gmeader

So I got a new Epson XP-420 inkjet printer on sale for $50. Great deal. Photos look great for casual use. Printing from my iPad of JPG images via WiFi works great - images look near perfect. (using Epson photo glossy paper)
Printing from Photoshop - not so much. All my images are coming out very dark. I downloaded a test image from http://www.gballard.net so I have something standard to work with and opened it in Photoshop (CS6) -- it looks fine on my laptop screen. When I print it, it looks dark, just like my other photos in PS.
I tried various combinations of print settings - letting the printer do color management, then turning that off and letting PS do color management (There's no ICC profile available for this printer model...)
None of that worked, I get different looking prints, but none them anywhere near good.

So how do I print with this printer from Photoshop - what print settings do I use?

The Watcher

What makes you think this? (There's no ICC profile available for this printer model...)

Here's what I think is happening.

In print mode, Make sure color handling says: Photoshop manages colors.

That should bring up the printer profile in the box below.

cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

One other very common issue is that monitors,including those on laptops are most often MUCH brighter that the output will be. If you own a calibration tool, use it, if not, you might want to consider getting one. Or, you could live with what you have and just brighten things up before printing. Best of luck.

gmeader

[quote=The Watcher]What makes you think this? (There's no ICC profile available for this printer model...)

"Epson XP-420" does not show up in the PS Printer Profile list.
Googling for: Epson XP-420 ICC profile gives nothing.
No ICC file found on Epson Support website for this printer.

cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

After doing some on-line research, it looks like the XP-420 has been replace by the XP-430 and that neither are really designed for mid to high end photo printing, based on the set of inks used. These printers are designed for daily business usage. Yours may be multi-function, as is the XP-430. The ICC profiles are not made for printers, they are made for paper-printer combinations, and I could find none on the Red River paper site for your printer. If you wish to do photo printing, you may have to purchase a more appropriate printer. I can print photos on my HP somethingorother printer using a generic driver, but the photos are very low quality. For photos, I use an Epson R3000 (replaced by the P600), but you may be able to get a Canon printer fro next to nothing with the rebates they offer from time to time. Best of luck. PM me if you want to purchase my R3000 as I'm wanting to upgrade.

gmeader

The quality of the printed images from the XP-420 (using the standard "Epson Glossy Photo" paper) is very good -- it makes beautiful prints that look very similar to the screen image, when printed using an iPad or from Windows Photos app using default settings and the driver installed with the Epson printer installation.
The problem is printing from Photoshop. Photoshop has too many options and requires more detailed settings to get a good looking image. But what are the correct settings? How do you figure out what settings to use (without an available ICC file for the XP-420 with Epson Glossy Photo paper) (or any other paper apparently...)
One solution that works is to save the image as a JPG in Photoshop and print using random photo viewer apps included with Windows or Mac. Kind of a dumb solution though.

cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

There is nothing inherently wrong with using this printer, it's just not designed for mid to high end work. Just use it with the devices for which it was designed, many of which you mentioned, and have fun.