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PS CS2 color cast

Ed Platkin

New member
I am running CS2 on a PC with plenty of horsepower. I use a color-managed worlflow, i.e., calibrated monitor and paper profiles for my Epson 2200 printer. So, here's the problem: Up until today I've been printing perfect prints, suddenly (when I booted up today) I'm getting prints with this awful cyan cast to them. The inks are full and there are no clogged jets. I use "let photoshop manage color" and ICM set to "no color management", just like they say to do on the Epson and Adobe website. These settings have worked quite well in the past, now, all of a sudden I'm printing crap. Oddly enough, when the prints came out perfect, the print preview always had a magenta color cast, just like Epson and Adobe said they would. Now, the preview looks great, but the prints stink.

Any suggestions??
 

Don Lashier

New member
> Oddly enough, when the prints came out perfect, the print preview always had a magenta color cast, just like Epson and Adobe said they would. Now, the preview looks great, but the prints stink.

I was going to say you had a clogged jet until I read this. This sounds like a settings problem - did you double check your settings, particularly the Epson part? I got so frustrated with them reverting on occasion that I finally switched to IP.

- DL
 

Ed Platkin

New member
Yep, I've double triple quadruple checked my settings. What's weird is the magenta color cast that should show up in the preview, isn't.
 

JohanElzenga

New member
No, a magenta color cast should not show up in the preview. It's true that the preview dialog is not color managed, so you don't have to worry about it if there is a slight difference. But to suggest that you should have a color cast is simply not true. It may be an indication that your problem has existed much longer than you think, though.
 

Ray West

New member
Hi Ed,

To me, a magenta cast indicates maybe a srgb/argb unintended conversion.

Have you an image that you previously prepared to print ready, that printed properly before, with no cast. Print that now with no adjustments as you would expect to be able to do if you had no problems - does it still print properly on paper - ignore the preview?

If it prints OK, then the problem is in your PC or cs2 settings.

If your settings are as they should be within cs2 - a big IF, since there are various adjustments scattered all over the place, then I would check that the proper colour profile is being set when the pc fires up, and that you are not applying colour profiling twice.

I think there is a limit on the number of profiles you can have, or at least that ps can find, can't think of the reference to it at the mo.

I am assuming you are an ibm type pc, not an apple, I may be able help???? some more.

The only thing I use the preview for, is to check its the right size ;-)

Best wishes,

Ray
 

Jack_Flesher

New member
One possibility. Re-check for a clogged nozzle and look very close at all of the last lines. I got fooled once with a similar problem -- a few of the jets on the very last line of the magenta test were clogged, but with a casual glance the pattern seemed fine -- only that last line was not complete. Did a cleaning or two and all was well again.
 

Steve Maylone

New member
I have the identical problem with the Epson 1280. We split time between Michigan and Colorado. The extreme low humidity of Colorado creates many problems, mostly color cast.

A solution that seemed to work for a spell, was to increase the DPI settings (higher quality). This is a battle that I fight every day.
 

Don Lashier

New member
> No, a magenta color cast should not show up in the preview.

Maybe not in all scenarios, but on my system the Epson preview has a fairly strong magenta cast when set to NCA, and others have reported the same. Perhaps newer Epson drivers are different - I haven't updated mine recently.

- DL
 

JohanElzenga

New member
I don't know which system you are talking about. On a Macintosh, you get a preview in Photoshop, but not in the printer driver, so I don't understand what NCA (which I suppose stands for 'No Color Adjustment' in the printer driver) would have to do with that preview.
 

Don Lashier

New member
JohanElzenga said:
I don't know which system you are talking about. On a Macintosh, you get a preview in Photoshop, but not in the printer driver, so I don't understand what NCA (which I suppose stands for 'No Color Adjustment' in the printer driver) would have to do with that preview.
On a PC the PS preview is just fine, it's the optional Epson driver preview that has the magenta cast. I just turn it off as it's rather useless. Actually I don't even use the Epson driver any more as I long ago switched to IP.

- DL
 

Steve Maylone

New member
No takers with the humidity theory?

This is the honest to goodness truth. In Michigan with a 60 to 80% relative humidity indoors, I print 720DPI with the fine detail setting.

In Colorado with a 25 to 40% relative humidity, I can get the identical result (same file) at 1440.

Today, I am reading 10 to 15% humidity and have gone all the way to 2880. Same file, same color.

Is it my imagination?
 

Alain Briot

pro member
Steve Maylone said:
No takers with the humidity theory?

This is the honest to goodness truth. In Michigan with a 60 to 80% relative humidity indoors, I print 720DPI with the fine detail setting.

In Colorado with a 25 to 40% relative humidity, I can get the identical result (same file) at 1440.

Today, I am reading 10 to 15% humidity and have gone all the way to 2880. Same file, same color.

Is it my imagination?


The drier the environment, the faster the ink dries on the paper.
 

Don Lashier

New member
> The drier the environment, the faster the ink dries on the paper.

There seems to also be a difference in the propensity to have clogged nozzles. I live at the coast always ~40%+ and virtually never have clog problems while folks in AZ or winter in other areas it seems to be frequent.

- DL
 

Steve Maylone

New member
So the theory goes, the drier the air, the quicker the clogged nozzles... but, not all nozzles clog at an equal rate. The lighter inks clog first, leaving the magentas or blues and cyans to continue printing, making the prints have a cast. The clogging is not 100%, therefore a higher DPI clears the way for true color. And $5.00 Eight and a half by eleven prints. Yikes.
 

Ray West

New member
I have been told that if you put a few drops of window cleaning liquid - brands may vary, but the colourless type - on the pads where the heads sit when printer not being used, then it reduces the chances of clogging. Also I heard that the seal is better if the printer is not turned off. I suppose you could make a tent of polythene to cover the printer, with a damp sponge inside...

Best wishes,

Ray
 

Diane Fields

New member
Steve Maylone said:
So the theory goes, the drier the air, the quicker the clogged nozzles... but, not all nozzles clog at an equal rate. The lighter inks clog first, leaving the magentas or blues and cyans to continue printing, making the prints have a cast. The clogging is not 100%, therefore a higher DPI clears the way for true color. And $5.00 Eight and a half by eleven prints. Yikes.

Quick fix--just run a nozzle check before doing a run of expensive paper---then you know. If you have to run a cleaning cycle, then do it, check again. I rarely have to do a cleaning cycle--but I also don't get any surprises.
 

Alain Briot

pro member
The professional solution is to have a humidifier system installed in your home ( or building where you print at) so as to keep the humidity level constant year round. Expensive, complex, but efficient. There's a specific name for such a system but I forgot what it is. In Arizona, where I am, this is done by installing misters in the air conditioning vent and having a humidity gauge installed in each room that you are concerned with to monitor the system. You only need it in your printing room, unless you are also concerned with humidity levels throughout the house.

Otherwise, keep in mind that these printers are designed to work in a variety of environments. If you look at the techical specs, you will see that there is quite a range of temperature and humidity that are acceptable.

Regardless of how dry or humid your environment is, if you do fine art (and I hope you do ;-), I recommend you do a print head test each morning prior to starting the day's printing just to check that everything is fine. You don't want to find out after your print is done that there is banding or that one printhead isn't firing! This is especially true on large prints. Looking at a 40x50 coming out with banding when you already have half of it printed isn't the best way to start your day!

One note of interest: I use regular office paper, letter size, to do my printhead test, no matter what printer I am working with. All printers, up to the 9800 (I only use Epsons at the time) will accept a letter size page. There is no need to waste part of a roll of paper to do a printhead test.
 
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Steve Maylone

New member
Thanks for the input, sometimes it's just me against the computer. Your comments help.

I have built (the garage) a room full of humidity. The 5 gallon humidifier brought the level from 10 to 60 percent humidity in two hours. In addition I pre-treat each sheet of paper with a wave in front of the humidifier before loading. It is obvious that the paper was not readily accepting the ink.

In conclusion, the 10 percent level that I was attempting to print at was totally unacceptable. There is a noticeable color shift and the prints are about one quarter of an F/ stop darker, when I achieved 60%
 
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