Archived from groups: comp.periphs.printers,rec.photo.digital (
More info?)
Hi there
I suspect from reading the original posting that colour management is not
being applied in any realistic way. Printer & Monitor have both been set
up with sRGB Profiles. The Printer should have been set up to use the Epson
Printer Profiles, but I suspect that in "Custom" > "Advanced" the radio
button is against sRGB.
If you are using a fairly inexpensive LCD Panel, then you are probably never
going to get it Calibrated using Adobe Gamma. If you are starting Adobe
Gamma by selecting sRGB as the Monitor Profile, then the situation is
probably being made worse. I am pretty sure that Windows do not include any
"Generic" Monitor Profiles for LCDs, which could have been a better starting
point. You could try the Monitor manufacturers site to see if they have an
ICC profile for it, and then try applying Adobe Gamma to that, but ensure
you keep a copy of the original monitor profile somewhere, just in case
Adobe Gamma messes it up.
This sort of misuse of Colour Management is very common, and that can be
understood because at first it does all seem to be overcomplicated. Once
people get their heads round the basic principles it all becomes very easy,
but it is not easy to get to that situation.
sRGB and Adobe RGB are both Working Space Profiles, and should be used by
PS or Elements, but not be used as Input or Output Device Profiles.
The Program will store the image, and manipulate the image using its Working
Space Profile.
It will display the image on screen by converting that "Space" profile
through your Calibrated Monitor Profile to give you accurate Colours.
It will Print the image by converting that "Space" profile through your
Printer ( & Paper) Profile so that the colours on the Print are accurate.
OR Your Printer will convert from that "Space" profile through its Printer
( & Paper) profile to give accurate colours.
You must set things up so that only the Program or the Printer do this
Printing Colour Management, NOT BOTH. The most common way of ensuring this
is to use the Adobe "Print with Preview" command, and select your Printer
Profile in the Output Space. On the printer Drivers "Custom" > "Advanced"
screen select "No Colour Management"
Of course with Non Epson Ink and Non Epson Paper, the provided Epson ICC
Profiles will not be a lot of use. In that case you should select No Colour
Management in the Adobe "Print with Preview" Dialogue and make trial prints
using the colour sliders in the Printers Dialogue Box. Or pay someone to
make a Printer Profile for you which will allow you to use that kind of ink
on that kind of paper, but it would probably be cheaper to use Epson Ink and
Epson Paper.
Hope this helps a bit.
Roy
"Arthur Entlich" <artistic@telus.net> wrote in message
news:I34Pd.44179$gA4.13577@edtnps89...
> Sadly, due in part to Window's poorly implemented color management (who
> thought anyone using a Windows OS would be printing fine art or photos...
> it was designed to make colored bar graphs and pie charts...) every
> manufacturer of printers, scanners, monitors, software, inks, papers, etc,
> etc, have had to incorporate some form of color management.
>
> Unfortunately, some don't work at all, some work poorly, some conflict
> with others, and soon you end up with a disaster on your hands.
>
> The subject is so broad that literally books have been written about it.
>
> Probably, the best thing you can do is go to Google and look up something
> like:
>
> "Color Management" +windows
>
> and see if one of the many web site provides you with some insight into
> both the problems and some of the solutions.
>
> You may have Adobe Gamma set up improperly. Some suggest it shouldn't be
> used as it messes up some basic concepts in color management. Also sRGB
> is a video gamut and restricts the pallet quite a bit. Some suggest using
> Adobe RGB (1998). Adobe's own website probably has discussions about
> this, as well.
>
> I'm guessing you have several different color management aware programs
> each trying to do their own thing.
>
> Art
>
> Trammell wrote:
>
>> Hi, could anyone offer some advice about the following?
>>
>> I'm using an Epson R300 that has been set up with an srgb colour profile,
>> as has the monitor, adobe gamma has also been applied (not that there
>> seems much adjustment possible on my LCD screen)
>>
>> When printing photo's via the windows fax & picture viewer software the
>> finished result is hopelessly dark. I've tried a combination of paper
>> and quality settings and, while there is some variation, the overall
>> result is still way too dark.
>>
>> Dark results are also being produced when printing through PS - which has
>> also been set up with the srgb profile
>>
>> But, when printing through Picasa 2, the finished result is (if anything)
>> slightly too light.
>>
>> Any ideas why the different pieces of software are treating the same jpg
>> so differently? (no adjustments are being made prior to printing, apart
>> from the initial adjustments in PS))
>>
>> Thanks for your thoughts
>