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Problems with Mac 10.5.7, CS4, and Epson Printers

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John200973

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This is a repost below from the Mac section as they suggested I try here rather than the Mac forum... As an update I did try a friends i-Mac that is running 10.5.7 with Photoshop CS3 and it produced very good results. So it is beginning to look like CS4 is the problem and Adobe doesn't have an answer so I guess they indirectly agree..

Any comments would be appreciated.

After years of using my old Windows XP machine and Photoshop CS2 along with various Epson printers R800, R1900, 4880 with excellent results from my Canon and Nikon systems. Recently I purchased a MacBook Pro laptop (15) with the 24 inch LED display. To that end I decided to get the newer photoshop CS4 to go with the new machine.. I must say I have been horrified to say the least with the results... I can only assume that Mac OS 10.5.7 and CS4 do not get along.. After dealing with Adobe I am about to throw in the towel on CS4. They seem to be in the dark as well saying it hadn't been tested with 10.5.7.. The problem is the colors are way off and the overall print is toooo dark (after looking fine on screen).. It also occasionally produces some unfortunate banding/chroming in the blacks.. I have tried RAW, TIFF, JPEG, have used the program to control colors (which is what I always did with CS2), the printer to control colors, and no control. All the monitors and printers have been calibrated using i-One (which has worked fine everywhere else).. All the printer drivers are Epsons and up to date.. I get very good results with Aperture and to a lesser simplistic extent i-Photo.. I then take the exact same file to my old Machines (one with XP one with Vista) using the same printers and produce superb results..

Has anyone else had these problems with the latest version of Mac OS and Photoshop? Right now I think I have whizzed away $700 on a useless dysfunctional program...
 
I have an iMac 24", 10.5.7, CS4, and an Epson 3800 -- prints look exactly like the screen softproof preview. Can you see the bad color reproduction in the softproof or print preview window? If they look fine there, then maybe there is a setting off somewhere?

I use the Epson paper profiles along with Photoshop managing colors and printer color management off.
 
Yes that is how I always have run photoshop using it to control the colors, turning off printer color control, and using the paper profiles.

Yes the screen and proof views look the same but all produce horrible prints. As I said the exact same file using CS2 on my old Windows XP machine with those above settings produce absolutely beautiful results.
 
I am running 10.5.7 on a MacPro with CS4 and an Epson 3800 and 9800. The only problems I have with CS4 is that I have to print my targets out of CS3 when doing profiles because I can't turn off color management out of PS. What printer are you using? Go into the system prefrences and make sure the printer you want to use is selected as the default printer. CS4 does crash more than any other version I have ever used and it is generally when I go to print.
 
I am using R800, R1900, and 3800 Epson printers.. All have the latest drivers. The really weird thing is that the same file using Windows XP and Photoshop CS2 produces stunning results. While my MacBook Pro 10.5.7 with CS4 and those printers produces dark muddled looking prints.. I have photoshop set to manage colors on, use the correct icc profiles for the paper just like on the windows machine.. The best prints come from turning off all color management (mac, photoshop, printers) but they are nothing to write home about..

I do get good results from using Aperture with these printers and the same file.. To me printing from CS4 seems to be untested and flawed at this point.. The on screen image, preview, and proofing all look fine but the print is a disaster...
 
What you will find that problems with CS3 and CS4, using Epson printers, and Leopard, seems to be the primary subject of threads, whether using the R800, the R1800, or the R3800. Not as much complaining about the R1900 and 2880, but there are also enough of those. I can't speak to Windows, as I generally don't follow those complaints any longer.

My position is there is a MAJOR software flaw somewhere in the chain - whether it is the fault of Apple, Epson, or Adobe is not clear, but these three companies need to fix the problem. It's not like they haven't had notice or the time to work on it.

I have an R1800. I would like to upgrade to new inks and a wider carriage, and have been waiting along with a lot of others for the 3800 replacement allegedly due 3rd quarter [like in the next 3.8 months]. I'd have bought the 3800 months ago, but for the constant driver issues on the R1800 since Leopard was released - driver problems is a primary reason for chucking the R1800.

If this forum weren't clogged with the same complaints, week after week [actually more like daily], about both printers, Epson would have a customer for a new, expensive unit. If my local dealer carried the ipf5100, and could give me some advice about its reliability, and I could print some samples, I'd probably buy that. In the meantime, I'm not buying anything new even though I need it and money isn't an issue.

EPSON, ARE YOU LISTENING? This isn't just me. I've found a workaround that is adequate, but the drivers keep uninstalling - at least 5 times this year I've had to go through the computer and remove everything with the Epson tag, and install the same 6.12 drivers. I never know when the old ones will disappear, reverting to Gutenprint or some such.
 
Have you tried setting the printer you want in the print and fax window in the system prefrences. This is different than picking the printer at the time of printing from the CS4 window. Apparently this makes a difference in Leopard. The printer has to be set as your deault printer before printing from PS.
 
I'll give that a shot as I do pick the printer at the time of printing... The other thing I just noticed (which might put some of the problem back on the Epson printer) is that I get very good prints (not excellent by any means) by using my wireless Canon MP980 all in one printer with Mac Os and CS4... Not even direct wired...
 
I vaguely recall someone with a 3800 posting about how they fixed similarly inexplicable profile problems.

Something about dissassembling the entire complex construct of how profiles are chained to printers and printers to print queues and print queues to apps and then putting it back together again manually.

It seems that there is some sort of print system problem on os x in general which crops up rather randomly and causes profiling to simply become broken. Usually it ends up being double profiling. I suspect that what is happening is that even when you set the printer to say no color adjustment mode in the print dialogs for some reason when colorsync gets the data it goes ahead and runs a profile conversion on it (which isn't applicable to begin with).

thus no matter what control you switch in the visible UI a bad conversion runs and screws up your print.

This is one reason I never bother to print from my mac. I attach my printers to my PC and print from there. I just dont want to deal with the mac print subsystem.

xilvar
John said:
This is a repost below from the Mac section as they suggested I try here rather than the Mac forum... As an update I did try a friends i-Mac that is running 10.5.7 with Photoshop CS3 and it produced very good results. So it is beginning to look like CS4 is the problem and Adobe doesn't have an answer so I guess they indirectly agree..

Any comments would be appreciated.

After years of using my old Windows XP machine and Photoshop CS2 along with various Epson printers R800, R1900, 4880 with excellent results from my Canon and Nikon systems. Recently I purchased a MacBook Pro laptop (15) with the 24 inch LED display. To that end I decided to get the newer photoshop CS4 to go with the new machine.. I must say I have been horrified to say the least with the results... I can only assume that Mac OS 10.5.7 and CS4 do not get along.. After dealing with Adobe I am about to throw in the towel on CS4. They seem to be in the dark as well saying it hadn't been tested with 10.5.7.. The problem is the colors are way off and the overall print is toooo dark (after looking fine on screen).. It also occasionally produces some unfortunate banding/chroming in the blacks.. I have tried RAW, TIFF, JPEG, have used the program to control colors (which is what I always did with CS2), the printer to control colors, and no control. All the monitors and printers have been calibrated using i-One (which has worked fine everywhere else).. All the printer drivers are Epsons and up to date.. I get very good results with Aperture and to a lesser simplistic extent i-Photo.. I then take the exact same file to my old Machines (one with XP one with Vista) using the same printers and produce superb results..

Has anyone else had these problems with the latest version of Mac OS and Photoshop? Right now I think I have whizzed away $700 on a useless dysfunctional program...
Click to expand...
 
It is actually becoming more and more obvious that the Mac, CS4 don't get along with Epson printers.. As I said I tried just for fun sending the same file to my wireless Canon MP980 all in one printer and the same print was night and day better using the canon. The prints using my Epson R800, R1900, and 3800 were all muddled, dark, and inaccurate colors..

So I took my whole system to a friends house who uses a Canon PIXMA 9500 Pro Mark II printer (10 inks YIKES). The results were stunning using CS4 and Mac OS.. So on the basis of a couple of samples using the Canon (which produced horrid results on the Epson printers), it looks like the Epson printers don't wash with the Mac. I always wondered why the Apple store only offered a very cheap Epson printer but a whole range of Canon and HP printers... They might know something, so why offer a problem from the get go..

Looks like I will do the same use CS2 with windows with my Epson printers and skip printing with my Mac until I can get a Canon pro level printer.
 
Thanks that is an older version of the Mac OS however.

I did one thing further which was to take Photoshop CS4 out of the equation. I printed the same file using Apple's Aperture. The photos were excellent using the Canon 9500 and the Canon MP980 (all in one). I then printed the same file using all three Epson printers.. All the Epson printers printed way too dark, muddled looking, and colors way off...
 
Did you pick the printer in the print and fax window before you printed out of the application? As I stated before I am running the same setup as you on a Mac Pro printing to an Epson 3800 and 9800 without any problems. I print professionally and do not have any problems like you are experiencing.
 
Yes in each case of using the Epson printer I first picked that printer in the print and fax window as the default printer.. Same results... I just tried Photoshop Elements and that really simple i-Photo program. Both printed excellent photos with the Canon printers and the same lousy muddled, dark, wrong colors with all the Epson printers... In each case before opening the program I selected the Epson printer as the default printer...
 
Hmmmmmm, I'm stumped since we basically have the same set up. I know you probably already checked this but you're sure you are using Epson driver's and not the gimp driver. Maybe try deleting all of the Epson drivers at the root level and delete them from the print window. Download and install just one of the drivers for one of the printers, re add it and see what happens. Or, are you too burned out on the whole thing and are ready to hang it up for today.
 
No I already did that with the Epson printers one at a time deleting and reinstalling the latest from Epson's web site (including all the latest icc profiles for each printer).. I guess I will wait a while and see what transpires update wise..

Until then I will just go back to my 5 year old Windows XP machine with CS2 and produce beautiful prints on all my Epson printers.. The only objection I have to any of the printers is the R1900 uses way too much ink compared to the others for the same size print.. The 3800 is great for that with bigger tanks.. The R800 continues to be an excellent printer but is starting to have some loading problems with some papers.
 
I did that with no apparent result.. I also ran colorsync utility that "found" 21 bad profiles out of 45. It repaired them again with no apparent result..

The absolute closest thing to acceptable (after running virtually every combination in the book) was to pick the default printer in photoshop, let photoshop determine the colors, use 1998 Adobe RGB, and then in the Epson printer settings select Epson Standard 1.8 gamma and the correct paper.. Second best is to do the same with photoshop only this time pick colorsync in the Epson printer settings and the correct paper.. Those at least produce a non dark non muddled looking print. The colors are still slightly off.. Under no circumstances can you select no color correction in the Epson print settings menu (instantly dark, muddled, bad color if you do).. This is where it is entirely different and nonsensical compared to windows. This was the result of about 60 prints varying everything possible (many made no sense to do but at this point it was all I could do as Apple, Epson, and Adobe are about as useless as you could imagine----let the user validate I guess)... I guess the disappointing thing in all of this was the image Mac has had of being easier and better than Windows.. That had been my experience from 1984 to 2005.. The 4 year hiatus has been meant with utter disgust. It is a very nice system in all respects but photography usefulness. The video is only slightly better but not as robust as the Windows programs...
 
Reading back in the posts it does seem to validate that others with the same set up are getting good prints. It just seems like there is something system wide that is causing your problems. Do you still have CS3 on your machine or was that a windows version. The other thing you could do is download the 10.5.7 update and run it over your current system just to see if some fundamental file has been corrupted. I don't have the imac but like I said I do have a mac pro as my main machine and a macbook pro for out in the field. Other than not being able to print targets from CS4 all profiles work great. I know that doesn't help you. I'll ponder and see if there is anything else I can think of.
 
So it now looks like you can have photoshop manages colors on or off. It doesn't matter as long as you select Epson Standard Gamma 1,8 or Colorsync in the printer color settings (along with the correct paper).. If you pick no color management in the printer box you get the muddled, dark, horrible colors... So it works pretty good as long as you override photoshop managing colors with the printer color management settings.. Totally opposite of Windows but it does produce acceptable results finally.
 
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