is:

IMac running Mac OS 10.5.6

CS4

Epson 3800 printer

Image source: Epson 750 scan from B/W film, 16-bit, gray gamma 2.2 profile

Latest software updates installed everywhere.

Steps followed are:

1. Edit image in CS4 with View-> Proof setup -> Custom set to the paper I plan to use (I have tested with Epson's PGPP profile and Crane's profile for

   Museo Silver Rag and gotten a good match in both cases)

2. Create a flattened TIFF and resize at 360 dpi. The gray gamma 2.2 profile is still embedded in the file at this point.

3. Prior to printing, select "Do not color manage this document" in the Edit -> Assign Profile menu. This causes the image on the screen

   to appear flat and light.

4. In the Epson driver, select Advanced B/W mode and "Printer manages colors". In the Advanced Color setting, select "Normal" instead of "Darker"

    (I don't have the Mac in front of me now so some of this terminology might be a little off.)

    I hope this is helpful if anyone is still struggling with this problem.

I too have had the same issues...please review my information and see if anything else clicks.

I am using Mac Pro Leopard 10.5.7 with CS4 and LR 2.3

I have an Epson 3800 and Epson 7900 using custom profiles from both Cathy's and Xrite i1Xtreme.  I can make good prints dead on with profiled monitor with the 7900 but when printing to the 3800 prints are unacceptable as they are 2 or 3 stops to dark.  I use no color management and results are the same with PSCS4 and LR on two different brands of paper.  The issue is obviously an Epson problem...if I can print fine to the 7900 but not to the 3800 and all else is the same it must point to Epson.  Oh I should mention that prior to getting my Mac i was able to produce good prints with a PC (XP Pro) and the 3800 so further proves it is an Epson "Mac" driver issues specific to the 3800. 

Thoughts?

Don't assume this is limited ot MAC!  Here in Windows Vista 64-bit land with LR2.3 and PS CS4 and an Epson 4880 I can report:

Monitors calibrated, papers profiled.

Driver 6.52US

LR nearly gets is right but you have to brighten by about 10% on final print to get what you see on screen.  Colors are correct when brightened.

PS gets it so horribly wrong I give up.  Really dark and I'm not wasting paper and ink to find out the fix. I'll send the job back to LR for printing.

What I do find interesting (as others have observed) is that the UK site seems to have newer drivers, newer firmware for the printers compared to USA.  Not that the 6.60 fixed the dark prints!

If you get prompted by the UK site for a Post Code (Zip Code):

DD2 1BK

will work.