Finding and installing the most recent print driver for Epson Stylus Pro 3800

[Muizen]

Already for some time I am trying to solve the following printing problem:
I am using:
- iMac 10.6.8
- Lightroom 4.4
- Epson Stylus Pro 3800 (bought in 2009) with print driver version 9.22.

When I try to apply printing advises out of books like "Scott Kelby LR 4",  "Mac Snow Leopard 'the Missing Manual", and even the "EPSON User Guide" that came with the printer, the menus related to printing are often different of those that I see in Lightroom.
Even some of the print menus in the Scott Kelby book, of the 3800 which he uses too, are never precisely the same.
I just want the printer menus in Lightroom for my printer to be the same as the ones that are in recent books, guides etc.

It can be that I have to update the print driver of my 3800?

Here I have the following problems:

* 1) What print driver should I download and install?
I found the following drivers on the Epson site for the 3800:
- PrintDriver2.18.dmg;

- 16250.dmg;

- 378843eu.dmg;

- 377567eu.dmg

* 2) Before installing the new driver do I first have to uninstall the present print driver (which I have on a CD that came with the printer)?

* 3) How can I find out what User manual fits my EPSON 3800 and its new driver?

Thanks for helping me!

P.S. I posted this request for help in some other printer forums but didn't find a solution.
 

[dgillilan]

Hello,
I use an Epson 3800 also, along with a few canons.  I have a lot of research and articles on my 3800 in a binder that I have used to record its maintenance and learning points.
The present driver is the epson12494.exe file which is downloaded from the epson site.
I don't think that I uninstalled my old driver prior to installing the new one.
I also downloaded and use the Epson LFP remote panel software, I recommend that to you, it offers some other maintenance and features that I find useful. I have mine networked in an ethernet connection wired to my router.
I recommend Eric Chan's site for the Epson R3800 printer, he developed an awesome site on the printer a few years ago and has many custom curves and tons of articles and paper reviews used on the printer, etc. Eric is now a software developer with the Adobe Photoshop Camera Raw team. Eric's site is here:
http://people.csail.mit.edu/ericchan/dp/Epson3800/index.html

As for the user manual, that should be included on the cd that you mentioned you have, for your printer. The menus do change as the drivers are changed and they may not look the same from change to change. But the functions will still work, for instance, custom paper configuration still works the same in the manual now, as it did in 2007 when I bought mine, even though my driver is up to date and my menus may look a little different than when I first bought it.   

If you have more questions, I will be glad to try to assist. Mine is still working great and I perform a cleaning page print at least once or twice/weekly.  The cleaning page is better than a nozzle check because it prints almost all colors and hues on a 8x10 page. It can be downloaded here:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=75383.msg601885#msg601885

Good luck,
Debra

[Muizen]

Dear Debra,
Thank you for your extensive reply!

I looked at the 12494 Epson driver, but this is for Windows; when I changed the OS to iMac10.6.8 I got the following:
Printer Driver v9.22
07/14/14 47.3 MB epson16250.dmg Download
Common Updater v7.0
05/13/10 13.6 MB epson13884.dmg

I downloaded and installed both some time ago.
However your info seems to confirm that I now have the most recent print drivers!

One question: sometimes reference is being made to Printer Utilities 1 and 2, but I only can find Printer Utilities 3 and 4.
Is this normal?

The Eric Chan site is very interesting indeed but again a good example of the many differences in the menus he shows and the ones I see on my 3800!

Thanks again!

Harry

[howardm]

can you upload some of these 'differences' you see?  I have had a 3800 and 3880 for a long time and really, the images of the driver pages have changed zero or very little over time.  You're giving little information that we can use to help you resolve the problems you are having.

Are you referring to these images from Eric?  http://people.csail.mit.edu/ericchan/dp/Epson3800/Print3800MacColor.zip

The only driver settings that are often used are Printer Controls and Advanced Media Controls.

[Muizen]

can you upload some of these 'differences' you see?  I have had a 3800 and 3880 for a long time and really, the images of the driver pages have changed zero or very little over time.  You're giving little information that we can use to help you resolve the problems you are having.

Are you referring to these images from Eric?  http://people.csail.mit.edu/ericchan/dp/Epson3800/Print3800MacColor.zip

The only driver settings that are often used are Printer Controls and Advanced Media Controls.

I will put together a limited review of the differences I am talking about. But this is not easy to do and will take some time.
I will be back to you soonest;
Harry

[Muizen]

Quite a number of modifications took place in the menus of the 3800 driver of 2007 as compared against the ones used today as become visible in Lightroom 4.4.
If you like to study these modifications, download http://people.csail.mit.edu/ericchan/dp/Epson3800/ and thereafter go to "How to configure the Epson driver on the Mac" Download the files for MAC ABW and Mac Color.
Then open Lightroom and select menus. Compared against 2007 (in Eric Chan article) here are some of the changes:

- Page setup: "flip horizontally" added
- A new chapter has been added "Supply levels, formerly included in menus at the bottom of menus
- Paper Handling: "destination paper size" added and other changes
- Print(er) Setting: lots of changes in Basic (ABW), too many to refer to one by one;
- Advanced Media Control: is now Paper Configuration
- Summary: various changes; Copies & Pages is mentioned in Summary, but I can not find this in a menu.

There are quite a few other modifications and adjustments.
Have no time to refer to all of theses.

None of the various User Manuals for 3800 do reflect all these changes.
No manual exists that contains the menus that are used today as in LR.
If somebody is not familiar with using printers and studies the instructions, and puts these alongside e.g. the menus in LR 4.4 it becomes extremely confusing because so many of the latest 3800 menus like those used in LR, are not the same as in the manual!

All of this makes using the 3800 printer complicated because of adding many puzzles that could have been been avoided.

[dgillilan]

Harry,
What I tend to do when I print to any of my photo printers, is to be sure that I have turned OFF the printer driver controlling color, and Turned ON the "photoshop controls color" or "Lightroom controls color", and then choose the proper icc print profile for the paper and printer used.  If you are not familiar with icc profiles, I can help further to give you some of the sites that I learned from. I develop my own print icc profiles with my Xrite i1 hardware, and use some "generic" or canned (offered by the paper manufacture website, for a given printer model and paper type) that seem to be very good(as far as Innova, Ilford, and Hahnemuhle and crane museo go).

I would refer you to page 72 and 74 in the original Epson R3800 user manual as to how to turn off the printer managing color in your photo prints. Also, the black and white advanced feature for black and white prints, within the Epson driver, especially if you use some of Eric Chan's curves, are superior and excellent. (note for macintosh, the pages are 55, 56, and 59).

Hope this helps,
Debra

[howardm]

you can no longer use Eric's BW profiles w/ ABW mode.  they removed that capability a number of years ago.
There might be some ultra-convoluted way around it but I'm not that interested in finding it.  QTR software is an alternative I believe.

[Muizen]

Debra,
Thank you for your advise.
You refer to the "original Epson R3800 User manual. Could you please be so kind as to send me the web address where I can find this Manual.

I have the Epson Stylus Printer Guide 128 pages. In this guide pages 72 thru 74 are in the section Printing with Epson Drivers for Windows'. I am a iMac user.
I also have the Epson Stylus Pro 3800 User's Guide 198 pages. Pages 72-74 talk about output options. scheduler, paper handling and ColorSync.
Then I found a guide: https://files.support.com/htmldocs/pro38_ug/i_index.htm. Looks interesting but I can not print it.
A confusing situation because the menus in all of these guides are sometimes different from those I get in my Lightroom Print module.
Thank you for your help!
Harry

[BobShaw]

I would seriously look at updating the OS to 10.9 as 10.6 is vintage now.

With or without doing that get Mirage Print and all your printing problems are gone.
Epson drivers are ordinary and you will spend your life keeping them working. I never print from an application now.

[Peter Mellis]

I'm curious about the comment regarding Eric Chan's profiles. I recently switched from a PC running XP to one using Win7 Pro 64bit; had to download a new driver in order to get my 3800 working. Those profiles worked with the original driver that was loaded when I bought the printer. Are you saying that the profiles will not work with the newer driver? How do you know this?

[dgillilan]

Hello Harry,
The "original Epson 3800 manual" is the one that shipped, hard copy, with my printer. The copyright date is 2006 and it is 128 pages, which you said that you have that one. I believe that the one online is not the same and is very "watered down" and does not seem to have the technical content that this manual has.

Also, have you done some searching on the Adobe site in the support area, for printing menus, you might find some help there, I have found lots of help for Lightroom and Photoshop on various topics, there.

Also, there is another photography site here below, that has information on the Epson 3800, that has lots of reviews and insight into this printer:
http://www.outbackphoto.com/printinginsights/pi045/essay.html

Debra

[Muizen]

Dear Debra,
The very practical problem is that it is just impossible to know whether there are Guides/Manuals for the 3800 offering information that "ties-in" with the printer menus as these are being used today in recent editions of application software like e.g. Lightroom.
In one of your earlier advises you were saying: "I would refer you to page 72 and 74 in the original Epson R3800 user manual as to how to turn off the printer managing color in your photo prints".
But in none of the Manuals I have located, can the information you refer to be found on pages 72 and 74.
It goes without saying that a Manual dated 2007 can no longer present menus that can be used today 7 years later.
It is a shame that Epson doesn't seem to care at all whether there are Manuals available that are kept up-to-date for the 3800.
I would not be surprised if the same would go for the other printer types of Epson.
It is just a big mess!
Harry

[hugowolf]

I'm curious about the comment regarding Eric Chan's profiles. I recently switched from a PC running XP to one using Win7 Pro 64bit; had to download a new driver in order to get my 3800 working. Those profiles worked with the original driver that was loaded when I bought the printer. Are you saying that the profiles will not work with the newer driver? How do you know this?

You can still use the profiles on a Windows machine. They no longer work with the newer Mac operating system versions. Apple has made it very difficult, if not impossible to 'double profile' - the common beginner error of setting the printing app to manage color and not turning off color management in the driver.

Brian A