Change in Color Matching from OS 10.6 to OS 10.8

[Georgecp]

Hello everyone,

I have recently upgraded my MacPro from Snow Leopard (though I kept a boot disk for rosetta applications) to OS 10.8.3 to accommodate the forthcoming LR5.  Unfortunately, I noticed almost immediately that my soft proof in Lightroom was no longer matching my prints when viewed in my standard 5K GTI viewing setup.  I had this working very smoothly with Snow Leopard but it appears that something has changed. I am using an Eizo CG series monitor with an I1Pro 2 spectro and using I1Profiler to make the profiles.  My printer is an Epson 4900.  I keep my monitor set at low luminance (80 candelas), 5k color temp, and relatively low contrast range (275:1) to mimic paper density range within reason.

Net/net - my soft proofs in Lightroom v4 look great on the screen; the prints look cooler toned and darker in my viewing booth.  They used to match before the OS switch.  The Espon website shows that my printer driver is supposed to be the same for 10.8.3 as it was for snow leopard.  Same for the Eizo calibration software.

My LR printing workflow is pretty standard; LR manages colors, using my profile, in this case I am using relative conversion.  No changes to procedure here.

It smells like there is some "unintended" color management/double profiling going on here but I don't know.

Can someone give me some pointers where to explore so that I can narrow down my options to accurately diagnose the situation?

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Regards,
George Pappas

[Mac Mahon]

George
No such problems here: 10.8.4, LR4, Epson 3880, NEC PA24W.  No chance that he monitor profile has been reset to a Mac default in the upgrade?
Tim

[Georgecp]

Hi Tim and group....

No progress here...Tim, I have checked and the Eizo-specific monitor does appear to be active on the Eizo monitor.  The other reason this appears to be the case is that the image looks "fine" in LR and with LR soft proof - when I export as a TIFF and print with QTR print tool using the same printer profile, the print looks great!  The color cast is gone and the tonal compression is as I saw it on the monitor.

This tells me that the issue is with the LR4/5 print pipeline where I am using the same printer profile, printer driver settings, and getting different results than both my monitor view and the print from QTR print tool.  I would like to be able to use the LR print pipeline because of its functional features and simpler workflow.

I had read Bruce Frazier's color management book a while back - it was very good conceptually but the execution of these things is where it either works or doesn't and there have been many software/printer/OS/CMM releases since then..

I am going to start from scratch and look at every link the chain...any suggestions/pointers would be appreciated from this knowledgeable group...

Thanks,
George

[Mac Mahon]

George

If QTRPrint is working OK then it's not likely that whatever the issue is has anything to do with the change to 10.8.

I hesitate to suggest this, as you seem to have looked at everything:  but is it possible that something has come undone in the LR print settings, such as an inadvertent change to the media setting?

Otherwise sounds very strange.

Tim