P: Print - Printer options - Colour Matching is not sticky

@DanielBoston yeah that’s a possible bug I've seen too, I suspect that is an Apple bug on certain macOS versions, its not happening on macOS Ventura here

I hope this helps

neil barstow colourmanagement - adobe forum volunteer,

colourmanagement consultant & co-author of 'getting colour right'

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@ABlong "I am sure the problem isApple's color sync utility not adobe.  I spent hourss on the phone with an Apple agent who could not find a way I could print from PS w/o colorsync taking over and giving me muddy pictures unless I chose PS Manages Colors and then it brought up an Aces CG Linear profile as the printer profile"

It seems like the Apple guy had little knowledge of Photoshop's printing options.

When using Printer Manages Color, the user is offered the choice between Colorsync and Printer color management in Print Settings > Color Options (which is accessed from Photoshop's print dialog.) see below

Colorsync doesn’t get involved unless you select it here, if you do, then you get to choose a printer profile. Generally I don't recommend that. 

Overall, I prefer to recommend Photoshop Manages Color

When Photoshop Manages Color is selected (see below) colorsync/ [printer] color controls options are generally greyed out in print settings. I believe this is achieved by an instruction sent to the manufacturer's printer software from Photoshop, in an attempt to avoid user confusion.

Of course, if using Photoshop Manages Color, the user needs to select a Printer Profile from the dropdown list (in the dialog just below Photoshop Manages Color) - you may have seen ACES  at the top of that list of profile options, as you mentioned ACES is not a printer profile. Its not a default, its just top of a largely alphabetical list.

(below I selectedPhotoshop Manages Color and an Epson 4900 profile for my connected printer) 

I hope this helps clear things up 

Colorsync has been on Macs since 1993 - it can help in printing if we ask it to. Generally we don't unless the software we are printing from has no colormanagement options .

neil barstow colourmanagement - adobe forum volunteer,

colourmanagement consultant & co-author of 'getting colour right'

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This is a Mac problem stemming from its color synce utility.  apple needs to correct it 

I have been making beautiful prints -- from Qimage One. I was having horrible color problems printing from Lightroom to Epson. I tried many things, so I'm not sure what solved the problem, but it might have been running Epson's uninstaller -- removing everything, and starting from scratch. So at some point I got good color again. Cleaning up my studio I just ran into and tossed some of the horrible prints I wasted media on last fall.

I switched from Lightroom to Qimage about a month ago not because of color, but layout/margin issues with my Epson 5750. Some layouts Lightroom just refused to let me make, while others would come out of the printer different from the setup, like a landscape orientation when it was set up as a portrait, cutting off the image. I was wasting paper and ink. 

Qimage is ugly and takes some time to learn, but it is rock solid if you set everything up correctly. I've been getting beautiful prints and not wasting media.

I am sure the problem isApple's color sync utility not adobe.  I spent hourss on the phone with an Apple agent who could not find a way I could print from PS w/o colorsync taking over and giving me muddy pictures unless I chose PS Manages Colors and then it brought up an Aces CG Linear profile as the printer profile although that profile is for image editing not printing. I never had these problems before the color sync utility. The tech could not help me to open colorsync and told me I could not take it off.  I feel like suing for breach of warranty.  In the meantime, I have to find out which one of three Epson printe profiles is the correct profile for my printer.  Apple, what have you done!

The problem seems to be long-standing.  It doesn't seem to affect everyone, but it does affect more than 0 people, me included.  It's a pity that no one from Adobe has gripped the issue and tracked down the cause (whether it is and Adobe issue, an Apple one, or a printer driver bug).  The fact is that it affects Lightroom Classic users.  Workarounds, such as exporting a JPEG/TIFF and printing with the manufacturer's software remove one further USP from Lightroom, at least for me.

That the Preview doesn't have issues while LR does doesn't necessarily indicate the bug is in LR -- LR may call the Mac OS APIs in ways different than Preview.

@johnrellis : All the evidence points to Adobe being the problem here. The Epson driver seems to work in Apple Preview, and small changes in Lightroom (for example, switching between "managed by printer" and selecting a paper profile) make the driver unstable.

"I don't understand how Adobe can let this stand without fixing"

There are three parties: Adobe, Apple, and Epson. Impossible for us to know which one isn't implementing their side of the APIs correctly. They all have histories of longstanding bugs.

@johnrellis 's workaround doesn't work for me, and the one I reported earlier isn't working either. When I open the color matching dialog under print settings, even with Lr set to "profile: managed by printer" it is set to Epson Color Controls with no option to change. After endless futzing around I can often get it back to a sane state.

But what a catastrophe! I don't understand how Adobe can let this stand without fixing it. It's just insane.