Epson 4880 - Way too dark prints

[emils54795487]

I have an Epson 4880 printer that is printing way too dark. Which I've tried for a long time finding a solution for.

I'm using windows 10 but I've tried using windows 7, windows xp through virtualbox and OSX from an laptop. But get same result.

Here is the image I've tried printing: (I printed it using ACPU: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/no-color-management-option-missing.html)

https://i.imgur.com/KqKj9RU.png

And here is the result I get:

https://i.imgur.com/XOG8ri4.jpg

(sorry for the low quality of the photo)

The above image is printed with the Epson 4880 and the lower one is from an Epson 1500w which seems to do a good result.

I have sent the above sample for profiling but it was too off to make a profile that worked. The profile came out with a yellowish hue.

It feels like I've tried everything and spent hours on google, trying to find a solution. But can't manage to get this solved.

Anyone having any suggestions what could be wrong?

Thanks in advance.

[Derek Cross]

You need to calibrate your screen, it's probably too bright.

[emils54795487]

Unfortunately in this case it is not the issue with too bright screen. The media I printed was too dark accordingly to a company I sent samples too for calibrating. They didn't have any solution for this issue. And calibrating didn't work because the colors where too off.

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

What media? Is it OEM?

What ink? Is it OEM?

What are your printer driver settings? Or are you using a 3rd party RIP rather than the OEM driver?

[emils54795487]

The media is OEM and the ink is OEM, the printer use ink for sublimation.  It's the same ink in both the Epson 1500w and the Epson 4880. The 1500w makes great prints without any color management.

The print in the first post is printed without color management and I have this settings in the driver (no RIP) https://i.imgur.com/cO76G6j.jpg I have also tried a lot of tests with different settings. Maybe I haven't found the right ones..

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

If this is the Epson brand “Versatile Paper Singleweight Matte 115g/m² 17” x 40m” I would expect to have best results using Matt Black ink rather than Photo Black.

Before resorting to using an ICC profile, I would use the standard driver settings for the best result. Of course, even if you do use a canned or custom ICC profile, you have to use the correct driver settings that the profile was built around. In some cases, the profile may lead to worse results than simply using the correct driver settings.

[johnharbo]

I've struggled with this same problem of prints too dark for years. I use a Mac with latest OS and latest version of Photoshop CC.

I've calibrated my monitor and created customer printer profiles using Colormunki Photo, and repeated that process many times. I've even tried to improve on the Colormunki Printer profiles by training it with photos that are not printing correctly. None of that worked.

My monitor is properly calibrated, so that is not the problem. For some of you, that may be the problem.

So I tried a "brute force" technique of running dozens of test prints with various things turned on or off in the Mac's Printer dialogue box and the Photoshop Print dialogue box.

Eureka -- I found it! When I unchecked the 16 bit box in both the printer dialogue box (printer settings)  -- VOILA -- NO MORE DARK PRINTS and the colors also worked.

So here is what I am using now:

Print settings in Printer dialogue box:

• Page setup: Sheet (Manual feed) (it forgets this each time)
• Media Type: Premium gloss photo paper 250
• Print Mode: (AccuPhoto HD (greyed out so this is automatic)
• 16 bit unchecked
• Color Mode: Off (no Color management) (greyed out since this is selected in the color tab)
• Output Resolution: Superphoto 2880
• High speed: unchecked
• Finest detail: checked (but doesn’t seem to matter)

In the Photoshop print dialog box, select:

Color Handling: Photoshop manages Colors

Printer Profile: I use a custom ICC profile I created for each paper using Colormunki Photo.

Closest generic is Epson PGPP

Send 16 bit data: checked

Normal Printing

Rendering: Epson recommends Relative Colormetric. If the image contains very saturated colors, select Perceptual. This reduces the color saturation so that the colors fit within the printer’s color gamut. 

Black Point Compression: checked

Match Print Colors: checked

Gamut warning: checked

Show Paper White: checked