Lightroom CC Printing Light

[lhpviking]

I'm working with a 27" iMac running Yosemite 10.10.5 and it is calibrated regularly.  I print through Lightroom CC with 3 Epson printers:  3880, 9900 and a new P800.  Everything has been working great, but recently my prints began coming out too light/low contrast on all 3 printers.  I also tried printing through Photoshop CC and got the same result.  I've cleaned the heads on all 3 printers and that didn't change anything.  I spoke with the Epson Tech folks and after trying a few things, they suggested that it's a software issue and I have to say, after addressing any hardware issues, that I agree.  Is anyone else experiencing this problem?  Help!!

[JoeKostoss]

I suggest you check the obvious first: Is color being managed by LR?  Do you have the correct ICC profile for the printer/paper combination and do you have the correct media type selected in the LR print dialog AND in the printer dialog?

[lhpviking]

Thanks Joe.  First, I must have hit a 'Correct Answer' button accidentally....it is not correct.  Yes, those are the obvious and I'm good on all of those.

[JoeKostoss]

lhpviking wrote:

...I also tried printing through Photoshop CC and got the same result.

Have you tried printing through any other application such as Apple Preview?

[lhpviking]

Thanks Joe.  I haven't tried printing through Preview; I've used it only for printing PDF files and simple print jobs.  I'll give it a try, but the options are limited....I don't see an option to choose an icc profile or fine art paper, only matte.

[Hal P Anderson]

A possible cause of printing too light is having your monitor set too dark. Evidently a good setting is a little over 100 cd/m2.

Also, you say the problem has just started happening. Do you have an older file that printed OK in the past? Could you try printing it again?

Hal

[lhpviking · Accepted solution]

Thanks Hal.  Yes, I thought of the monitor being set too dark, so I recalibrated then printed again with the same result.  I recalibrated a couple of times at different settings and that didn't make a difference either.

I'll try printing an older file.