From: "+++Bobby \"O\"+++"
I have a LaCie monitor (calibrated with a colorimeter) and an Epson 1280 printer – paper calibrated with Monaco EZColor. I know how to set up my printer controls to print from Photoshop CS. … I think I’m doing everything correctly – but my prints are coming out with a definite reddish cast. Thanks……..
The "reddish cast" always means you’re applying the profile twice, once in Photoshop and a second time in the Epson driver.
I need someone to tell me how to set up "Proof Setup" and "Print with Preview" block by block. Which profile do I put where?
There are 3 or 4 ways that work … this may not be the simplest but it’s one of the ways that *always* works and it lets you view your soft proof before printing …
Soft proof the print via View > Proof Setup > Custom and under ‘profile’ pick the one for the Epson paper you’re using (you can get the Epson supplied 1280 profiles from the PIM module that came with the printer, though you say you have some you generated … not a bad idea to try both and see which looks best). For ‘intent’ pick ‘perceptual’ or ‘rel col’, most gurus agree to set ‘use black point compensation’. Setting ‘simulate: paper white’ won’t affect how it prints but will affect how it looks on the screen as the file will appear a lot darker to simulate the reduced white point of paper vs your monitor, so set it or don’t set it, as you like.
Once you have these set up it’s a good idea to save them with a name like ‘1280 PGPP – relcol’ or whatever so you can just point to the setting next time instead of re-doing all the setup steps.
Anyway, accept this and you’ll see the name of the profile in the image window title bar.
If you’ve set the size and resolution the way you want, you’d next do File > Print with Preview, click the ‘show more options’ box, check ‘source space’ to point to the proof setup, in ‘print space’ select the same profile name, and use the same rendering intent as you did with the soft proof (ie, perceptual or rel col). There is an optional way to do this that others may suggest but this way works.
Now go to ‘page setup’ and click thru the menus to the printer driver page that reads "… 1280 Properties" … select the right paper type etc (I assume you know how to set the dpi and other stuff and are only asking about the color management setup) and in the ‘mode’ box select ‘Custom’, then click ‘advanced’ …. in the ‘Color Mangement’ box click ‘no color adjustment’. This is what you have to do to avoid the double conversion which results in the magenta cast, you’re telling the printer to accept the numbers in the file as is (since Photoshop did the conversion already via the soft proof) instead of converting them a second time.
That should do it … double check the "Print space: profile" when you get back to the opening window since that will change without warning under some conditions.
If you want to see why your prints are magenta try this … make a blank RGB file and use the rectangular marquee to draw a box and fill this with medium gray (RGB => 128/128/128). Soft proof this to one of your 1280 profiles and open the Info palette, right click on the top-right dropper in Info and change it to give the ‘Proof color’ value. Now hold the eyedropper over the medium gray patch and it will read 128/128/128 in the first Info reading and for a profile like the Epson one for ColorLife I get 133/120/111 for the proofed colors. This is what the printer needs to print an accurate middle gray … now draw a second rectangle and fill it with 133/120/111 and read the proof color, which I get as 138/103/90 … this is the RGB value for TWO conversions, one by Photoshop and a second by the Epson driver if you have it set up wrong, and why you get the magenta cast.
Bill
