printing problems.

I have an Espson Stylus Photo 960 and am using epson colorlife paper. My problem is that I created an image with various layers. I cannot Flatten or Merge the layers because some of them are "dissolve" layers and when I attempt to merge or flatten them, the dissolve layers become normal and I lose my effect. When I try to print with all the layers in tack, the printout comes out very dark and all the dissolve effects are normalized. Am I doing something wrong? or when printing....the dissolve layer normalizes.
Just a note. I have calibrated my monitor and used the icc profiles from Epson. Please help.....

Nicholas,

I cannot Flatten or Merge the layers because some of them are "dissolve" layers and when I attempt to merge or flatten them, the dissolve layers become normal and I lose my effect.

Are you SURE? The only, and I mean ONLY way to tell is if you are viewing at 100% magnification - anything else is an approximation. I too once thought this was happening when I viewed my 300ppi image at "Fit in Window", but at 100%, clicking back and forth the before and after in the history palette, the anomaly was not present.

Moral? Evaluate at 100% only.

When I try to print with all the layers in tack, the printout comes out very dark

Check out the last paragraph of Post #8 in this thread:
YrbkMgr "Setting monitor gamma" 9/13/03 1:27am </cgi-bin/webx?14/7>

Also, if you haven't already done so, visit Ian Lyons' site. In 15 minutes you should be on your way.

< http://www.computer-darkroom.com/ps7_print/ps7_print_mac.htm>

Peace,
Tony

Thanks much, I will try your suggestion.....

The other thing you can try is the Copy Merged command from the Edit menu. Just paste into a new document and print from there. I've found that this method is better for retaining layer styles and blending (though I can't imagine why) than flattening the master file.