Poor Print Colour

[BigDingus]

Hi Folks.

I have a problem with the colours in my photos when I try to print them.

If I try to print from other programs everything is ok. Just not from Lr.

Has anyone had this issue?

[JohanElzenga]

We need more information. What kind of color problems? What does the print look like? Did you use ‘Printer manages color’ or did you pick a color profile? Which one? If you used a color profile, did you remember to turn off color corrections in the printer driver?

[JoeKostoss]

What version of Lightroom?

What Platform?

What Operating System?

Have you calibrated your monitor?

What Printer?

[BigDingus]

Thanks for helping guys.

A few questions to answer.

This is what started to print and then what it should have been.

I used 'Printer manages colour'.

LR Classic CC 7.3.1 Camera RAW 10.3

Windows Pro 10

My monitor is calibrated, but as you can see, it's not just the quality but the whole image.

My printer is HP Officejet 6700 Premium. (This is for photos).

[JohanElzenga]

Do you have any printer profiles for this printer. If so, don't use 'Printer Manages Color', but let Lightroom do it and turn off color management in the printer driver. The problem might be that Lightroom now sends unaltered RGB-values to the printer (because you set it to 'Printer Manages Color'), but the printer doesn't understand the color space these values are in.

Update: To be more specific: this looks like Lightroom sends the RGB values in ProPhotoRGB, but the printer driver treats it like it was sRGB.

[JP Hess]

I looked online at the manual for this printer. As near as I can tell, it doesn't support paper profiles. Red River doesn't have any profiles for it. My recommendation would be to choose the option to let the printer manage the color. Then I would look at any options in the printer driver.

[JohanElzenga]

JimHess  wrote

I looked online at the manual for this printer. As near as I can tell, it doesn't support paper profiles. Red River doesn't have any profiles for it. My recommendation would be to choose the option to let the printer manage the color. Then I would look at any options in the printer driver.

Maybe nobody offers icc-profiles for this printer, that is of course possible. A printer doesn't have to 'support profiles', however. That is not how color management works. If there is a profile available, then Lightroom will handle the color conversion using that profile. All the printer driver needs to do is not make any color corrections.

[JP Hess]

Pardon me, I will let you handle this one from here on out. Perhaps I misspoke when I suggested "supporting profiles". But there doesn't seem to be any profiles provided for this printer.

[JohanElzenga]

JimHess  wrote

Pardon me, I will let you handle this one from here on out. Perhaps I misspoke when I suggested "supporting profiles". But there doesn't seem to be any profiles provided for this printer.

If that is true, then it's clear that letting Lightroom do the color conversion is not an option, unless you make your own profiles. And then you have a problem that there is nothing you can change in the output form Lightroom to the printer, so 'Printer Manages Color' does not seem to be an option too...

[BigDingus]

Having followed as much as I could with links and profiles, I tried another print.

What I wanted.

What I got.

Guys I'll be away from home for a week so my replies with be a while coming.

[JohanElzenga]

Like I said: if you don't have a printer profile and this is what Lightroom does with 'Printer Manages Color', then you probably can't print from Lightroom with this printer. Export your image as JPEG and print it in some other application.

[JP Hess]

I went to the HP website and looked for instructions for printing photos in Windows. It appears that photo printing is extremely basic for this printer. Here is a link to what HP offers as far as instructions go for the printer. Don't know what else to say.

HP Printers - How to Print Photos (Windows) | HP® Customer Support

[JohanElzenga]

That's probably why nobody bothered to create icc-profiles for this printer. In theory, you can create icc-profiles for any printer, even the worst ones. But in practise it doesn't make any sense to make profiles for very basic printers, because customers will only complain that the output is still not very good and blame your profiles.

[BigDingus]

Yes, it's been a while

Johan this is anything but a 'very basic printer'.

I originally got it for printing photos and paid a fair bit for it, hoping to save on print cost.

Anyway, after leaving this issue along for ages due to other stuff going on, I'm up for trying to fix it again.

I went through many things with HP support and they proved the printer works as it should.

I've printed from other software and they seem to work as they should,

I've replaced the inks with HP ones. (Not cheap)

I've removed and reinstalled the printer, including the lates driver and software.

Still all of this was fruitless.

It's definitly a Lightroom issue.

I'm ready..................

[kentdesign]

Out of curiosity, have you tried printing the same file from Photoshop?

and are they more color correct? We generally recommend to  not let the printer control the profile, but rather let Photoshop control the profile..

[TheDigitalDog]

All of the examples shown appear as if not all inks are firing. Have you tried running a diagnostic that shows if all inks are clearly making to the print?

If indeed you get ideal prints from another application, simply set LR's print module the same, do not try to use Application (LR) manages color if no profile exists.

Also start from scratch with a new, virgin print template and setup all the settings as seen within the other application that does (?) print correctly.

[BigDingus]

Thanks again for everyone trying to help.

I'll contact HP support and see if they can help.

Jim I tried your link for printing from windows and while it was a big improvement it falls short of good.

I'll post back once I've had HP's help.

[BigDingus]

Thanks thedigitaldog.

I've been sidetracked for the last few months, so sorry for not replying.

I'm now going to get back into this problem shortly.