Epson 3880 printing problems

[Bruce Pollock]

I'm hoping someone can give some advice on how to diagnose and solve the colour problems I've just started having with my Epson 3880. I'm using Photoshop CC running on Windows 7. I've attached two versions of a sample image. The crappy one is a scan of a print - the scan is not entirely faithful to the original print, but it's close enough to get the idea. The other image is a .jpg from the original RAW file. I have two working theories as to what may be wrong.

The first is that the ink in the cartridges is past its Best Before Date. The printer is four years old and these are the original cartridges. I know that I am way past the official lifespan of the cartridges. As you can probably figure out, the printer does not get a lot of heavy use. On the other hand, I just made some prints a couple of months ago that looked just fine.

The second theory is that it's a colour management problem. However, I have triple checked my printer settings for the correct paper profile. Colour Handling is set to 'Photoshop Manages Colours' and Colour Management is turned off in the Printer Setup dialogue. Again, the prints I made recently used the same printer settings with fine results.

I have tried several different images (.jpg, RAW and DNG versions) with different colour spaces and the results are pretty similar. Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks.

[koraks]

This is a color management problem. Have you calibrated your monitor? I haven't BTW, but I did an informal calibration using the settings of my graphics card and a couple of test prints to get as close as possible. But I do let the printer manage colors; otherwise, the paper profile setting of the printer won't have the intended effect AFAIK. But the best way is to calibrate your setup using e.g. a colorspyder. Simple ones are quite cheap if you get them second hand.

BTW, I suspect that your gamma setting in particular is off.

[djdister]

Agree its a color management problem. Something that looks that bad usually happens when you have the program (Photoshop) and the printer both trying to manage the color of the output. This is a case of making sure you have you have the setting "Photoshop Manages Colors" and then under color management "Set Color Management to Off" which may seem to be counterintuitive, but that's how it should be set in the print dialog.

[Jim Jones]

. . . The first is that the ink in the cartridges is past its Best Before Date. The printer is four years old and these are the original cartridges. I know that I am way past the official lifespan of the cartridges. As you can probably figure out, the printer does not get a lot of heavy use. On the other hand, I just made some prints a couple of months ago that looked just fine. . . .

Epson seems quite conservative in their Best Before Date. The cyan in my 3800 is three years past that date, and giving no trouble. All of a few dozen cartridges replaced so far have functioned until empty, despite sometimes also being years past their expiry date.

[Ken Lee]

Have you agitated the cartridges ? Ink settles over time, and each color behaves differently.

[neil poulsen]

It doesn't seem like the ink would go bad that quickly. Given the color you're obtaining on the scanned image, it does appear to be a color management problem.

Have you color managed your screen. How does the scanned image compare to the jpg on your screen?

Try converting the profile for the scanned image to Adobe '98 and save the image. I'm wondering if the scanner assigned some weird profile that's different than the standard sRGB, Adobe '98, Profoto, etc., image profiles. Or, perhaps no profile was assigned by the scanner. The thing is, from your comments, it sounds like both images are reasonably close on your screen.

What are your questions set to in Color Settings? They should all be set to "Yes." What's the default RGB profile set to? Also, what's Photoshop CC? (Haven't heard that one.) Is it the cloud version?

[wager123]

do a nozzle check just to make sure all is good
mitch

[Greg Miller]

Assuming the lack of sharpness in the scan is not in the print, it looks like a nozzle clog to me. Probably in one or both of the Cyan nozzles.

You have the correct settings with letting Photoshop manage colors, and no color management. So be sure you have the correct media type selected.

[Bruce Pollock]

Thanks for the replies so far. In answer to several of the suggestions, I have carefully checked my colour management settings. Photoshop is managing colours and the colour management is turned off in the printer settings. I'm using the media type ICC profile that I usually use.

do a nozzle check just to make sure all is good

Have you agitated the cartridges ? Ink settles over time, and each color behaves differently.

I'm leaning toward this being a hardware issue and have run the nozzle check with the automatic setting which (I think) is supposed to also unclog any nozzle. I did another print after this and there was no improvement in the quality. However, I have not agitated the cartridges and this seems like that might be a good idea to try.

[Greg Miller]

By media type, I meant "media type" where you select the type of paper that is loaded (velvet, premium lustre,...). Make sure the nozzle check you run prints the large rectangles. I have seen many cases where most of the rectangle is fine but has small gaps, and thus indicates the need for further head cleaning.