MAC SEQUOIA AND PRINTS...

[Jojo_jojauz]

it's unbelievable... every time there is even a small system update on the mac, my printer (canon pro 300) prints out washed out reds. it's baffling!

mac studio, photoshop, canon pro 300 (all very up to date!).

[NB, colourmanagement]

@keith_7272 "I feel your pain. I had a related problem on my Epson (in this case, excessive magenta). I don't know whether this solution will work for you, but after hours of uninstalling and reinstalling and internet searching, this is the simple step that worked for me:

Go System settings>Privacy and Security, Local Network. Make sure all relevant applications are toggled on. In my case two Epson ones -- including  'rastertoescpII' -- were toggled off. As soon as I turned them on, Photoshop could once again interface seamlessly with my printer, and the prints came out perfectly."

Disappointingly I tried your helpful solution yesterday at a client site on a Mac Studio with macOS Sequioa and an Epson SC-P 9500 (quite an investment) and each time we saved the print settings to print - if we went back to check they had reverted to a default. Saving a setting in Preview and suing that didn't help the situation.

it's so disappointing that these issues still exist. 

I hope this helps neil barstow colourmanagement - adobe forum volunteer, colourmanagement consultant & co-author of 'getting colour right' See my free articles on colourmanagement online Help others by clicking "Correct Answer" if the question is answered. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here. "Upvote" is for useful posts 

[MarkDS]

Neil and Keith - this is not a new problem and it is not confined to any one particular configuration of Epson Pro printer and OS - just in case misery likes company. The two big problems with it, apart from the nuisance, are (1) the source of it isn't transparent and (2) it appears to be inconsistent. My research into replicating it under varying sequences of steps indicates (a) "Saved" settings (in the driver) are not saved. (b) Once one creates a group of settings, "saves" them and exits the driver menus, DO NOT LOOK BACK AGAIN before printing, because it is that re-opening of the driver menu that reverts everything back to defaults. As long as you don't touch anything before hitting print it will work correctly. (c) When you go to make the next print and want to re-use those settings, don't assume it will work correctly - here is where the inconsistency sets in: sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't. This means it's necessary before each print to check the settings, get back out, print. (Did I say "nuisance"?) (d) There are choices in the Epson driver to select "Last Used" settings or "Printer Settings". Don't trust either of them. (e) Golden Rule for successful use of the Epson driver: before each print go into Printer>Print Settings and make sure the correcrt choices are selected, click Save, get out and Print - Do Not Re-open the driver till the next print. Awkward, but prints correctly. 

Now, all that said, one wonders whether this is a design problem with the driver or something to do with how the driver works in conjunction with the OS. I raise this because I recall hearing (can't remember exactly from who or when) that this issue does not arise when using the Windows version of the driver in a Windows OS. 

I am in the process of seeing what happens with the newer generation of Epson printers but using a RIP-like product that by-passes the whole print pipeline by ingesting the file from the hard drive and manages ALL the print functions within its own algorithms. What's nice about this is that if doesn't work as expected, it can only be either pilot error or that single source software. Perhaps more anon when I'm done with it. 

[NB, colourmanagement]

@MarkDS thanks again for the tips.

Print Settings: Setting, then not going back to check, seems to work, but maybe not always, with this particular Epson install, it was easy to tell as it reverts to High Speed so prints noticeably faster (we were opting for non high-speed in this case, see below) 

It certainly didn't work for me when I tried that way of using print settings with Canon driver. 

So, on the Canon site, we tried the the Canon Professional Print & Layout software which has its idiosyncrasies (on image size) but because it bypasses the normal "print settings" window it avoids this mess with non sticky settings.

This week, when I tripped over all this driver stuff again at a client site (SC-P9500), we tried the Epson Print Layout software for Large Format Printers, but the driver's 'density adjustment' option was missing (we needed it) and image sizing was all over the place (to be fair, we should have taken the time to work that out really) BUT the prints from it were not seeming as "sharp" as those from the driver. Strange that.

In this case even direct driver prints were not sharp enough (fine text in image`) for this user. Compared to his Epson 7000, the P9500 sure did lack sharpness and even attending printer engineers agreed on that. Interestingly those guys said never use High Speed if you're seeking sharpness, that opinion I've not heard before.

I think this guy will switch to Canon and use the Canon Professional Print & Layout plug in to get around these horrid driver issues, that software - to me - seems better than Epson's (if only because colour management can be disabled to print patches) . 

I so wish Colorburst X-Photo was still being developed. Easy and SO sharp too, far better (to my taste) black generation than the driver. 

neil barstow colourmanagement - adobe forum volunteer,

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

See my free articles on colourmanagement online

Help others by clicking "Correct Answer" if the question is answered.

Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here. "Upvote" is for useful posts

[MarkDS]

Hi Neil, just focusing on the driver stability issue, I'm surprised this recommendation didn't work reliably for you and your client, because, so far, it has for me on both the Epson P5370 and P73770 (P5300 and P7300 in the UK). 

It's beginning to look more and more like going a RIP route, or buying a Windows laptop dedicated to a printer, for printing may become essential for getting the file numbers correctly laid on paper.