Epson Stylus Pro 3800 and Snow Leopard - my experience
I had some trouble installing my Epson Stylus Pro 3800 under Snow Leopard. I think it is running ok now and wanted to share what I did.
1. This is a new machine setup under SL 10.6.5 and upgraded to 10.6.6 now.
2. I first did the normal thing: I went to epson.com (my country) which turned out to be the EU download site. Installed SL drivers and then their Common Update 7. Epson as IP printer and running from my account, providing authentication when asked.
3. I got a printer but with no advanced options (ie. useless). I noticed that my tab in the print dialog reads "printer features" while the one I need would read "printer settings".
4. I deinstalled the driver (using the Epson installer application which has an uninstall option), deleted /Library/Printers/EPSON (no need to empty the trash, really ...), resetted the print system (Command-Click in the Add Printer dialog) and rebooted. I did NOT download and install the recent Epson printer Mega update from apple.com.
5. I then downloaded and installed the 6.11 driver from the Epson US page. It is different indeed, showing a different printer icon in the print dialog when installed. How a corporation can publish two distinct drivers for the same product via their websites is beyond me. I downloaded the Common updater 5 as well but didn't install.
6. Now, I got my advanced printer settings and they didn't disappear after a reboot. I made a couple test prints. Here is the results:
- Print from LR3.3, PS Ext. CS5, and LR3.3 with Printer-managed colors (Gamma=2.2) all look good, look the same and look almost identical to prints I did earlier under Windows and LR2. Epson PGPP profile.
- Above prints look and always looked (for me) a bit darker than on the screen but that may be normal. The ColorSync Untility says that sRGB 50% is mapped to PGPP 30%.
- Using the LR3.3 with Printer-managed colors and Gamma=1.8 (the default) or 1.5 yield brighter results, closer to the screen but also lacking a bit of pop. YMMV. All in all, I would say that colors and brightness are ok and using Adobe managed colors gives no advantage.
- I've not seen sign of any cyan cast. I printed both with border and borderless.
7. I've run the Common Updater 5 from the US site but couldn't see any change. I did not run the Epson printer Mega update from apple.com or Common Updater 7 from the EU site. Apple software update says everything up to date.
So, in summary:
(1) Installing the Epson drivers for 3800 into a fresh install of SL fails, at least if using the Epson EU site.
(2) The Epson Pro 3800 can be made working. I don't know what made it working for me, maybe deleting the /Library/Printers/EPSON folder, maybe using the uninstaller, maybe (likely) using the US drivers. Anybody using a different method to get it working please share.
All in all, I am a bit shocked that a recent and professional printer like the Epson 3800 is not plug&play with Apple.
1. This is a new machine setup under SL 10.6.5 and upgraded to 10.6.6 now.
2. I first did the normal thing: I went to epson.com (my country) which turned out to be the EU download site. Installed SL drivers and then their Common Update 7. Epson as IP printer and running from my account, providing authentication when asked.
3. I got a printer but with no advanced options (ie. useless). I noticed that my tab in the print dialog reads "printer features" while the one I need would read "printer settings".
4. I deinstalled the driver (using the Epson installer application which has an uninstall option), deleted /Library/Printers/EPSON (no need to empty the trash, really ...), resetted the print system (Command-Click in the Add Printer dialog) and rebooted. I did NOT download and install the recent Epson printer Mega update from apple.com.
5. I then downloaded and installed the 6.11 driver from the Epson US page. It is different indeed, showing a different printer icon in the print dialog when installed. How a corporation can publish two distinct drivers for the same product via their websites is beyond me. I downloaded the Common updater 5 as well but didn't install.
6. Now, I got my advanced printer settings and they didn't disappear after a reboot. I made a couple test prints. Here is the results:
- Print from LR3.3, PS Ext. CS5, and LR3.3 with Printer-managed colors (Gamma=2.2) all look good, look the same and look almost identical to prints I did earlier under Windows and LR2. Epson PGPP profile.
- Above prints look and always looked (for me) a bit darker than on the screen but that may be normal. The ColorSync Untility says that sRGB 50% is mapped to PGPP 30%.
- Using the LR3.3 with Printer-managed colors and Gamma=1.8 (the default) or 1.5 yield brighter results, closer to the screen but also lacking a bit of pop. YMMV. All in all, I would say that colors and brightness are ok and using Adobe managed colors gives no advantage.
- I've not seen sign of any cyan cast. I printed both with border and borderless.
7. I've run the Common Updater 5 from the US site but couldn't see any change. I did not run the Epson printer Mega update from apple.com or Common Updater 7 from the EU site. Apple software update says everything up to date.
So, in summary:
(1) Installing the Epson drivers for 3800 into a fresh install of SL fails, at least if using the Epson EU site.
(2) The Epson Pro 3800 can be made working. I don't know what made it working for me, maybe deleting the /Library/Printers/EPSON folder, maybe using the uninstaller, maybe (likely) using the US drivers. Anybody using a different method to get it working please share.
All in all, I am a bit shocked that a recent and professional printer like the Epson 3800 is not plug&play with Apple.
MacBook Pro 2010 15" 2.66 GHz iCore 7, Mac OS X (10.6.6), Epson Stylus Pro 3800