[**Note that this bug appears to be fixed by the new Epson Mac driver version 8.19 and available from the Epson Europe web site on 12th April 2010.**]
Recently a few people have reported difficulties printing from MacOSX 10.6 Snow Leopard to the Epson Stylus Pro 9600/7600/4000. With the MacOSX 10.6.3 update, Apple seem to have at last resolved problems printing to the Epson 7900 but not so with the 9600. It hasn't been entirely clear to me as to which OS, Photoshop and print driver versions cause problems with the 9600 so I decided to run a series of tests in a similar way to my previous 7900 tests.
(
http://luminous-landscape.com/forum/index....showtopic=31410 )
All the following tests were run twice on my 9600 with the same matte paper stock, the same ink set and the media setting set to Watercolour Paper - Radient White.
Firstly with an untagged test strip. CM disabled in PhotoShop and print driver.
Secondly with a ProPhoto RGB test strip. CM set to PhotoShop manages colours and disabled in print driver. Profile set to Watercolour Paper - Radient White. RC intent.
Table A:
Correct and identical results for both tagged and un-tagged test strips.
MacOSX 10.6.3 + CS4 + Epson driver v8.19. Intel Mac. 9600 *not* set to default printer.
MacOSX 10.3.9 + CS1 + Epson USA driver v1.9b. PPC Mac. 9600 set to default printer.
MacOSX 10.4.11 + CS1 + Epson USA driver v1.9b. PPC Mac. 9600 set to default printer.
MacOSX 10.4.11 + CS4 + Epson USA driver v1.9b. PPC Mac. 9600 set to default printer.
MacOSX 10.4.11 + CS1 + Epson driver v3.09. PPC Mac. 9600 set to default printer.
MacOSX 10.4.11 + CS4 + Epson driver v3.09. PPC Mac. 9600 set to default printer.
MacOSX 10.5.8 + CS1 + Epson driver v3.09. PPC Mac. 9600 set to default printer.
MacOSX 10.5.8 + CS1 + Epson driver v3.09. PPC Mac. 9600 *not* set to default printer.
MacOSX 10.5.8 + CS4 + Epson driver v3.09. PPC Mac. 9600 set to default printer.
Windows XP + CS2.
Windows XP + CS4.
Table B:
Incorrect results for both tagged and un-tagged test strips.
MacOSX 10.5.8 + CS4 + Epson driver v3.09. PPC Mac. 9600 *not* set to default printer.
MacOSX 10.6.3 + CS1 + Epson driver v3.09. Intel Mac. 9600 set to default printer.
MacOSX 10.6.3 + CS1 + Epson driver v3.09. Intel Mac. 9600 *not* set to default printer.
MacOSX 10.6.3 + CS4 + Epson driver v3.09. Intel Mac. 9600 set to default printer. (Note: The untagged test strip did not even print!!!)
MacOSX 10.6.3 + CS4 + Epson driver v3.09. Intel Mac. 9600 *not* set to default printer. (Note: The untagged test strip with this combination seemed almost correct to my naked eye.)
And my conclusions? I suspect that the Epson 9600 print driver is the main problem but I doubt it will be updated.
I won't be using MacOSX 10.6 Snow Leopard for printing to my Epson 9600.
Edit1: Added default printer combinations.
Edit2: Bug appears fixed by new Epson Europe driver version 8.19.