Printing too dark in CS4

Dan E Boy

With 10.4.11 you should not be seeing this difference between CS3 and CS4. I thought it was only a 10.5.x issue. All though we did see this issue with LR1.3 that was then corrected in LR1.4. As to the LR2.3RC problem it was corrected in the LR2.3 final release.

Have you tried the ColorSync workaround?

Your printers are register in ColorSync?

It is possible because CS4 is different than CS3 is in 10.5.x that there could be something that is setting (by default) or changes something in the driver that is causing the double profiling in 10.4.11.

It sounds as if you are going to have to invest in Custom Profiles for your printers?

I can only tell you that CS4 printing works perfectly for me (ie: it prints as an almost identical match to the Soft Proof preview for the correct Paper Profile, plus Simulated Paper Color, on an Epson R1900 from a G5 on OSX 10.4.11).

To what intensity/brightness are you calibrating your Monitor?

And by how much does the printed and dried result differ from View menu/Proof Colors (when set-up to simulate paper color?

You may just need to re-calibrate and profile your monitors to a lower Intensity?

Hi all,

Has there been any progress on this issue? I have quite a few systems in a computer lab setting and have just upgraded to CS4 and have been seeing this problem on both our Epson 3800 and 2400 printers. Here's the setup that we have:

G4 towers and G5 Imacs running 10.4.11
Adobe Photoshop 11.01
All displays calibrated.
Latest Epson printer drivers installed.

When I print a color test chart on CS3, the colors match the display. However on CS4 it looks very dark and muddy... almost as if preserve color numbers had been checked on in proofing. I'm using the identical workflow for both programs, along with the canned Epson profiles which have worked great so far. I've also tried the Epson UK drivers, deleting and adding the printer and making it the default one, with no luck. At this point, I'm going to attempt a re-install, but I'm not holding my breath.

If anyone hears of anything...Thanks in advance!

I was beginning to think that Adobe and Apple were right about the printers and their drivers and compatibly with Leopard.

But after checking out LR2.3RC today I am SHOCKED. In fact I am so SHOCKED I am really at a loss for words, or maybe I should say I am so PISSED it is best to say no more.

http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.59b7d1d8

Thank you pfigen for a very helpful explanation.

>What's with all the negotiations when using a Mac anyhow?

It's called Color Management , and it's just as useful as necessary in Windoze.

Ray,

Profiles don't cure all problems, but a good custom made profile (and I've been making them for many years now) sure go a long way. If you used a custom profile and either converted in Ps or used the Let Ps Manage Color dialog, which is ostensibly the samething minus the live preview, you would never have had access to the "Color Controls" dialog, if you're doing things correctly. If you did convert in Ps and then accessed Color Controls then you would be double profiling. If you had access to great custom made profiles you would never ever want to use those adjustments again - one - because they're very crude, and two, because they just aren't in same league in terms of what they can accomplish.

The problem right now, and we'll have to see how Epson addresses the problem, is that there is something different going on in the CS4 data path that is providing a non expectant result when trying to pass off "raw" data to the printer. You need to be able to pass raw RGB to the driver in order to make a profile, and you need to be able to repeat that data path exactly in order for the profile to be valid. That the two "raw" data paths for CS3 and CS4 are very different indicates a problem needing to be addressed.

Yes, you are off-base. If you can't get correct prints on a Mac that is your problem.

Profiles alone don't cure all problems. Or do they?

Perhaps I'm off-base, if enlightenment is available have at it. Anyhow:

The main thing is I can tweak on the fly with my PC/XP (Elements 7) and Epson printer/GUI. On Macs it's always been oh heck, print's off, go back and work on the original file even though the eyedroppers are spot on and the driver is right.

With CS1 and me, on the fly has was never possible on my G3, PB G4, or my MacPro laptops. Seems like a crude and inflexible workflow logic to me. Turn on the PC/XP, combine the profile with a tweak in the GUI, bingo it prints. What's so hard about that?

What's with all the negotiations when using a Mac anyhow? Granted, there are better options than the Epson GUI.

Not with CS4.