Print colors not matching original work

[lukert]

Hi all, I know that this is a common problem, but I wanted to be sure to get the most up to date advice: when I print using Adobe products the colors of my work are washed out. I primarily make art with paint and canvas/paper. However, I was hoping to cut some cost and make prints of my work, but my colors are off from what they should be. I have the color management set to CYMK as I'm looking to print, but this doesn't change anything with the printed product. 

[Monika Gause]

What kind of printer are you using?

In which color mode do you design?

Which colors are you using? Some colors are difficult or impossible to reproduce - do you use that kind of colors?

If your printer is an inkjet: does it help sending RGB colors? Inkjets can deal with that.

How exactly is your color management set up?

Do you see the correct thing on your monitor?

[lukert]

I have an Epson Workforce 3640.

I scanned the work into a document mode set to CYMK.

As I painted the piece with watercolors, I believe that the colors will be reproducible with little difficulty.

I'm not sure what the "correct thing" is to be looking for.

I have the print color management set to let Illustrator determine.

I do not know if the printer helps with sending RGB, but I set the modes to CYMK so would that be an issue?

[Jacob Bugge]

lukert,

A few questions.

Which Color Mode are you using (vibrant RGB colours will be disappointing when printed in CMYK), and which have you started your document in?

Which colour management are you using?

Is there any kind of colour management performed by the printer (to be avoided)?

Other helpers may ask others.

Edit: And the questions Monika has just asked, within a minute before mine.

[lukert]

Hi Jacob,

So, I set it to CYMKas the doc color mode initially and again when when I
print.

I have the "let illustrator determine colors" option selected, which I
assume automatically bypasses the printer management.

I have an Epson printer and I set the printer profile to the Epson IJ
option.

I haven't changed anything else and have avoided using the RGB print
options.

I'm prettty green at all of this and I typically use Adobe to make digital
work. Printing is new for me.

[Jacob Bugge]

lukert,

Has your Epson Workforce 3640 has (and in this case uses) a Postscript (emulating) driver (PS),  orwhat happens if you Save a Copy of the document as PDF and print from Acrobat?

[lukert]

I'm not sure if the printer has such a thing.

However, using acrobat has the same effect. I actually started out printing
from acrobat as I scanned the piece in as a PDF.