Trying to understand rendering intent, etc

Question

I just got an Epson Ecotank ET-3950 and I would like to printmon photo paper as well as matte and glossy sticker paper. I have Photoshop Elements 15 (yeah I know it is old, will upgrade if I can get some proof that it will do what I need) on a Mac.

My images are brightly colored paintings and I would like to retain the pop. I understand RGB colorspace is more vivid and when you print to CMYK it gets a little more dull. I used to do tech support for Photoshop Elements and Photoshop, and worked in a print shop, 20+ freaking years ago, so I am not totally clueless, BUT a lot has changed with the tech over the years.

So I am looking at Rendering Intents and changing those but my prints look no different from Rendering Intent to Rendering Intent so maybe I am missing something. I'm letting Photoshop Elements do the color management instead of the printer, and maybe that's a mistake. My prints look pretty decent so far though. BUT then I tried a different set of images and the color seems a bit off. Unclear if I was supposed to run a maintenance mode on this printer when switching papers. Very unfamiliar with color inkjets, sadly.

Also trying to decide if I should choose something other than the default colorspace. Options are overwhelming.

Your advice? heeelp?! Thank you.

Greg_S. · Answer

I'm not sure that anything has changed in the past several years with respect to inkjet printers, other than that some higher end printers will use a greater number of inks. Yours is not what I would call a high end printer. (I have the ET-3850.) It has only 3 ink cartridges plus black. I would therefore not be worrying too much about rendering intent and similar complexities of color management. You are unlikely to see any difference no matter which setting you choose.

Elements does not handle the CMYK color space so you can ignore that as a factor. The printer will be converting Elements colors to work with the color cartridges that it has.

The most important factor for your printing is to make sure that the color profile used by your printer is designed for the paper you are using. You are likely to get the best results using Epson paper. If you are not doing that, then you should see if the manufacturer of your paper has a color profile that can be downloaded and used with your printer.

You should also make sure which device (the printer or your computer) is managing color. You need to check the settings in both the printer driver and in Elements. And you may also get different output if you use the Organizer or the Editor to print. Although similar, they use different print engines.

In short, getting the result you want is most often a case of trial and error.

I would also say that it is best for the printer to handle the color management, not Elements.

And if you want to see whether Elements 2025 is worth it for you, you can download a 7-day free trial here.

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