Epson 3800 and B&W prints

[Robert Katz]

I have been printing B&W from LR for several years using the 3800 and Eric Chan's ABW profile for Ilford Gold Fibre Silk with very good results. In the Epson print dialog I have been using the same settings consistently.Today out of the blue (pardon the pun) I am getting the results you see attached.Where there should be dark/black tones there is the hideou blue!  My color printing seems fine. I get the same results just using the Epson driver.  I have checked the cartridges, run the usual cleaning, alignment,etc.  I have re down loaded Erics profiles for several papers including matte and gloss and keeping get the same results. I have been using Windows 7 for quite awhile.
I am stumped. Anyone have any thoughts?
Thanks
Robert Katz

[Mark D Segal]

Is there ANYTHING you can think of that changed since you last got correct results?

[Robert Katz]

Mark,
 Good question.  After thinking about it  I came up with two changes over the last several months:
 I have done all the LR upgrades; now up to 3.4 RC
 It is possible that this is the first B&W printing I have done with Windows 7.
 Can't think of anything else
 Robert
 

[Mark D Segal]

OK, so that tells you the problem is probably lodge with either LR or Wondows 7, and between the two I would be inclined to suspect more likely the latter. To rule out LR, try printing from Photoshop, or from LR 3.3. which is not an RC, and see whether you get correct results. If you do not, that increases the chances it is a Windows problem, if you do, it means that it is most likey an LR RC problem.

[Alan Goldhammer]

This looks like some kind of cyano toning of the image.  If you are printing from a preset go back and check all of your Epson driver settings, particularly the toning wheel to see if anything is amiss.  I printed out a bunch of targets for Aardenburg testing a couple of months ago using all the different extremes of the toning wheel and that looks like one of them to me.  I've run LR on a Win7 migration computer and never had a problem with any of the settings be altered.  Weird stuff if it's not the tinting wheel.

[Robert Katz]

Mark,
 Thanks for your reply. Not sure how to go back to LR 3.3 once I have gone to 3.4RC?
Robert

[Mark D Segal]

First I think Alan's suggestion is definitely worth checking. As for LR, I think you can download the demo of 3.3 and install your serial number. May require a call to Adobe, not sure. There has to be a way.

[Robert Katz]

Mark, Alan,
 I did check the tint wheel and it is right in the middle and there have been no changes/alterations.
 I printed out of CS5 (I have done that in a long time!) same results.
 Downloaded  LR 3.3, same results. Next stop call Adobe support. As for the possibility that Windows is
 causing this problem I would not know where to begin.....!
Appreciate your help.
Robert

[Mark D Segal]

Well, if you are having the same problems with three application versions, two of which are known to work well with that printer in ABW mode, it looks more and more like a colour-management problem with Windows 7. But there may still be another issue with the print pipeline. Perhaps dumb question, but are you sure there is no double colour management going on? If you are using ABW, it should be on Printer Color Management, in which case Photoshop and LR colour management should be unselected. Another thing I would suggest trying is to download the Adobe Print Utility and related instructions (free) from the Adobe website, which was designed for printing profiling targets with no colour management, and try printing a B&W version of that file through it to see what happens. It *should be* reproducing exactly the printer response, unmanaged. If this produces off-gray tones, then perhaps one suspects a printer problem. Not sure - this is deductive logic at work - not experience with such an issue.

[greyscale]

Alan,
 Try removing and reinstalling the driver. Ive had a similar problem, and replacing the driver was the fix for me.

greyscale

[Farmer]

Even though colour prints apparently look fine, if you haven't already, do a nozzle check.

[Alan Goldhammer]

Alan,
 Try removing and reinstalling the driver. Ive had a similar problem, and replacing the driver was the fix for me.

greyscale

+1 on this suggestion.  For some reason your print driver may have been corrupted with the Win7 installation (weird, but strange things sometimes happen).