Printing on Epson XP-8500 via Lightroom

[dragonmac]

Does anyone know how to get good prints on an Epson Expression XP-8500 from Lightroom? Here's my problem...

My previous printer was an Epson Artisan 835. Epson provided a number of profiles for their paper, and they worked well.

With the XP-8500, I can't find any profiles anywhere on Epson's site. There are some ColorSync profiles like EPSON sRGB and ProPhoto RGB, but they don't produce great results.

I tried contacting Epson tech support, but that's going nowhere. Phone support had absolutely no idea what a profile was, or what Lightroom was. I'm also trying email support, but their first solution was "clean the nozzles" (the nozzles are fine).

Any help you could provide would be appreciated.

As a side question, does anyone have a suggestion for another brand of printer that would produce good results?

 

[Gesture]

1-Are you on the Mac or PC.

2-In either case, make sure you download the latest driver from Epson's web site and install that one. Delete the system-installed one. If on the Mac, be sure you do not install the Airprint one.

I have a similar XP-950 and the driver installed ColorSync profiles for each paper type. But if you are using Epson paper you will get the same result using color management and selecting the Epson ICC profile for your paper or by doing Printer Manages Color.

Adobe RGB, ProPhoto RGB are color spaces used for editing images.

This site would be useful:

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www.cambridgeincolour.com

Also, once you get more comfortable with color management, look up the Digital Dog.

The XP-8500 is a six color dye printer. You should be able to get good results with Epson ink and, for the most part, Epson paper.

GOOD LUCK.

 

[NAwlins Contrarian]

Lightroom....

My previous printer was an Epson Artisan 835. Epson provided a number of profiles for their paper, and they worked well.

With the XP-8500, I can't find any profiles anywhere on Epson's site.

Typically, the smaller / lower-end printers and all-in-ones install some ICC profiles when you install the driver. Sounds like you're using a Mac, and you're in the U.S., so go to here for OS 10.13:

https://epson.com/Support/Printers/.../s/SPT_C11CG17201?review-filter=macOS+10.13.x

or else select whatever is the appropriate operating system and version, download the Drivers and Utilities Combo Package Installer, and install it. Now check: do you have the appropriate ICC profiles? Just remember, in Lightroom, you have to add them to your options in the print module.

If somehow that doesn't work, I'd do the same download-install routine with the driver for an XP-860 or XP-960, save the ICC profiles separately, uninstall the driver, and then use the saved ICC profiles. I strongly suspect that the profiles for the XP-860 and XP-960 are very similar to those for the XP-8500. In fact, I have done this with the newer (but still old) Artisan 50 and 1400 to get profiles to use with my older R280; they may not be perfect, but they're at least pretty close.