Adjusting Inkjet Prints

[jlipkin]

After reading a bit on this forum and listening to advice from a few people, I've replaced my failed 2200 with an Epson R2400. I love the printer so far, but as I don't have an enormous amount of experience with inkjet printers I'm turning to you for some advice.

How do you adjust your files from Photoshop to get the prints to look the way you want? I'm finding that the prints are a bit flat and light, and that the reds and yellows are under saturated. In addition, there's a bit of a cyan/green cast. I can add a curves layer to compensate for the lightness, but I'm having problems with the colors.

I've been using a curves adjustment layer with the blend mode set to color. Helps, but not perfect. Likewise ok but not perfect for a color balance adjustment layer.

I'm using Epson Ultra Premium Luster paper with the canned profiles and Perceptual rendering.

Any thoughts on other tools to adjust the images? I don't want to start trying new papers quite yet till I figure out how to use the luster, which I've seen people get great results with.

[Dennis_Vied]

The answer, of course, is profiling your monitor and printer, which can be quite involved.

You can get close if you experiment with prints and files as you suggested, until you get a print that is satisfactory. Then once you get close, you can adjust the monitor brightness and color to match what you're getting with your prints.

But the real answer is profiling.

I've got a R2400 also, and I really like it.

What happened to your 2200?

[jlipkin]

Dennis -

Thanks for the response. My 2200 died an untimely death when it refused to recognize new cyan cartridges. I was getting a bit frustrated with the printer anyhow because no matter what, even after two custom profiles by two different people, I couldn't get rid of a magenta cast in the midtones. The prints always appeared crossed.

As for the 2400, I am using the canned profiles, which someone (I won't say who, but who printed a large show I was just in and is said to be an expert, though he has an endorsement from Epson) told me were superior to custom profiles. However, you might be right and I will give profiling the printer a try.

[Dennis_Vied]

Actually, if you're getting acceptable prints from the printer with the profiles you have, then the problem is profiling the monitor.

As an afterthought, I've had similar problems with a cast which I solved by disabling one or the other driver, either the printer driver or the program driver as I discovered I had two competing drivers. I hope that wasn't the problem. In any case, you have an excellent printer now, and I hope you resolve all the problems.

[John_S_Chapman]

I would second the monitor calibration comment. If the monitor is not calibrated and profiled then the image on your screen could be the source of the problem.

I don't have a 2400 (yet) but have to other Epson machines. In my experience the profiles from Epson are not to bad. Mine just needed a tweak in the colour balance (-6red) to get a good match.

What concerns me is that you seem to have to do a lot of corrections in curves to get a good screen to print match. I assume you are using Photoshop to work in. May I suggest you check your preferences to make sure nothing has changed.

When I have a problem like this I usually go back to basics, and start from scratch. Make sure Photoshop is configured correctly, profile the monitor, and use a standard profile. As suggested may also be a good idea to remove the 220 driver. Personally I'd remove both the 2200 and the 2400 and then reinstall the 2400, just in case

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