Printer Profile Nightmare

[Samotano]

I have been struggling with my printer for a week now.  Here are the details:

Problem:  Very noticeable magenta cast on all my prints
Printer: Epson 2200
OS: Win 7 Pro 64bit
Printer driver: v. 5.92 (latest)
Profile: custom profile (professionally made by a color consultant)
Host software: Photoshop CS5
Image: flattened, 8-bit, RGB

I have tried all sorts of different settings to no avail.  I have tried changing the rendering intent, black point comp., I tried using the canned profile, changed type of paper, performed nozzle checks and cleaning, head alignment.  All results all consistently wrong, showing the very same color cast.  Of course, the inks are all original.

I don't know what else to try or think.  The fact that using the canned profile in the printer dialog box (hence NOT letting PS manage color) did not help, is leading me to think that the problem may be with the printer itself.  One thing I noticed is that, becaused I have not used the printer in a long time, I changed 4/7 inks.  The 4 new cartridges are made in Mexico, while the 3 old ones (Cyan, LightCyan, LightMagenta) are made in Japan.  I don't have any new cartridges to swap the 3 old ones right now. 

Does anyone know what test I could run to try and isolate the problem?
Thanks.

[PeterAit]

Are you sure you don't have double color management? Just selecting a profile in the printer dialog does not automatically turn off PS's color management (not in CS4, anyway), you must do it manually.

[digitaldog]

That you are getting a magenta cast WITH the canned profile, that sounds like a driver or color management setting issue (as Peter mentioned, using the profile twice). So comparing the canned and custom profile, both look quite close? Magenta but close? That kind of points to the direction of a miss-setting somewhere.

The test to isolate it would be to send a document to the printer you’ve never printed before (in case you converted it) using No Color Management in Photoshop. You see a green print?

[Samotano]

Thanks Peter and Andrew.  Yes the canned and custom profiles are very very close to one another (nearly identical) both with the magenta cast.  I will try Andre's suggestion.
I took a quick shot of the results to give the idea of what I am dealing with:


This is what I do when I have PS apply the profile on the fly:



and this is when I let the printer hanfle it:

[digitaldog]

The settings look fine. You might want to output a different file (a reference image), something like this:

http://www.digitaldog.net/files/Printer_Test_file.jpg.zip

Or the test images here:http://www.pixl.dk/download/pixl_testimage2002_rgb.jpg

[Samotano]

I just run a test with the digitaldog test image and the custom profile. The magenta cast is still there 
The white patches are white.  As soon as it shifts to gray it also starts shifting towards magenta.  Black has a cast too it appears. The middle gray patch has the strongest cast.  The stucco is pinkish, not beige as I see it on the (profiled) monitor.  Even by proofing the printer in PS I do not see this magenta cast.

[digitaldog]

I just run a test with the digitaldog test image and the custom profile. The magenta cast is still there 

At least the points to a driver setting or Photoshop setting somewhere or an issue with the printer itself.

All heads are firing>

[Samotano]

Reinstalled the driver.  Didn't help.  Then I swapped the old cyan.  I also removed and shook the old Light Magenta.  It works!!!    Pretty sure the cyan was the culprit even though it was not empty.  Go figure.

[JohnTodd]

Samotano,

Glad to hear changing the ink worked. If it doesn't stay correct, you might want to change the document to Adobe RGB instead of ProPhoto - I believe there have been some problems with the Epson driver expecting the source data to be in Adobe RGB regardless of what it actually is.

[Schewe]

I believe there have been some problems with the Epson driver expecting the source data to be in Adobe RGB regardless of what it actually is.

Uh no...you have that completely wrong. The regular Epson driver for color takes whatever color space you give it and either does a transform itself (if you have printer manages color on) or accepts the data from the application if managed by the app. Changing to Adobe RGB will do nothing to resolve color management issues. The _ONLY_ aspect where the data being sent may have an impact is in the special case of the Epson Advanced B&W mode where that mode only is expecting Adobe RGB. But that is not related to color space, only the gamma of B&W printing..,