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Author Topic: Horrible Yellow Problem with Epson 3880  (Read 2979 times)

pflower

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Horrible Yellow Problem with Epson 3880
« on: May 08, 2017, 07:14:32 pm »

Printing through LR CC on Ilford Gold Fibre Silk using the canned paper profile from Ilford.  I also have a custom made profile which I have made through Spyder Print and generally there is very little difference between the two.  I have had no problems until just this evening (to be clear I have been printing over 100 photographs in the last batch over several days without any problems until now).  Several photographs with strong yellow tones print as muddy orange - not remotely like the image on the screen.  (And yes I do have a calibrated monitor - iMac 5k 27inch).  So I tried with both profiles - virtually no difference - muddy orange.  I tried various purge files I have thinking that maybe there was a leakage from one of the blacks into the yellow line (something I seem to remember from an old 3800 which eventually broke). But the purge files print each colour exactly as I would expect - i.e. on the yellow channel as a proper yellow and not a muddy orange.  And again to be clear that is on a file which has all colours and not just single colours.

So that leads me to think the problem is not hardware related.  I haven't changed anything in my software - Mac OS 10.11.6 and LR CC 2015.8 - that combination has worked perfectly for months and for hundreds of prints.  The yellow cartridge is half full and has an expiry date of May 2018.  I have taken it out and given it a bit of shake.  I downloaded a new canned profile from Ilford - same problem.  I am well aware of the dangers of double profiling but the printer settings are as they should be - i.e. Colour Management is off  and the correct profile is chosen from the LR Print Module.  I now never use Photoshop but opened one of the images in PS and looked at the gamut warning - not out of gamut.

I am at a bit of a loss as to what I should  do to try and ascertain what is causing the problem. 

Any thoughts?

Many thanks
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Mark D Segal

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Re: Horrible Yellow Problem with Epson 3880
« Reply #1 on: May 08, 2017, 08:03:19 pm »

Did you check all the settings in the printer driver? Those all need to be correct as well as the settings in the LR Print module menu. Sometimes those can mysteriously morph into something other than what you expect them to be.
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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pearlstreet

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Re: Horrible Yellow Problem with Epson 3880
« Reply #2 on: May 09, 2017, 04:43:00 pm »

Unfortunately, this is not a good sign. I had the same issues with my 3800. Search yellow Epson 3800 on this forum.
http://forum.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?topic=93948.msg766818#msg766818

 http://forum.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?topic=92626.0
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pflower

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Re: Horrible Yellow Problem with Epson 3880
« Reply #3 on: May 10, 2017, 02:51:44 pm »

Actually looks like a profile problem not a hardware problem.  I fired up another 3880 which had been lying dormant for a while (I hadn't printed on it for at least 6 months and although it went through a cleaning cycle when turned on, the nozzle check disclosed no broken lines at all).  Exactly the same result.  And again a purge file prints pure yellow.  Checking other prints against my monitor, I would say that the monitor is pretty well calibrated.  I have also checked all printer driver boxes etc. and am clear that these are as they should be - i.e. no colour controls other than the profile through LR.

It is curious however.  I have detected no problems with "normal" prints which include various shades of yellow.  But these 2 photographs were pretty much pure yellow, and, for what it is worth, reported to be within gamut in Photoshop.  But the prints are muddy and orange and completely at odds with the image on the screen.  Out of curiosity I printed another version using Printer Managed Color with the Color Mode in the driver set to Adobe RGB and with Epson Color Controls. The result was dramatically worse than the versions with the profiles. 

There seems to be some problem in the interaction between my profiles (canned and home made with Spyder print), Ilford Gold Fibre Silk and the Ultrachrome ink set.  I remember being horrified by some prints I made a couple of years ago of yellow flowers which turned out to be orange, but when viewed 24 hours later in daylight (not the halogen in my room at night) were OK. These two show no difference the next day and in daylight.

Maybe time to buy a more sophisticated profile.

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Rand47

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Re: Horrible Yellow Problem with Epson 3880
« Reply #4 on: May 10, 2017, 06:15:57 pm »

Quote
Maybe time to buy a more sophisticated profile.

I know there are others here who will make custom profiles for you, but I can also heartily recommend Andrew Rodney, "The Digital Dog" - a former frequenter of this board.

I recently had Andrew make five custom profiles for my P 5000 printer, including three of Epson's Legacy papers.  The difference in output over Epson's stock profiles is amazing.  I was expecting "better" - but frankly not the degree of "better" I'm experiencing.  Worth every dime spent and the effort to get proper targets to Andrew. 

Rand

PS - By the way, glad to hear it wasn't a hardware problem!
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Rand Scott Adams

pflower

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Re: Horrible Yellow Problem with Epson 3880
« Reply #5 on: May 12, 2017, 01:34:23 pm »

Curious and Curiouser.  I put these prints away and concentrated on others for a few days.  When I looked at them again they had completely changed and now reflect pretty much what was on the screen.  It seems that there is something about the interaction between Epson Yellow and Ilford Gold Fibre Silk which requires a significant about of time to settle before arriving at the final destination.  Out of curiosity I printed another copy on Gold Fibre Silk - a mushy dull mess and one on some old Permajet paper I had for proofing.  The latter print was pretty good.  I will keep an eye on the new IFGS print and try and determine how long it takes to settle.  Interestingly none of non-yellow tones in the new print were significantly different to the older print - just the yellows.
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Mark D Segal

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Re: Horrible Yellow Problem with Epson 3880
« Reply #6 on: May 12, 2017, 01:38:33 pm »

I've never ever seen that kind of interaction between IGFS and Epson printers and I've done a ton of work with that very combination.
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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Farmer

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Re: Horrible Yellow Problem with Epson 3880
« Reply #7 on: May 12, 2017, 06:12:58 pm »

Is this a single batch of paper or multiple (not packets, but batches)?

The ink will be stable to within a delta E of less than 1 within 30 minutes.  You shouldn't see any noticeable changes after that time.
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Phil Brown

Rand47

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Re: Horrible Yellow Problem with Epson 3880
« Reply #8 on: May 13, 2017, 12:00:07 pm »

I've never ever seen that kind of interaction between IGFS and Epson printers and I've done a ton of work with that very combination.

+1  on multiple Epson pigment printers.  GFS is one of my "go to" papers.

Rand
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Rand Scott Adams
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