Epson XP610 Prints Dark. ColorSync?

You're on the right track with ColorSync. Basically, it's all about using the correct profiles.

1. Check and set the monitor profile. Open the System Preferences and click on Displays, then the Color tab. Unless you've created other monitor profiles yourself, there should be one profile name at the top of the list above a gray dividing line. That's the monitor profile pulled from the panel itself and is the factory default profile. It's a typical 6500K, 2.2 gamma profile. If it's not already highlighted (a gray bar across the whole thing), select it and close the System Preferences. Do not use other RGB profiles which may be in the list that have nothing to do with monitors, such as Adobe RGB, sRGB, ColorMatch RGB, etc.

2. All profile types (monitor, digital camera, scanner, printer) are very device specific. That's actually the whole idea. Each one represents a mathematical representation of the color response of the device the profile was created for. Printers go even further since you aren't just profiling the device, but also which paper you used. That's why there are so many profiles for the same printer. The inks will behave differently and produce different color on different papers.

These are the profiles installed by the XP-610's software:

EPSON XP810 710 610 510 Series Glossy.icc

EPSON XP810 710 610 510 Series Matte.icc

EPSON XP810 710 610 510 Series Photo Glossy.icc

EPSON XP810 710 610 510 Series Photo Quality Ink Jet.icc

EPSON XP810 710 610 510 Series Photo.icc

EPSON XP810 710 610 510 Series Premium Glossy.icc

EPSON XP810 710 610 510 Series Premium Luster.icc

EPSON XP810 710 610 510 Series Premium Semigloss.icc

EPSON XP810 710 610 510 Series Standard.icc

EPSON XP810 710 610 510 Series Ultra Glossy.icc

EPSON XP810 710 610 510 Series Velvet Fine Art.icc

There's actually a bunch of profiles for the XP-950 in the same package, but I'm going to assume the software detected what model printer you have and didn't install those.

As an example, note that there's Glossy, and Photo Glossy choices. These are two versions of gloss Epson papers you can buy, and the profiles are NOT interchangeable. No matter what paper you use, how the ink reacts to the paper is going to be different with each paper and will produce different color results. Don't in any way expect HP Gloss paper to work the same as Epson Gloss paper, even if you choose the same profiles for both papers. It won't happen. Also don't expect an HP Gloss paper profile to work for HP Gloss paper on an Epson printer. The HP profile was created on an HP printer for that paper. If you want to use HP Gloss paper on your Epson, you need to create a profile for it yourself. And that requires expensive equipment to do.

From professional printing companies on down to the dirt cheapest home printers, what paper you use affects color. Gloss will always produce the deepest, richest color. Satin/semi gloss papers a bit less so. Matte again less. Uncoated, dull. Plain paper, dull and blurrier (the ink wicks into the paper). It's just a fact of how ink works with each paper type. There's no fix or trick to make plain paper look like gloss or semi-gloss.

Also, always remember the monitor is a light emitting RGB source that will always, always display brighter and richer colors than even the best paper you can buy. Paper is reflective light, and will never look as luminant as your monitor (unless you turn the brightness on the monitor WAY down). The bigger reason is that most printers (yours included in this case) use Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black inks, which do not even come close to covering the color range of RGB. So as a for instance, don't ever expect to see a very bright, saturated blue on the monitor to look like that on any paper.

So, now with a little color background knowledge, you can probably guess what to do to improve your color output.

3. Choose to print the email. When the dialogue for printing comes up, make sure to click the expansion arrow so you see more than the minimal choices. Under the paper size is a drop down menu. Click on the that and choose Color Matching.

Make sure the ColorSync radio button is chosen and then choose Other Profiles. Scroll through the list to select the Epson profile that matches the Epson paper you're using. I can't tell you exactly what all of the print option screens you may encounter since I didn't actually install the drivers, but I think you get the basic idea.

Now try a print. Does that improve things?

You don't normally want to edit a profile. They are already optimized for the device they were created for. That is, they hold the information for the measured color gamut and range the device responded to at the time the profile was made.

Despite being (usually) fairly small files, they're also quite complex. They hold other information such as A-B and B-A profile exchange data. To edit one requires expensive software. Monaco Profiler and Gretag-MacBeth ProfileMaker are both older PowerPC titles which are two of the very few which do full editing. Being PPC software, they won't run under Lion or later.

X-Rite's new replacement for both of these older titles, i1Profiler, also does editing, but is currently nowhere near as usable in that regard. People who need true, full editing features are still waiting for X-Rite to add that function.

If you have the correct profiles, and are applying them correctly, you should get pretty good results.

Something else to consider is where you're trying to print the image from. Apple's Mail app may not be fully ColorSync aware (though it should be), and you not be able to get screen matching prints from it. So just to try a different approach, copy the attached image out of the email and open it in Preview. Then try printing it.

I'll at least see what happens selecting various options under Color Matching/ColorSync.

Forgot to mention in regards to that. ColorSync profiles must applied only once. So if you choose a paper profile as shown above, and the Epson driver shows yet more color control options, you must set it to No Color Management.

A very important option that not very many less expensive programs have is Black Point Compensation. What that does is balance the black point (gamma end) to the printer profile's black balance. This compensates for how the shadow end looks on the screen so it prints as closely to that on paper rather than filling in, or washing out, depending on the mismatch.

All of this does depend on how accurate the provided profiles are. They make one profile of each paper type on that model printer, but that doesn't mean your exact same model will print color the exact same way. Monitor profiles are no different. The canned profile is based on how someone profiled one monitor of that type, and that same profile is then used for every single monitor of that type, and again, may not be very accurate. It also assumes you haven't touched the controls on the monitor and changed the brightness, or any other settings.

What color profiles are embedded in the image files? I've found that the Adobe RGB color profile prints darker and a bit muddy with my inkjet printers.

I find the Generic RGB, camera RGB and sRGB IEC61966-2.1 profiles print up pretty true.

OT

Ah! Completely forgot that, and meant to mention it earlier. All things being properly profiled, the embedded image profile shouldn't make any difference since what ColorSync tries to do is match the print to the monitor. So really, one of the most important profiles on your system is an accurate monitor profile.

But in relation to Old Toad's post, what the real problem may be is that the images have no embedded profile at all. Then ColorSync has no idea what to do with it color wise (nor would any app, or any other OS). It might assume sRGB, but not necessarily. And if it does, that may not even be the right one to use.