Epson R300/Mac advice

[LeeOtsubo]

I gave an Epson R300 to a friend who lets me park my RV in his property. He's been using an older Canon but wanted something better. The R300 has been one of my best desktop printers. He's on a Mac running OSX. (some of my best friends are Mac people!) :D

To make a long story short, we can't get a good print out of it to save our lives. Most of the prints have either a green or magenta cast and many are too dark. The printer works fine off my Windows laptop as well as his sister-in-law's PC and Mac. So, it stands to reason that it has something to do with his Mac set up.

He prints through iPhoto and the prints look fine off the Canon. Neither he nor his SIL are technically proficient so they can't tell me how a Mac works.

Can anyone give me some advice and/or resources a'la Mac printing for dummies? I'm baffled. Thanks.

[Carbone]

Are you using the specific R300 paper profile? Follow these four steps (click on Next 3 times) :


http://www.pbase.com/carbone/image/56719659

Also, make sure the device drivers were installed, and that the profiles were also installed. The way a Mac printer is added is first installing the drivers (if needed) then adding the printer in the printer list.

Ray

[LeeOtsubo]

Are you using the specific R300 paper profile? Follow these four steps (click on Next 3 times) :


file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/RobillaR/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot.jpgfile:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/RobillaR/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-1.jpghttp://www.pbase.com/carbone/image/56719659

Also, make sure the device drivers were installed, and that the profiles were also installed. The way a Mac printer is added is first installing the drivers (if needed) then adding the printer in the printer list.

Ray

None of these screen captures look like any of the dialog boxes I've seen on his Mac. Also, the 2nd screen looks like a PSE screen. He's trying to print directly from the screen, i.e. he brings up the photo and clicks Print from some menu. I believe it's similar to right-clicking a photo in Windows and selecting Print.

We're not using any profiles because until we get close enough to worry about it, we're using cheap Costco glossy paper. Right now, we're burning thru a box of 150 sheets. Also, his SIL's Mac prints fine on the same Costco paper w/o profiles as does her PC and my laptop.

I asked him about uninstalling the Epson drivers but he didn't know how to do that and it was a mystery to me. We'll try reinstalling the drivers again and adding the printer afterwards. Thanks.

[Carbone]

If he prints from Preview (the default image viewer in Mac OS X), he still have to choose the right paper type. Bright white might be in the list, so tell him to choose this. And no colour management, otherwise, Epson's printer firmware kicks in and double the management done by Mac OS. Mac OS will (should, I have never actually print with Preview myself) used the default colour management tool, ColorSync.

Ray

[LeeOtsubo]

Thanks again. I think I'll set him up on a Webcast and show him your screen captures. It's easier than trekking 7 miles up the road each time.

[Carbone]

Ok. If you need something else, let me (us) know.

Ray

[RonH]

Lee, When you select print and get the Epson print window and select the correct printer, then open the menu with Copies & Pages. Change the menu to Color Management and look at those settings. Try setting controls to Color Control, open advanced settings and check if all sliders are set to 0. Check Mode (I use Epson Vivid) and Gamma (I use 1.8). Color Sync is also in that location.

Each Epson printer driver window is slightly different I have a 785 EPX and R260 and each has certain variations. If you need screen shots let me/us know and we'll do our best.

[Carbone]

http://homepage.mac.com/carbmac/captures/Epson216.jpg

Ray

[Tom M]

He's printing from iPhoto.

Select File>print.
Make sure the printer is selected.
Click Advanced.

Then Print Settings.
Also color management ( see Carbone's attacment)I prefer to deselect Epson vivid.

Make sure the correct EPSON paper is selected.


Check to see that the ink nozzels are clear.

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1BeyqrQDweQde5JAWMIKy2VNnMkE_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1BeyqrQDweQde5JAWMIKy2VNnMkE)

[bayhli]

Hi Lee,

I'm not using MAC but a magenta cast drove me crazy until I finally discovered that one of the coloured ink nozzles was blocked, which of course affected the colour of the print.

Could it be that simple an explanation for the cast .... ? :)

[LeeOtsubo]

Thanks all, I'm going to try again, armed with some of Ray's screenshots. I think the problem is that the drivers aren't installed correctly because I don't see some of the dialog boxes you're seeing. Tom's correct in that my buddy is printing directly from iPhoto so we don't see the PSE dialog boxes. If he had PSE, I'm sure I could figure this out.

The printer works fine on my laptop as well as his SILs Mac & PC so I have to believe the printer is OK. I've tried both expensive Epson Premium Glossy as well as cheap Costco Glossy and the results are still the same.