Luminous Landscape Forum

Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Printing: Printers, Papers and Inks => Topic started by: petercorb on February 21, 2013, 08:19:39 am

Title: Epson 3800 ABW
Post by: petercorb on February 21, 2013, 08:19:39 am
I have an Epson 3800 which I dont use much and never used with CS6 + Mountain Lion.

I have just tried to use it with CS6 an cannot get the ABW controls to appear (they are greyed out) when I set Photoshop Manages Color's and the Printer Profile to sRGB in the Print Settings dialogue.

Any idea "what I am doing wrong"

Thanks

Peter
Title: Re: Epson 3800 ABW
Post by: Ken Bennett on February 21, 2013, 09:25:44 am
Dunno if this will help, but the Printer Profile should be a profile for the paper you are using, not sRGB. For example, the Epson Lustre paper or whatever you are using.
Title: Re: Epson 3800 ABW
Post by: petercorb on February 21, 2013, 10:26:33 am
Well according to this discussion on LL http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=68427.0 and to an old workflow by Eric Chan, one should use the sRGB rather than a paper profile.

However it doesn't make any difference what I change, I cannot get the ABW to show - it remains greyed out - never did this with CS4 and my previous iteration of OSX.

Thanks for you contribution
Title: Re: Epson 3800 ABW
Post by: samueljohnchia on February 21, 2013, 10:40:17 am
If i am not mistaken the Epson ABW driver expects data to be in the sRGB tone curve, which is a 1024 point curve that cannot be represented as a simple gamma curve. If you send any files converted to a gamma based working space, there is going to be additional tone mapping into the sRGB tone curve.
Title: Re: Epson 3800 ABW
Post by: petercorb on February 21, 2013, 10:52:10 am
Well that may be ? But in simple terms I used to be able to simply print an RGB file as per Chans workflow - now I cant, so what has changed?
Title: Re: Epson 3800 ABW
Post by: Robert Katz on February 21, 2013, 11:08:11 am
As noted in a previous thread this is a MAC pipeline issue:

Title: Re: Epson ABW selection grayed out (CS5)
Post by: Schewe on October 29, 2011, 12:07:30 PM
Quote from: Alan Goldhammer on October 29, 2011, 07:21:49 AM
Jeff, isn't this only the case with Mac OS?
Yes, this is a Mac OS print pipeline issue...it impacts both Photoshop and Lightroom.

If you are using a Mac OS the Epson ABW profile is not available for use. I don't profess to understand it since I use a PC.
When you do use the ABW is is a non-profile workflow. In LR you use Manage by Printer and you do not use an ICC profile
Robert
Title: Re: Epson 3800 ABW
Post by: petercorb on February 21, 2013, 11:58:59 am
Thank you for the information, I presume there is no further explanation. What I do know is that until my recent upgrade to Lion and CS6 it did work - ah well!
Title: Re: Epson 3800 ABW
Post by: Sal Baker on February 21, 2013, 12:28:17 pm
Your OS upgrade may have changed your printer default.

Go to Print, go to the Epson driver
Select Color Matching from the drop down menu
If ColorSync is selected simple change the setting to "Epson Color Controls"

Sal


Title: Re: Epson 3800 ABW
Post by: petercorb on February 21, 2013, 12:58:29 pm
Also greyed out ! :(
Title: Re: Epson 3800 ABW
Post by: RHPS on February 21, 2013, 02:26:56 pm
I'm not a Mac user, but even so, I 'm not sure why you want to use Photoshop Manages Colors in this case. As I understand it the ABW mode is intended to be "self-contained" i.e. Printer Manages Colors. It does indeed expect the file to be in the sRGB color space but you don't need to let Photoshop manage colors to do that. If the image itself is in sRGB surely that's all you need to do. Have you tried letting the printer manage colors?
Title: Re: Epson 3800 ABW
Post by: digitaldog on February 21, 2013, 02:54:37 pm
On Mac using more modern versions of the OS, you MUST set Photoshop first for Printer Manages Color. Then you can alter the Color Matching settings to Epson Color Controls (with Photoshop manages color, you can't even do this). Once done, you can then set AB&W.

With Color Matching set to Photoshop (or application) manages color, ColorSync is selected for you by Photoshop hence Advanced B&W isn't an option.
Title: Re: Epson 3800 ABW
Post by: petercorb on February 21, 2013, 04:16:16 pm
Hi Rodney,
Thank you. I have spent the last hour or so ploughing though the 2011 + threads on this subject. Why is it such a mystery?