Problem Color Managing CS4 w/ Epson 3880

[JohnKoerner]

I have purchased Michael's "From Camera To Print" video series, and have watched the whole thing twice.

Unfortunately, this vidoe deals with Adobe CS2 & 3 and I have Adobe CS4, and while enormously helpful in many respects ... in the end I am not getting what I want to get in my prints.

I have tried to follow Jeff Schewe's thoughts and actions of having my Color Space at ProPhoto, of soft-proofing, and I have loaded the correct paper for soft-proofing, saved this profile, and then I hit the "Print" button under "File. When I do this, I again make sure my Color Profile is ProPhoto, that Adobe manages my color (not the printer), that my paper is selected right (Epson Premium Luster), I check the "Match Print Colors" box and "Page Setup."

When I do this, a new dialogue box pops up and everything seems straight except that my paper reads Epson Super Premium Luster paper (instead of just Epson Premium Luster), and there seems to be no way to get the exact paper I am using under the "Custom Settings" option. I have also clicked both "No Color Adjustment" as well as "ICM" under the "Custom" mode ... and the same thing happens ...

When I click the final "Print" button, a new EPSON "Print Preview" shows up and my whole image looks either FLAT (no color, no vibrance) ... or it looks SUPER-saturated and terrible. Somewhere, somehow, I am missing something along the way.

Any ideas what that is?

Thanks for any input,

Jack

[JohnKoerner]

BTW, I run Windows 7 64-bit ... if that changes anything.

[digitaldog]

Photoshop 4 should work the same as CS2&3 in terms of setting up the Print dialog in Photoshop and the subsequent Epson driver, as long as you are not hitting some CS/OS/Driver issue which is possible.

The color profile selected in Photoshop’s Print dialog should be the paper profile (ProPhoto in your example should show up as the working space above this, its not editable, its just there to show you what the document color space is). You do want No Color Adjustment selected in the Epson driver.

[JohnKoerner]

Photoshop 4 should work the same as CS2&3 in terms of setting up the Print dialog in Photoshop and the subsequent Epson driver, as long as you are not hitting some CS/OS/Driver issue which is possible.
The color profile selected in Photoshop’s Print dialog should be the paper profile (ProPhoto in your example should show up as the working space above this, its not editable, its just there to show you what the document color space is). You do want No Color Adjustment selected in the Epson driver.

Thank you for your time.

Everything looks great when I do this, except when I hit the final "print" button from Photoshop ... another screen comes up (an Epson screen) with a HUGE print preview ... and the image looks horrible. I made a pring anyway, and it came out looking pretty good. Is this Epson screen so horrible-looking because it's an sRGB device trying to read a ProPhoto rendering, or is there something wrong with the way I am managing the color.

Thank you once again,

Jack

[madmanchan]

The Print Preview dialog box in the Epson driver is not color managed. Don't use it to judge color.

[JohnKoerner]

Okay, thanks. The photos themselves are coming out nice.