miller2110

I have an Epson Stylus Photo R2880 and a 27" iMac with a display calibrated with a colormunki, and Lightroom Classic. I use a printer profile for the R2880 and the particular Epson paper I'm using. Recently the printed photos have been very dull. I'm used to having to increase the brightness to match what's on my screen by not much else. I can get closer to the original display rendition by way over saturating the colors - but never faithfully reproduce the picture. I've looked a exported jpegs on other computers and they look like the orginal. Other than buying a new printer, any suggestions?

twowindsbear

First off - calibrate everything again! Contact Epson support, too. Good luck!

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

First, run a test page and evaluate it. Go to System Preferences —> Printers & Scanners, and double-click on the print queue for the R2880. Click the Settings "gear wheel" button. Click Utility and Open Printer Utility. Run a nozzle check and clean the heads if necessary. Check alignment, too. Close that dialog and go back to the Settings —> Utility dialog (gear wheel button). Load a sheet of photo paper and print the Test Page. If you set the driver to the right paper, it should look normal.

Check your application settings:

Did Lightroom accidentally get set to 16-bit printing? Unless your driver decodes 16-bit files, the results will be dull.

Are you double profiling, by letting BOTH Lightroom AND the printer driver attempt to control color? Use one or the other, not both, and use the one that matches your monitor most closely.

If your monitor calibration/profile kit lets you, set it to these aims:

Color temperature 5800 to 6500K
Black Point 0.5 cd/m^2 (candelas per square meter)
White Point 80 to 120 cd/m^2 (labs typically use 105)
Gamma 2.2

Also, be sure you evaluate your prints at the same level of brightness your monitor provides. If you place an 18% gray card where your print will be, and read it at ISO 100, it should be around EV 10, +/– .5 EV (1/60 @ f/4 @ ISO 100 off the 18% gray card). The light should be 5000 to 5500K, 93CRI CFL or LED.

You should not have to adjust your monitor after calibration unless someone fiddles with the brightness or changes the active profile!

Speaking of active monitor profile, be sure the one YOU created is active, and not the OEM 'iMac' profile.

Many sites on the Internet have downloadable test images that you can print to check calibration of your system. Find several, and see what they tell you. Print from Apple Preview and again from Lightroom to troubleshoot settings.

Good luck!
Keep your desktops (physical AND virtual) as close to middle gray as possible. This avoids peripheral visual fatigue from biasing your vision toward light, dark, or any color. Labs use Munsell N8 paint, which is around $100 a gallon, but dead neutral gray. If you take a gray card to a big box store and have them read it, they can come close enough to matching it for a color correction environment. That's what we did in the lab where I managed color correction.

Be sure you are using the latest drivers supported by your operating system.

https://epson.com/Support/Printers/Single-Function-Inkjet-Printers/Epson-Stylus-Series/Epson-Stylus-Photo-R2880/s/SPT_C11CA16201

Unfortunately, the r2880 is getting pretty old now. Epson hasn't updated their driver to support MacOS Catalina, as far as I can tell, so that may be an issue. If you are using an Apple-supplied CUPS driver, it may not support all features of the printer.

miller2110

Thanks for great response. I’ll check them out. I’m hoping the Epson utility works ok

miller2110

I followed your suggestions - thanks. The results: test pattern looks good; picture with Preview looks ok (a little dark but that may be because the monitor is too bright); printed with Photoshop & printer manages color is about the same as Preview. Both Lightroom and Photoshop with with Epson profile and application managing the color are off noticeably - too much magenta in the blues and whites of clouds. Any additional suggestions?

Thanks, George

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Use a different paper/ink/printer profile.