OK, useful info, you have the right kind of stuff. The remaining questions are about the optimality of settings. I'm quite fussy about print quality - for example, the other day I rejected an otherwise fine 13*19 print of the Deustche Bahn HQ at Potsdamer Platz Berlin at night, because on the print, I found the redness of the very small flourescent "DB" logo at the top of the building somewhat over-exposed. I just missed examining that closely enough on my monitor. So with that in the background, when I tell you my waste ratio is about 1.3% for over 500 sq. ft. printed since April 1, you'll know what I mean by a good standard of colour management. I would not tolerate reprinting anything 3 times. It's a clear sign of a need to drill down on the colour management settings, because while it's not perfect, the science is good enough that for the most part you will find yourself reprinting only because you missed something on your display that was correctable. As for the prints needing increased exposure, that sounds very much like the display being too bright. Perhaps you've read Andrew Rodney's article on this website about "Why Are My Prints Too Dark?" If not, well worthwhile. If you use one paper more than the others, perhaps have a custom profile made, though these days the better manufacturer profiles are actually pretty good. BTW what printer are you using? That said, I kind of suspect without knowing too much about your settings and set-up that perhaps most of the problem will be resolved with different monitor calibration settings for brightness, black point, white point and contrast ratio. It's worthwhile doing some controlled experimenting.
