poor color

I have no idea where to look for the answer to this question, but I do know that I will get a good answer here. I use the latest version of Photoshop Elements. My printer is an Epson 870, and I use Epson's Colorlife Photo paper. I have shot a lot of pics with my new Canon 20D at the highest JPEG resolution. I open the jpeg files in Elements, do a little correcting of the color and brighness/contrast, and then print. Epson advised a special .icm driver to be used with its ColorLife paper, which I downloaded and put in the "ProgramFiles/CommonFiles/Adobe/Color/Profiles" folder, maybe not the best place to put the driver, but Epson's documentation did not explain where to put the driver. I followed all of the other directions to the letter (on how to configure the printer to use the driver and the paper), and then under Element's PrintPreview window, I clicked on "Print Space" and in the pulldown menu I chose Epson Color Life. Unfortunately, the prints have a distinct reddish cast. Do I need to calibrate my printer? Did I put the icm driver in the wrong location? What gives? Thank you.

Clint

You're double managing the color. In PE try choosing "printer color management," if you want to choose the profile in the printer driver. It's better to let either PE or your printer do the color management. Letting both try works as well as any situation where two different individuals believe themselves to be the one in charge. :)

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I have no idea where to look for the answer to this question, but I do know that I will get a good answer here. I use the latest version of Photoshop Elements. My printer is an Epson 870, and I use Epson's Colorlife Photo paper. I have shot a lot of pics with my new Canon 20D at the highest JPEG resolution. I open the jpeg files in Elements, do a little correcting of the color and brighness/contrast, and then print. Epson advised a special .icm driver to be used with its ColorLife paper, which I downloaded and put in the "ProgramFiles/CommonFiles/Adobe/Color/Profiles" folder, maybe not the best place to put the driver, but Epson's documentation did not explain where to put the driver. I followed all of the other directions to the letter (on how to configure the printer to use the driver and the paper), and then under Element's PrintPreview window, I clicked on "Print Space" and in the pulldown menu I chose Epson Color Life. Unfortunately, the prints have a distinct reddish cast. Do I need to calibrate my printer? Did I put the icm driver in the wrong location? What gives? Thank you.
Clint

Profiles.

If you are using Wndows XP the profile should go in the folder Windows \ System 32 \ Spool \ Drivers \ Color.

If Windows 98 it should be Windows \ System \ Color

If an earlier OS than Win 98 SE, then Colour Management just does not work. Fixing that was one of the main benefits of SE.

After you select in Elements Print Space " Epson Color Life - 870 " paper as your Printer Profile.

Go to the Epson Printer Driver. Select Col Life in the media drop down and the other print options you usually prefer. Ensure that "High Speed" & "Finest Detail" are Off.

Then go to Custom and its Advanced Tab and select "No Color Management".

This way Elements will make the corrections to the image Data to produce the correct print, and the Printer will just print the Data exactly as it is received from Elements.

Barbara's way will stop Elements from doing the CM, and let the Printer do it. But there can be complications if you happen to make a wrong choice in some of the Printer Options.

Letting Elements do the CM by setting the Printer to "No C. M." usually greys out the dangerous Printer options.

Of course, (sting in the tail as always), this all assumes that your Monitor Calibration is fairly accurate.

Roy G

Clint, if you downloaded the self extracting profile from the Epson site and unzipped it should have been extracted to your epson folder>C;Epson>Epson 10025. Right click on profile>click 'install profile'.

In Elements under edit>color settings>choose 'full color management'.

Start with an image that is in Adobe rgb color space. If your image is in sRGB color space you can go to file>'save as' and be sure image is saved in 'psd format' and uncheck 'color'> sRGB. You can also rename it if you wish for easier finding....click 'save'.***

Re-open image and a dialogue box will prompt you to choose a profile. Choose Adobe rgb.

Go to file 'print'
check 'show more options'
in 'Print Space' scroll down to' Epson xxxx ColorLife 1440 2' and select it.

Click the 'Page set up' >printer> properties>media type>choose ' Photo quality glossy film*. Next select 'Custom' and/or 'Advanced' and in Print Quality choose 1440dpi OR 'Photo' setting depending on which driver you have. Turn off High speed,finest detail and edge smoothing (if availabe). Next select ' no color adjust'. Click OK right through to print.

* ** To avoid this step you can go to preferences> 'saving files' and check 'ignore exif color space....altho this has not been known to work for everyone.

* This is not a typo

have an 870 that prints very good color on colorlife. my settings are. glossy film gamma 2.2 (windows)
color controls checked
Mode automatic
brightness +3
contrast 0'
saturation 0
cyan 0
magenta -15
yellow +2
on my samsung 19" lcd, calibrated with samsung's magic tune the prints are closer in color than my tired old eyes can find fault with. good luck, Paul

Clint, I meant to add...pay no attention to the 'print preview' as it tends to look really bad while using this method of printing with color management. This is not what will print out.

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Clint, if you downloaded the self extracting profile from the Epson site and unzipped it should have been extracted to your epson folder>C;Epson>Epson 10025. Right click on profile>click 'install profile'.

In Elements under edit>color settings>choose 'full color management'.
Start with an image that is in Adobe rgb color space. If your image is in sRGB color space you can go to file>'save as' and be sure image is saved in 'psd format' and uncheck 'color'> sRGB. You can also rename it if you wish for easier finding....click 'save'.***

Re-open image and a dialogue box will prompt you to choose a profile. Choose Adobe rgb.

Go to file 'print'
check 'show more options'
in 'Print Space' scroll down to' Epson xxxx ColorLife 1440 2' and select it.

Click the 'Page set up' >printer> properties>media type>choose ' Photo quality glossy film*. Next select 'Custom' and/or 'Advanced' and in Print Quality choose 1440dpi OR 'Photo' setting depending on which driver you have. Turn off High speed,finest detail and edge smoothing (if availabe). Next select ' no color adjust'. Click OK right through to print.

* ** To avoid this step you can go to preferences> 'saving files' and check 'ignore exif color space....altho this has not been known to work for everyone.

* This is not a typo

Hi Jodi.

I have read your post with interest.

If you read mine, there seems to be some difference about where Profiles live.

My version of Elements (2) seems to look for Printer Profiles in the Widows \\\\ Driver folders, beside all the other Profiles.

Is there something different about E 3, or will both ways of doing it work equally well?

I was also interested in your "Non Typo" of media choice. I have noticed that for Non Epson Papers, the instructions about using the Paper Profiles nearly always advise Glossy Film as media type. Do you have a specific reason for this choice for Epson Papers.

There is one problem, which I discovered, with choosing Glossy Film. My Printer Driver will not then allow the use of "No Margins", or if "No Margins " is chosen first "Glossy Film" does not show up in media Choice. I often use "No Margins" as a means of ensuring that landscape formats get printed with equal margins at Left and Right sides.

Roy G