not getting accurate prints

[philip hanft]

I switched from Photoshop 6 to Photoshop CC (2017). I forgot to take note of my old color settings with which I was getting nice prints. With the new setting, prints have a grayish cast and shadows come out almost black.

This is how it is currently set up. I've tried a number of different settings, and the results are always the same. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[S_Gans]

Please clarify - What printer are you using to output these documents?

[philip hanft]

Epson Stylus Photo R1900 and Epson Stylus C88+. I get the exact same result on both printers.

[S_Gans]

NICE PRINTERS!!!

Thank you for the clarification. So, the Color Settings you're showing above are okay - although, personally I'd use a larger color space than sRGB, or I'd use a profile downloaded by Epson. It's only the RGB workspace setting that's going to affect your output using these printers.

I've seen no documentation on Adobe changing it's adaptation of the sRGB color space in newer versions, so I'm going to make the assumption that this setting's okay, and the problem is occurring in the color assignment process for your image, or the print dialog box.
May I ask - are you assigning an sRGB color profile to your images as well? In other words, when your images open, are they giving you a profile mismatch error, and if so, are you then also telling it to use sRGB space? That would be one thing to check. If you're in doubt, choose Image>Mode>Assign Profile or Edit>Assign profile and match your sRGB space onto the image (it should show up as sRGB IEC61966-2.1 or somesuch).

If that doesn't improve results, there's one more place to check for color match - and that'd be the actual print dialog box. Do you have Epson's Premium ICC profiles installed on your system? If so, are you choosing them in your print dialog box, and telling the Color Management portion of the driver to NOT color adjust the image?

The R1900's several years old. it may be that they've not updated the color profiles to the standards needed for CC2017... You may need to contact Epson, or instead, choose a more generic printer profile in the dialog box and tell Photoshop to Yes - manage colors. I know the C88+ is newer and so the drivers and color management may be more up-to-date, although I don't think they had a premium profile set for that printer, so the more generic printer driver and letting Photoshop try adjusting may be the thing you have to do for that one as well.

Color management - with it's variation of places for managing results is really hard to get right. The best suggestion I can make is to try to ensure that you're using the very newest software out there for your printers, to get the colors to follow tech advancements. Then, if it's a pain in the older printers, see if you can tell Photoshop, in all it's power, to do the work for you, if it can.

I'd love to see if someone who's more of a color management expert has other advice on this, or suggestions. Color management is one area in which I'm constantly learning...

[philip hanft]

Thank you, S_Gans.

You put a lot of thought and time into your recommendations. I appreciate that very much.

I will try the things you suggested and let you know what works.

One question. You mentioned using a larger color space. What might that be? Adobe RGB?

thanks again.

[S_Gans]

I'm SO sorry for the delay - was out for some medical stuff.

Yes, I personally like Adobe RGB, but am also a fan of ProPhoto. Both of those have a WAY broader range than sRGB.

[D Fosse]

Whatever the document profile, it should print correctly. Any gamut differences between color spaces is a marginal and local effect. General color or tonality shifts have other causes. Just leave eveything in Color Settings at defaults for now. That's not where the problem is.

Make sure that you have the correct printer/paper/ink profile set up as Print Profile in the Photoshop print dialog. Then open the printer driver and set the correct media/paper type (this controls total amount of ink). Also make sure printer color management is "off" so that you don't get double profiling.

If still wrong, update drivers and profiles.

Without knowing exactly how wrong your prints look, it cannot be emphasized enough that to get a good screen to print match, you need to calibrate your monitor to match the print (assuming the printer is basically sound). Not the other way round. You should set your calibration targets so that monitor white is a visual match to paper white, and monitor black is a visual match to max ink density for that paper. With these two endpoints set, the rest will fall into place by itself, and what you see is what you get.

Most monitors out of the box are way too bright and way too contrasty. No ink on paper can ever replicate that. That's why you need to calibrate.