[jbrowning]

Hello everyone, first of all I use Elements 6.0 and am printing to a Epson Stylus Photo 1400 printer. I am noticing that sometimes my greys print out in green. Has anyone else noticed this and have any suggestions on how I can correct this? On my monitor the greys are greys it is just when I'm printing. I have calibrated my monitor so my colors on my monitor should be fine.

Thanks
Jim

[Wheatfield]

If you are absolutely certain that you don't have a profile mismatch or have overlooked something really silly (my bad habit is forgetting to switch between screen and soft proofing).....
Run a cleaning cycle on your printer (unless you've already done this a few times). Any colour problems I've had on my Epson 4800 have been cured by running the various maintenance utilities.

[jbrowning]

If you are absolutely certain that you don't have a profile mismatch or have overlooked something really silly (my bad habit is forgetting to switch between screen and soft proofing).....
Run a cleaning cycle on your printer (unless you've already done this a few times). Any colour problems I've had on my Epson 4800 have been cured by running the various maintenance utilities.

Thanks Wheatfield for the reply. In Elements under the color profile I tell it to use the AdobeRGB which is what I have my Pentax K20D set to also. And in the Epson printing screen under Color Handling I have it set for Photoshop Elements Manages Color. Is there another profile I'm skipping?

Thanks
Jim

[Ira]

In your advanced/properties window, when you go to print, make sure you have "Print black as solid black" checked.

Also, I always tell people to get into the habit of converting their images to CMYK when printing, since that's what ink is, and to use a different profile than RGB. Nowadays, the RGB to CMYK conversion that the software does is fine, but I'm still suspicious.

Finally, there's a great piece of software called PowerRip, that turns your printer into Level 3 postscript. If you plan to do a lot of printing, combined with their matching paper, it's awesome. When you do the install, it will install the matching profile for your particular printer

Inkjet Printers, Color Profile Large Format Printer, RIP Software, PDF Converter & PostScript - iProof Systems Inc.

It's not free (boo hoo), but there's a free trial version.

[Wheatfield]

You also want to tell the printer what paper it is printing on.
Photoshop manages colours, but the printer needs to have the correct paper profile assigned as well (media type on my printer driver).

[Ira]

You also want to tell the printer what paper it is printing on.
Photoshop manages colours, but the printer needs to have the correct paper profile assigned as well (media type on my printer driver).

This is a biggie, and as I mentioned about the PowerRip software, your best results come from using their paper. And no, they don't rip you off on the price and you can still choose the other standard Epson photo papers from the setup window, but it works best with their paper.

Once you figure out your best workflow, your best settings--either through the standard Elements print window or something additional like the PowerRip--you're good to go for all of your future prints without event thinking about it.

But don't expect to throw a different kind of paper in there all of a sudden and still hold the consistent results. The way the particular paper holds the ink DRAMATICALLY affects results, and HP photo glossy paper will not give you the same results as Epson Photo Glossy paper.

And although you can try to tweak the "plain" paper setting using plain paper, the results will never be stellar.

[nanok]

try using the profile which comes with the epson driver, and epson paper (that is, do not have your image processing software handle color profiling), and go form there. the point is that the windows driver comes with matching profiles for the epson papers, and the results should be spot on out of the box, if the printer is working fine (or so they say..).

generally speaking, the only method of getting consistent results is to use color profiles for your printer, ink and paper, but it just "happens" that your epson printer comes with apropriate profiles for the epson papers.

hope this helps.

[Ira]

that is, do not have your image processing software handle color profiling)

If you're printing from Elements, Elements has to handle it, right?

Whatever your program, be it Elements or Word (eech) or whatever, your print window pulldown should say Epson Model XXXX, not generic color. And THEN you'll see a paper-type pulldown dedicated to that brand of paper.

[alohadave]

I used Epson paper for a while, but I was having a problem with how the shadow areas would block up and turn a muddled green color. It wouldn't take more than a few minutes for the shadows to bleed together. I was using a Canon printer, but I only ever had a problem with that paper.

[Ira]

One more thing:

You would be AMAZED at the fantastic prints you can make by "printing" to PDF high quality first, and then printing from the PDF to your Epson.

This saved my ass a thousand times, especially since I also worked with weird fonts.

[nanok]

If you're printing from Elements, Elements has to handle it, right?

nope. can handle it, does not have to handle it. choice not requirement

Whatever your program, be it Elements or Word (eech) or whatever, your print window pulldown should say Epson Model XXXX, not generic color. And THEN you'll see a paper-type pulldown dedicated to that brand of paper.

that is just interfacing to the driver (or the global os print queue), i was talking about color (as in icc) profiling. that is _required_, because the gamut in the file you are printing and the gamut of the printer are different, and a transformation is required between the two. what i was proposing is meant to try and diagnose the problem one step at a time, especially as the OP obviously is not aware (and perhaps not interested) about color profiling and all the dirty details . using the vendors paper and the vendors profile, there are less unknown factors, so it is easier to help the man.

[Wheatfield]

I used Epson paper for a while, but I was having a problem with how the shadow areas would block up and turn a muddled green color. It wouldn't take more than a few minutes for the shadows to bleed together. I was using a Canon printer, but I only ever had a problem with that paper.

Did you have the correct profile for the Epson paper in the Canon driver? I've been using Epson roll paper in my Epson 4800 printer, bothe Premium Lustre and Semi Matte and the prints coming off of it are superb in every way.

[jbrowning]

Wow, thanks for all the suggestion everyone. Things came up lastnight so I couldn't play around with the printer. But tonight I'm planning on working on this to get it fixed.

Thanks
Jim