Awful Color on Epson 2200 after Snow Leopard Upgrade

Be sure to print with color adjustment turned off in the Epson print settings. "Photorealistic" is the only adjustment I've seen the driver offer, and it made a magenta mess out of my prints until I turned it off. After that, my 2200 is back to its accurate if slightly dark self.

Apple today updated a bunch of Epson drivers, including the driver for my 1280. So far so good. All the options are back, both in CS4 and Lightroom. I can once again let the programs manage color! Yeah baby! I printed a few test prints and they did quite well. Previously the color settings options were XXXXXX'd out in Lightroom and CS4. Anyone else tried the update? How's it working for you?

I can pretty much concur. The driver that Epson made available this week has given me good color again. The interface is different to the old driver that I knew and loved in Leopard, but with a few tweaks for personal taste I think my "old 2200" has gained a new lease on life.

Has anyone else noticed that the "SP2200 Standard_MK" profile is missing from the list of profiles in the new 2200 driver? I only used it when I wanted to print a rough copy on plain paper, so although I don't need it for critical work, it should still be on the list.

Although it does not appear in the list when selecting a profile to print with, I discovered the profile does exist in the folder along with all the others. FYI the default Epson profiles installed with the new driver 8.12 are located here:
Macintosh HD > Library > Printers > EPSON > InkjetPrinter2 > ICCProfiles > SP2200_A.profiles (then control click to Show Package Contents) > Contents > Resources.

I understand from talking with the QuadTone RIP folks that Snow Leopard is more strict with its requirements when it comes to handling profiles, so profiles that were handled fine by Leopard may be rejected by Snow Leopard. That could be the case here, but I would have thought this would have been checked by Epson when building the new driver. Before I jump to conclusions though I would like to know if it is just me or if that profile is missing for everyone else using the 8.12 Epson 2200 driver and Snow Leopard.

Thanks.

Message was edited by: Bazzography

I did not see the update from Epson but the other day I received an update from apple stating the new driver for the 2200 but, my driver version says 8.17 not 8.12. Any ideas what the difference is? I printed with it and all seems as it was before the Snow Leodard upgrade.

tomh1000 wrote:
I did not see the update from Epson but the other day I received an update from apple stating the new driver for the 2200 but, my driver version says 8.17 not 8.12. Any ideas what the difference is? I printed with it and all seems as it was before the Snow Leodard upgrade.

I downloaded the new driver from Epson a few weeks ago and got 8.12. I just ran Software Update and an Epson Driver update appeared, I installed it, and now I'm on 8.17. Their website still shows 8.12. Interesting.

I did notice one difference so far. The software update through Apple installed 2 more profile packages consisting mostly of duplicates (triplicates actually) of existing profiles, and one new one, Archival Matte (do they even still make that?). Strange part is, I see exactly the same set of profiles as I did prior to the update installing the 2 new profile packages. The SP2200 Standard_MK profile still does not show up, and the Archival Matte profiles that were just installed do not show up either. Makes you wonder what the point of installing them was.

Can anyone please answer my previous post about the missing profile... I'd really like to know if this is yet another Epson problem (yeah, that would be shocking wouldn't it?) or if this is an isolated incident. Just need someone to tell me if the SP2200 Standard_MK profile is available in your list of profiles when printing (driver 8.12 or 8.17, Snow Leopard.

Thanks very much.

Sorry for the delay in responce. I did look at my profiles and I do have the SP2200 Standard_MK profile listed.

Tom

tomh1000 wrote:
Sorry for the delay in responce. I did look at my profiles and I do have the SP2200 Standard_MK profile listed.

Tom

Thanks for checking Tom. Very strange. Altogether, there were 4 profiles that were installed but did not show up in the print list:

SP2200 Standard_MK
SP2200 Archival Matte_MK
SP2200 Archival Matte_PK
SP2200 Glossy Paper - PW_PK

I did some experimenting and think I have a fix in case anyone else is having the same problem:

Go to the default Epson profile location:
Macintosh HD > Library > Printers > EPSON > InkjetPrinter2 > ICCProfiles > SP2200_A.profiles (control click on this and select Show Package Contents) > Contents > Resources.

(If you installed the driver via the Apple Software Update you will likely also have a SP2200_W.profiles package and a SP2100.profiles package. Don't know why there is a _A package and a _W package, but the SP2200_W.profiles package is mostly duplicates with the exception of 2 Archival Matte profiles. The SP2100.profiles package is obviously for the 2100 printer.)

I copied the entire Resources folder to my desktop, then dragged all the profiles from the copied folder into the default OSX profile location:
Macintosh HD > Library > ColorSync > Profiles.

After restarting Photoshop all the missing profiles became available when printing. No idea why this actually worked. Doesn't really make sense, but I'll take it.

I took three tries for me, but I finally got the driver installed properly.

I experienced the password flashing thing, but given a few tries and task switching I was able to enter it. The first two installs lead to printer complete non-function. I got some weird gutenprint-like interface in the printer settings dialog, and my printer utility refused to start even when connected through firewire. I also got a nice Rastertoescpll failed error when I tried to print.

The way I got the drivers in for good:

1. Reset printing system in SysPrefs

2. Trash /library/printers/epson, library/caches/epson, and some other files.
Just do a search for anything named epson in your main library folder and TRASH IT.

2. Do the same for your user/library folder, I believe there should be stuff in user/library/preferences, do a search anyway and TRASH everything named epson.

3. RESTART

4. Empty trash (it will only let you kill everything after a restart)

5. Install the epson13564.dmg drivers, I had no password problems this time

6. RESTART

7. Go to SysPrefs and hit + to add the printer (I strongly suggest FireWire so you can use the utility), select the printer and use the EPSON SP 2200 driver.
(Options and Supplies) -> (General) tab should read the Driver version as 8.12

8. Test Printer Utility, which is now in Applications/Epson Software
It should be nice, new and snazzy looking, with a button to give epson more money for their ink on top.

9. Start Printing, all the color profiles were there for me using Epson Paper.

My colors look awesome, really good match to my calibrated screen.

The only thing that is funky is that I am getting a green gradient wherever I start a print, it fades out in about an inch. I have had this from time to time way before Snow Leopard. Does anyone know how to fix this? I cleaned heads to no avail.

-Stan

risotto wrote:



7. I strongly suggest FireWire so you can use the utility

I'm not sure why that is the case for you, but generally speaking there isn't any reason you need to use firewire to be able to use the printer utility. I've always used USB with my 2200 and accessed the utility without issue, as do others I know.

I'd suspect there is a problem with the USB port on your printer... or maybe a bad cable or something?

I had the same password issue others have mentioned. I just had to be really quick about the first letter, and then everything was okay and the new driver installed fine.

My problem is I simply can't print from InDesign. I immediately get a message "The Adobe Print Engine has failed to output your data due to an unknown problem." I was able to print a PDF version of the same file. The colors look fine. The margins are a little off, but I can live with that. However, I don't want to have to make a PDF for every print. Has anyone else had this problem and solved it?

I followed Risotto's steps and actually got the printer to print (a huge step since it has been dead for months now). My big problem now is that everything I print is heavily tinted magenta. Skin tones are purple.

I've tried selected different paper profiles, calibrating my own paper, turning color correction off and on, changing gamma to 2.2, Nothing. I am at a total loss. I deleted all the Epson profiles and reinstalled them. The photo I'm trying to print was printed beautifully before Snow Leopard, so I know it can be done. If anyone has any further suggestions or tips it would be greatly appreciated.

Trevor Gerring wrote:
I followed Risotto's steps and actually got the printer to print (a huge step since it has been dead for months now). My big problem now is that everything I print is heavily tinted magenta. Skin tones are purple.

I've tried selected different paper profiles, calibrating my own paper, turning color correction off and on, changing gamma to 2.2, Nothing. I am at a total loss. I deleted all the Epson profiles and reinstalled them. The photo I'm trying to print was printed beautifully before Snow Leopard, so I know it can be done. If anyone has any further suggestions or tips it would be greatly appreciated.

Just a thought...
You mentioned that the machine has been idle for months, I wonder if you have a clogged nozzle(s)? Have you run nozzle check?

I dont think it's a clogged nozzle. I printed the same image from a hard drive running Leopard today and everything looks perfect. It's something with Snow Leopard and/ or the updated driver. I'm not really sure. I tried deinstalling/ deleting all Epson related files and installing everything again... still no luck.

I retract my last statement. It turns out it was a nozzle problem. I ran the head cleaning 3-4 times and it seems to have fix most of the problems.

However, now it is printing weird light blue borders and backgrounds around all of my images. I printed a 5x7 in the middle of an 8x10 sheet and it printed a light blue background across the entire page. The actual 5x7 image in the center printed great though.