Print on Fine Art Paper using Epson 9900.

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Level 6

12,542 points

Print on Fine Art Paper using Epson 9900.

Printing. Sigh.

I can't get the "Fine Art" Epson papers "Hot Press" or "Cold Press" to show up in the printer dialog box. (I pay by the hour and the square foot to use the 9900 to print works for a show that opens in two weeks, so this is both pressing and costly.) I have tried everything I could think of (details below). As a work-around, I exported 16-bit TIFFs, opened them on another machine in PS-CS6, and printed them. The Epson Hot Press paper can be selected in the PS print dialog on that machine. The print looks excellent.

OS 10.8.5 on an Intel 2.7 GHz Core i7 MacBook Pro w. 16 GB RAM.

Aperture 3.4.5

(No beta-ware installed.)

PS-CC (14.1.2 x64) on this machine. (Do not have the version number of PS-CS6 that is installed on the other machine.)

My studio printer is an Epson 3880. On that printer, I have to select one of the print dialog "Paper Size" presets with "(Manual - Rear)" in the name in order for the full complement of Epson Fine Art papers to show in the "Printer Settings➞Basic➞Media Type➞Fine Art Paper" drop-down of the printer dialog box. (I am using "print dialog box" to refer to Aperture's print dialog, and "printer dialog box" to refore to the OS print dialog box that comes up after clicking "print" at the bottom right of Aperture's print dialog box.)

The 3880 does not accept roll paper. One of my reasons for using the 9900 is that it does accept roll paper. There are no "(Manual - Rear)" presets that I could find for the 9900.

Oddly, in PS-CC (this machine), I cannot specify "Hot Press" either. Only on the other machine (which is at the community arts center lab where I print) does "Hot Press" show in the fine art paper types. That machine does not have Aperture installed.

I have updated my 9900 driver, and downloaded the most recent ICC profiles for the paper. I installed the profiles in both the system library and my user library. I can select the profiles.

The current driver listed on Epson's site is 9.04. The version which shows in "System Prefs➞Print and Scan➞Epson Stylus Pro 9900➞Options and Supplies➞General➞Driver Version" is 8.64. I have re-downloaded and re-installed. Twice.

I have rebooted, hard and soft.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

Cross-posted to Luminous Landscape.

Kirby.

MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012), OS X Mountain Lion, 16 GB RAM; 500 GB SSD; NEC; Munki

Posted on Oct 19, 2013 12:23 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

léonie

Level 10

194,653 points

Oct 19, 2013 3:06 PM in response to Kirby Krieger

Just a hunch, Kirby. I looked at the Epson support page:

http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/support/supDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&info Type=FAQ&oid=119098&prodoid=63079720&foid=125986&cat=53461&subcat=53466

and found in the FAQ:

Selected FAQ

Q:	Why are only matte media types displayed in the driver’s media list?
A:	When matte black ink is selected in the printer driver, only matte media types are displayed in the driver list. The complete media list appears only when the photo black ink is selected.

Do you have any possibility to select the ink in the driver - matte or not? And are you trying to print glossy?

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Answer 2

Kirby Krieger Author

Level 6

12,542 points

Oct 19, 2013 3:36 PM in response to léonie

Léonie -- thanks so much for researching this. Sorry to report, that's not the problem. I am using the Epson ICC profiles for matte printing ("Mk" instead of "Pk" -- "matte black" vs. "photo black").

Afaik, all the papers listed in "Fine Art" are matte papers. My problem is that the "Fine Art" list is incomplete: it shows the Epson papers that were available when the printer was released (iirc -- really just speculating here), but does not show the papers which have been released since (now two or three years ago).

Weirdly, I was able to print to this exact printer and the exact roll of paper I am using two years ago -- with the laptop I replaced with this one. So your hunch is structurally on target, afaict: I think the problem can be resolved with a small setting and/or selection I am overlooking.

My print rate of 1/day is not going to get me to the finish line 😁 .

--Kirby.

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