Epson C82 print quality problems

ED
Posted By
Eva_Deck
Oct 25, 2003
Views
800
Replies
15
Status
Closed
I recently purchased an Epson C82 printer to replace my old Epson 640 which needed repair work. I was attracted by the type of inks used which apparently give longer lasting prints. However, I am very disappointed with the quality of the prints. They are "washed out" looking. The colors are not quite correct and lack vibrancy and depth. I know it’s a cheap printer, but my old printer gave me far better photos. I have re-adjusted my monitor using <http://www.computer-darkroom.com/ps7-colour/ps7_2.htm>. I scan photos with an Epson Perfection 1240U into PE Elements 2. I have "no color management" set.

I have quite a supply of Epson glossy photo paper and a smaller supply of photo quality inkjet paper with which I have made my recent trials.

So far, I have tried setting the print quality to "best photo" and tried paper choices of "bright white paper", "photo quality inkjet paper", "matte paper heavy" (though I don’t have any matte paper), and "glossy photo paper". The matte setting is probably the best and the glossy photo is the worst. I have tried the "photo enhance" option and really didn’t like the results.

There are other options possible under "advanced" and I could use up all my stock of paper and a gallon of ink trying them all, but perhaps someone out there ins PE-land has had similar experiences to mine and can offer some helpful advice. So far, I have left the advanced options set to the default.

Oh yes, I did do a nozzle check, and it turned out fine. I use Windows ME and a Dell Dimension 4100.

Thanks for your help.
Eva

How to Master Sharpening in Photoshop

Give your photos a professional finish with sharpening in Photoshop. Learn to enhance details, create contrast, and prepare your images for print, web, and social media.

BH
Beth_Haney
Oct 25, 2003
Please verify: From your post, it implies you haven’t yet tried any Epson paper. Is that true? Most printers, and I would imagine this Epson photo printer in particular, do best with papers formulated specifically for them. If you haven’t tried the Epson paper yet, do that and see what the print quality is.
ED
Eva_Deck
Oct 25, 2003
Yes, Beth, all my trials are on Epson paper. And I also didn’t mention that the photos are 300 ppi. Thanks for your reply.
Eva
NS
Nancy_S
Oct 25, 2003
Eva,

I use an Epson C80 (which I believe is very similar to the C82, with pigmented inks) and will share the settings I use when printing, in case this helps you out. The pigmented inks do seem to lack the vibrancy of dye based inks, I agree with you on that. The longevity of prints is also what attracted me to this printer when it first came out. I always put my better prints under glass in inexpensive frames, which I think improves their looks (I guess I like a little sheen to them). I always print with the relatively inexpensive Epson Heavyweight Matte paper, so here are the settings I use. I do calilbrate my CRT with the Adobe Gamma utility and my print colors do match my monitor extremely well (though I do make a small adjustment in the printer settings as shown below). The prints do not look "washed out" as you described, but as the saying goes, "your mileage may vary". I run XP Pro on a Dell 8300 computer (though I ran this printer on Win98 also).

Within PSE, I choose Print from the menu. On the screen which appears I choose: * Source=Untagged RGB
* Print Space Profile=Printer Color Management (sometimes I choose Same as Source, though they come out a bit lighter) I click on Setup
I click on Properties
* choose paper size on Paper tab
* on Main tab choose:
* Media type=Matte heavyweight
* Color
* Mode: click the Custom radio button
* click the Advanced button
* on Advanced screen I choose:
* Color Management=Color Controls
* Gamma=1.8 (even though I use Windows)
* Mode=Automatic
* Saturation=+8
* Yellow=+2
* Printy Quality=either Photo 720 or Photo 1440 (depending if I am hurrying) * turn off High Speed

Hope this helps.

edit: I have an Epson 1650 Photo scanner

Nancy
WB
W_Bobrowski
Oct 25, 2003
Are you absolutely sure your using the Epson print driver? If you’re running WinXP, Microsoft surrepticiously substitutes it’s OWN drivers whenever possible. Believe me the Microsoft printer driver for my Epson didn’t even come close (like you, washed out prints) until I realized what was going on.

Select Start | Printers and Faxes, right-click your printer icon and select Properties. Check the Version. If it states Microsoft anywhere, that’s the problem, and go get the latest driver from the Epson site.

Best regards,
Walt
D
Dimrilldell
Oct 26, 2003
Eva:

More than a year ago I had a similar situation with an Epson C-80. Certain colors, mainly black and purple were off.

I noticed that other people on the web were complaining about it too.

No amount of tinkering, either on my own or guided by Epson, would fix it. So I sent it back and bought an HP printer, which I think is otherwise inferior, but at least it prints more accurate colors.

In all other respects (except maybe the noise it made) the Epson C-80 was superior to any printer I have ever had.

Dimrilldell
ED
Eva_Deck
Oct 26, 2003
Walt, yes, I use the latest driver downloaded from Epson. I use Windows ME.

Nancy, Epson changed the menus when it changed from C80 to C82. But they’re reasonably close to the C80. I will try your settings. Have you ever tried the "ICM" choice under color management? Do you use "edge smoothing"? The default gamma is 1.5. You have set yours to 1.8. If I understand correctly, the higher the gamma setting, the lighter the color. Or do I have that backward? Under the choice of matte heavy weight for paper, there are choices for fine, photo, best photo, and photo RPM. Do you happen to know what photo RPM is?

Thanks.
Eva
NS
Nancy_S
Oct 26, 2003
Eva,

Sorry, I don’t have a clue what photo RPM is. But I’m sure a look at the Epson website will give you an explanation (as you said, our print menus do seem to differ some).

Yes, I have tried ICM…in fact I believe I tried every combination of settings! I spent an entire day, using selections from two very different photos, printing out these partial images as rows on full Matte sheets and comparing the printouts to my monitor. Many of the differences were slight, some were incredibly different and unacceptable. The settings I use, which I outlined, looked to me the best correlation between monitor and print (very close match). My objective was to have my printout match what I saw onscreen so that I could believe my image’s colors would transfer to paper. I felt the colors on my monitor were a good representation of the colors in the scene (displayed correctly).

You need not use tons of paper and ink to do some comparison yourself. Use strips of images about 2′ wide. Duplicate this (these) strips on different layers. Arrange all the layers so they don’t overlap. Add text notation to each for settings for printer you will use. Having only one layer visible, send it to the printer. Return paper to printer, make invisible the former layer and highlight the next one. Proceed like this to be economical with your consumables. The adjacent samples are easy to compare. Good luck! Come back with your findings.

Nancy
PA
Patti_Anderson
Oct 26, 2003
To Nancy: First of all, thanks for taking the time to write out the settings you use. I previously had a C80, but gave it to my daughter when she went back to college this summer. I bought myself the C82. I’m trying to come up with a system for printing from Elements that has some sort of consistency…but so far that goal is a little elusive. The print settings that work great for a flower, don’t work so great for a face. In my case, I really need a good quality photo of a quilt that I can use for a pattern cover — the picture is what sells the pattern.

Questions (Q) & Comments (C)…
1.Questions: Do you have the Color Management turned off in Elements? There’s been a lot of discussion about this in this forum, but there are as many opinions about it as there are people who entered the discussion. LOL So far…I get better results with it off, letting my Epson C82 have control over the color when printing…but I’m still experimenting and not 100% sure I know what I am doing. I’m wondering if having it ON would cause the bleached out problem Eva has been experiencing???

2. Comments: The setup is a little different with the C82. Instead of choosing a Print Quality, you choose a Quality level: Draft, Text, Text & Image, Photo or Best Photo (i.e. there is no Photo 720, Photo 1440, etc.). On the Basic General tab in printer properties, you can choose Advanced. I usually go there first when printing photos.

Like Eva and many others, I’m getting tired of wasting expensive paper and ink. So…I’ve come up with a system of sorts to test print quality and minimize waste. I’m going to start a new forum thread on this subject and would love to have input from others. Maybe we can come up with something that everyone can use.

Patti
ED
Eva_Deck
Oct 26, 2003
Nancy, your "strip" method of testing is brilliant! With the settings typed at the bottom of the strip I will have a reference to check. I need to do several test pages, one each of faces/people, flowers, scenery for starters. I’m also going to look for a photography book that has a page of "standard" colors. I’ll scan it, reduce to "strip size", print and compare the colors to the original.

Patti, I have not used "color management" as yet, but plan to try it on one of my "strips". What will be the topic title of your new forum? Hopefully other folks will offer their testing procedures.

Eva
PA
Patti_Anderson
Oct 26, 2003
Eva, I thought afterwards that I should have given a topic title. The topic will be: Printer testing in Elements. I’m typing it up in offline first and then I’ll post it later today (Sunday).

Patti
ED
Eva_Deck
Oct 26, 2003
Patti, that topic should be very helpful and shoud have a lot of viewers and posters. Thanks. Eva
NS
Nancy_S
Oct 26, 2003
Patti and Eva,

I have Color Management turned off. After experimenting with combinations of settings, I found this this worked best for me. For whatever reason, but I suspect because PSE really has limited CM functionality, if I use full CM (RGB) my images appear on screen way too red and saturated. I found I could color correct for this on my monitor and achieve a good printout, but why, when I can realize the same results without all the fiddling.

Nancy
PA
Patti_Anderson
Oct 27, 2003
I’m still working on the post for my method of printer testing. I’m trying to trim it down a little w/o leaving out important details. Hope to finish it up today.

BTW, I found out what Epson’s Photo RPM means: Resolution Performance Management. Photo RPM uses medium dots in areas of solid color and smaller dots in areas of gradation and blending, increasing speed in printing w/o sacrificing quality. Photo RPM is only available with the better quality paper choices on the Epson C82, but is a standard now for their line of Photo printers. I printed a test on my C82 of nice closeup of a Queen Ann’s Lace — all I can say is…WOW! On a scale of 1 to 10 it’s definitely a 10. It makes me want to run out and buy a photo printer! Well, not today, but I will go buy some more of the better Epson papers.

Patti
ED
Eva_Deck
Oct 27, 2003
Patti, what kind of Epson paper did you use in your test?

Eva
PA
Patti_Anderson
Oct 27, 2003
Most of my tests have been on Epson’s Photo Quality paper — it’s cheaper. The Queen Ann’s Lace photo I mentioned in the previous post, was printed on Epson’s 6 x 4 Glossy Photo Paper. I used Photo RPM and selected Photo Enhance. I unchecked High Speed and did not check Digital camera correction (it makes fuzzy edges).

Writing out my method for printer testing is taking longer than I thought, but I think it will help you, Eva, since I use a C82 also. I’ve got to get some *real* work done now, so I have to put it aside for awhile.

Patti

How to Improve Photoshop Performance

Learn how to optimize Photoshop for maximum speed, troubleshoot common issues, and keep your projects organized so that you can work faster than ever before!

Related Discussion Topics

Nice and short text about related topics in discussion sections