LR 2 - Fixing dark prints & colour shifts when printing

[Samoreen]

Hi,

The problem

When printing RAW or TIFF files from LR2, you get a printer output that is much darker than it should be and that presents various color shifts.

I'm using an Epson Stylus Pro 38'' with the latest Windows driver (6.5' - which is rather old by the way). The workaround described below works for me under Windows XP SP3. It should also probably work with other systems/printers/drivers. Use at your own (minor) risk.

The "official" and recommended procedure for printing from LR is as follows:

1. Do not let the printer manage colors and select "Other..." from the profile dropdown list and select the ICC/ICM paper/printer profile that you want to use.
2. Click on Print... in LR which opens the Print Settings dialog.
3. Select the options you need and the paper you're using.
4. Disable the color management from the driver's side (in Epson's drivers, "Mode | Custom | No Color Adjustments").
5. Print

Unfortunately, this doesn't work for many of us and this produces a print that is dark and has color shifts as mentioned above. Note that the same image prints correctly from QImage or Photoshop CS3 (that is, the printer output corresponds to what you see on your calibrated display).

Note: If you decide to let the printer manage colors, you'll get even more problems.

Apparently, although color management has been (allegedly) disabled in the driver, there's something wrong between LR and the driver which makes that both LR and the driver are still trying to manage colors. In other words, the "No Color Adjustements" option of the driver doesn't seem to work with LR.

The workaround (found after hours of hair pulling and paper and expensive ink wasting):

In step #4,

1. Instead of selecting "No Color Adjustments", set Mode to "Custom | ICM"
2. Click Advanced...
3. Check "Show all profiles".
4. Select Driver ICM (Advanced)"
5. Set both the "Input profile" and the "Printer profile" fields to the very same profile that you specified in LR.

That is, if you specified Pro38 PGPP (Premium Glossy Photo Paper) in LR, then also select Pro38 PGPP in both "Input Profile" and "Printer Profile". This has actually the same effect as disabling color management in the driver (what "No Color Adjustements" should normally take care of).

That's it. When printing, you'll get exactly the same color results as when printing from QImage or Photoshop. No more dark prints. No more color shifts.

One might think that the bug is in the Epson driver but in that case, QImage would have the very same problem. So I tend to think that the bug is on the Lightroom side.

Note: Although Photoshop CS3 produces a correct printer output, it demonstrates the same problem as LR when using the "Match Print Color" option for soft proofing. But in that case, only the preview colors are wrong. The printer output is ok. Which also tends to demonstrate that Adobe has the problem, not Epson. Or maybe both...

Don't ask me why some users have the problem and others don't.

Hope this helps.

 

[CB357]

Just to add the Patrick's great advice, the process is just slightly different if you're using a Canon MX series printer.

Printer Settings
1. Open Printer Properties and select the (Canon) paper you're using ie Matte, Glossy, Plus Glossy etc.
2. Set print quality to High
3. Set Colour/Intensity to Manual and click Select
4. Click the Matching tab and select ICM, and select Adobe RGB (1998) from the Drop Down box
5. Make sure that none of the boxes are selected under the Effects tab
6. Save all these setting as a Custom Profile if you wish

Lightroom Settings - Print Module
1. Select Media type to match the paper type entered into the Printer settings ie Matte or Glossy
2. Colour Management Profile - select Other and you will be presented with the profiles for canon papers. To decode, use the following guide

R1 = Photo Paper Pro (print quality level 1)
PR2 = Photo Paper Pro (quality level 2)
SP1 = Photo Paper Plus Glossy (quality level 1)
MP1 = Matte Photo Paper (quality level 1)
MP2 = Matte Photo Paper (quality level 2)

SG2 = Photo Paper Semi Gloss (quality level 2)
GL2 = Photo Paper \Glossy (quality level 2)

so if you're using Canon's MP-1'1 Matte paper then select MP2 for example. You should then see something like Canon MX85' series MP2 for the Profile

3. Select Perceptual as the Rendering Intent

The above process has worked well for me, and as with Patrick after wasting a lot of ink and paper, but what I see on my screen now very closely resembles what is printed (well for me at least) :cheesy:

If it helps, I'm running XP SP3, a Dell SP2''8FP monitor, an nVidia GeForce 86''GT card and calibrated with a Spyder2Express.

Hope this helps