I have been printing on several Epson printers, a 4000, 4880, and 9800. Basically all have issues with printing correct colors and I can't seem to figure out what I am doing wrong here. These are the steps I've taken for color calibrating each printer/computer but the colors are still off, most noticeably a little bit desaturated, or slight color shifts, including the B&W images:
1. Calibrated monitors using Spyder3 Elite system.
2. Calibrated paper type using "expert target" as well as adding the "extended grays target"
3. Working and image color spaces are Adobe RGB 1998
4. When printing, photoshop manages colors, I then select the profile I created for that paper (using the spyder3), relative colormetric with black point compensation. I then choose the appropriate media (recommended by paper manufacturer) and turn off printer color correction.
5. I print the image and....it sucks. It is usually somewhat close to the image on the monitor only desaturated and often with a slight to moderate color shift.
NOTE:
-The inks in the printers are all new
-I get the same results after cleaning and making sure the heads are aligned and nozzles cleaned.
-One computer is an imac, the other is a new G5 with cinema display
-The room is clean, stays at a constant 68ish, and has a humidifier (it is dry here in Colorado)
SUSPICIONS:
-One of the only things I can think of is that I am not waiting long enough for the printed targets to dry before reading them. Since I am printing on Epson Premium Luster paper, which advertises "instant dry" I only waited an hour or 2 before reading the target. Could this make such a difference? Should I let it sit overnight?
-The lighting in the room is fairly bright, overhead florescents. Perhaps the lighting is affecting the calibrating and/or viewing process?
Or perhaps the moons are not perfectly aligned for printing tonight....
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
Evan
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