Turning off ColorSync

i've had same prob and it has nothing to do with ink.

you want to turn off colorsync under color matching in print dialogue box. in order to do that you have to (before going to print settings dialogue box) is have the 'printer manages colors', not photoshop. also i go down one aisle and change normal printing to hard proof and simulate paper color. then go to print settings>color matching. there will be 2 radio buttons that are now not grayed out. i use epson so i punch the epson color control button. make sure to select correct paper in print settings.

it worked wonders for me after spending hundreds on calibration and matching tools only to get steeped into the marketing whirlwind where tech support says well you need to upgrade to this or that.

no what i needed was someone to tell me the truth.

I tried your suggestion after arriving here from a google search and I wanted to let you know that it helped a lot! I'm still missing a tiny bit of punch in color, just a little, and I'm not sure if that's to be expected (such as, natural variations between print and monitor that may not be possible to achieve) but nevertheless, your suggestion helped a ton.

I am using a Spyder Print system to calibrate and it seems I receive no results from this, and that is apparently due to ColorSync! Once turned off by selecting "Printer Manages Colors" and then going into the print settings and un-checking ColorSync, I get the desired results, and this is after calibrating my monitor with the Spyder5. Seems ColorSync overrides other color profiles... very frustrating. So it seems I cannot use my color profile at all from the calibration... still tinkering and testing over here on that one.

i bought the spyder 5 pro after being told it would solve all probs in matching what i see on monitor to actual printing....if i would have done more research i would not have bought it as all it does is calibrate your monitor to light conditions in what ever room ur using it does nothing to match colors from here to there. now they sell something else that promises that but i don't trust any BS people push on this subject as an easy one button fix.

Now if ur biz demands you match colors exactly i think you'd have to invest in something like the pro designer edition of like let's says the epson p800 that comes with a RIP, but for me i don't have the budget or urge to be sinking a couple of grand into something that some salesperson says is a sure fix when i've been suckered into that hole already.

No, you weren't lied to. Though they did stretch the truth a bit.

all it does is calibrate your monitor to light conditions in what ever room ur using

Only if you choose to match the monitor to the ambient room color. Not a good choice. The default for monitors is a 6500K white point, and 2.2 gamma. Which is a horrible choice since you almost never see daylight color that blue. The sun emits a 5500K white point, but that's measured in space. On Earth, the average color temperature is about 5200-5300K, according to an extensive worldwide study by X-Rite.

In printing, the default settings are 5000K, 1.8 gamma. 5000K is considered perfectly neutral, by what humans perceive as a gray that is neither bluish (higher Kelvin), or yellowish (lower Kelvin). The 1.8 gamma is used in printing to hold ink coverage down to what can be reproduced on most papers without saturating them.

Color management is not an "easy one button fix". It takes time to learn what does and doesn't work. What are, or are not the correct settings to use for the result you need. Such as, when I create printer profiles, I can intentionally make them print with less yellow than it normally should. The prints come out looking blueish and pinkish. But when put under the yellow lights of the gallery they're going to hang in, the color looks natural.

For the best results from screen to paper, profile your monitor to 5000K, 1.8 gamma. Then - and this is incredibly important - use the correct profile for the paper you're printing on, and the printer you're using. For instance, if you're using a Canon printer and Canon gloss paper, you must use the gloss paper profile Canon provides for that exact model printer. And that means using their paper. It doesn't matter if you have Epson, or another brand of gloss inkjet paper that looks and feels identical. You will not get the same results.

Beyond that, never, ever expect your prints to 100% match your screen at all times. You're limited to the inks in your printer. It cannot, in any way, print colors that are brighter and richer than the inks can reproduce on the paper you're using. You will never in a million years reproduce the very saturated colors monitors are capable of displaying. Expect very vibrant color on screen to print less so.

RIPs are more accurate, but you still can't overcome the printer's color limitations. It can only reproduce color in its range. Anything outside of that will be pulled inward to its less saturated limits.

don't know how to create my own printer profiles..... but i have googled and found some free resources that people like you have provided for people like me.

my monitor does not provide very many adjustable options. i have a 27" samsung led HD (connected hdmi).......and can only get so close to corrections the spyder suggests.

i am not a photog but do like to print out large format prints that come out close to what i see on screen. i understand the time and commitment to try and figure out how to get it close. datacolor tech support basically just pointed my to a link of some pro who talks the color matching problem and color sync must be turned off. i have limited time to be some serious troubleshooting geek to figure this stuff out. i own my own small silkscreen printing biz. do video ediitng and web promo, but love designing posters.... so when someone swears by some product that will solve a prob i've had since my first mac in the 90s i kinda jumped on it, never realizing i just threw a couple hundred bucks out the window.

No, you didn't throw money out the window. An accurate monitor profile is extremely important. When you use the built in Calibrate function of the OS, or various types of "profiling" software packages out their that claim they can produce accurate profiles simply by moving sliders around on the screen, that is a lie. Eyeballing color does not tell the OS/ColorSync what color your monitor is displaying.

One very big thing you need to do. Do not use an HDMI connection. That is a television YCbCr color space. You need to use RGB. If the Samsung HD screen you're using as a monitor has a DisplayPort (Thunderbolt) connection, use it. Your Mac, of course, also must have a Thunderbolt or DisplayPort connector.

HDMI is a good output when you're using the screen as a reference monitor for video editing (and is the actual reason you have an HDMI output), but is no good for color control involved without print output. Pros use a DisplayPort connection for the computer's display on a separate monitor, and use an HDMI connected TV to see how the color of the video they're editing will display on a TV. DisplayPort can't do both accurately, and neither can HDMI.

The Spyder, like other hardware based monitor profiling systems, measures what the monitor is displaying, and adjusts it to produce an accurate color output for the white point and gamma you chose. In other words, the profile created by the Spyder is based on what was directly read from the screen, not the user pushing sliders around. With the latter, the OS/ColorSync still has no idea what the monitor is actually displaying. All slider based "corrections" are inaccurate guesses.

thanks for replying and knowledge.

too bad sales reps or internet databases promoting these products don't break it down like you just did.

i'm using the last generation of mac pro steel cased mac with osx 10.7.5, can't update these machines past that. but i have every piece of software any creative would want to have from the cs6 suite to maya to logic pro with the highest video card compatible that has the normal 2 video outs. samsung hdmi needed adapter to plug into back of machine...other video out goes to my cintiq for drawing and painting. i have artisan 1430, hp scanner, roland cutter and designjet 500 42" along with audio studio that would blow your mind, so i refuse to upgrade or invest in anything else or get rid of it.

i guess if i need to i'll figure it out BUT wouldn't i lose resolution on samsung if i switched to regular rgb connection? don't think i'm willing to do that for being off a notch or two on prints.

meanwhile my 42" designjet prints very close to what i see on monitor but the epson i've had to go through all this nonsense.

thanks again!

i guess if i need to i'll figure it out BUT wouldn't i lose resolution on samsung if i switched to regular rgb connection? don't think i'm willing to do that for being off a notch or two on prints.

Yes, you're okay using HDMI, it's just not preferable for RGB work. You are correct that you won't see a huge difference.

Since the software isn't letting you select Epson Color Controls, you may need to print out the target sheets as PDF files (lower left). Then open those, if there's more than one, in Photoshop or other app that allows you to open them as is (no color management). Then print it from there, turning off all color control for the output.

The colormunki software is specifically designed to correctly print test charts, the No Colour Adjustment setting will be set to off, in the print driver

Click on the print driver dropdown menu (green arrow) and select Print Settings > Basic tab

The colour settings drop down menu should be locked and set to No Colour Adjustment (red arrow)

This confirms color munki is controlling the print driver correctly

Do not follow the suggestion from Kurt, it is ill informed and wrong.

Creating a PDF file will change the colorimetry and will produce an out of gamut profile.

Photoshop is unable to set the print driver to "No Colour Adjustment"

Creating a PDF file will change the colorimetry and will produce an out of gamut profile.

Yes, my mistake. I didn't realize OS X would to that. It was just the only quick way I could think of at the moment to get the target sheets out to another app.

Click on the print driver dropdown menu (green arrow) and select Print Settings > Basic tab

But that's the main problem. hasnul8286 can't get to the Epson controls. They're grayed out.

Yes, my mistake. I didn't realize OS X would to that. It was just the only quick way I could think of at the moment to get the target sheets out to another app.

The targets must be printed from colormunki software to allow the targets to be printed correctly, thats what the software is for.

But that's the main problem. hasnul8286 can't get to the Epson controls. They're grayed out.

Indeed the options are all greyed out, (locked). As I stated in my reply there are no colour options to set, the colormonki software uses presets to control the print driver settings so the user does not make incorrect settings.

The user can verify that colour management is switched off by going to Print Settings as shown by the red arrow.

However, all that needs to be done by the user is click the print button.

The targets must be printed from colormunki software to allow the targets to be printed correctly, thats what the software is for.

"Must" is only true if the ColorMunki software doesn't allow you to get an untagged patch image to the printer any other way. With i1Profiler, I can save the targets out to a TIFF, open them in Photoshop and then print them. This is particularly important when profiling our Epson 4900. From i1Profiler, we can't create a custom target size to fit through an i1iSis that doesn't waste an awful lot of paper by printing nothing on large areas of 17" roll paper. But we can put two long sheets together as one image in Photoshop and then print that will almost no waste.

Indeed the options are all greyed out, (locked).

Wrong image. I was referring to hasnul8286's initial screen shot in this topic. He can't get to the Epson controls.

Though he should be able to choose the drop down menu where it says Color Matching, and then choose Other. The radio buttons should then be active and so he can choose "EPSON Color Controls", which Print will take him to before the image is sent to the printer. If the drop down has no other choices, then I'm not familiar enough with that model printer to suggest how to get to the Epson controls.