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by Steve Rood on Thu Aug 14, 2014 3:35 pm
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Hi all -

Though I use a professional lab to handle my prints for clients, there are times when I just need to make prints for family and friends as gifts. I am having a heck of a time time getting accurate prints these days using my iMac and Epson Photo R3000. I used to get amazing prints once upon a time. This is why I use a professional lab nowadays.

I am using Apple's drivers for the Epson Photo R3000 with terrible results. Thinking about reinstalling the original Epson drivers from the software CD that came with the printer. However, there is a new printing software that caught my eye that claims to make life a lot easier - PrinTao 8 for the Mac.

So my questions are as follows -

1) Is anyone using PrinTao 8 for the Epson Photo R3000 and do you like your results?

2) Is anyone printing with Epson's original printer drivers for the Photo R3000?

3) Is anyone printing with Apple's printer drivers for the Epson Photo R3000?

Trying to figure out the best road to go down. Many thanks in advance for your time.

Steve
Steven Rood |  Photographer


Last edited by Steve Rood on Tue Sep 23, 2014 12:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 

by E.J. Peiker on Fri Aug 15, 2014 9:21 am
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If you are getting terrible results, it might not just be the drivers.  there might be another problem in your set-up.  You can post all of the different screens from your print dialog box to the driver settings here and we are usually able to figure out if something isn't set right.
 

by Royce Howland on Sat Aug 16, 2014 12:29 pm
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Don't print with the Apple drivers for any Epson printer. You need to print with the Epson drivers. Go to the Epson web site, download & install the latest R3000 drivers and see how that works. Do not use the drivers that came on CD with your R3000, they're almost certainly outdated by now. Several releases of Mac OS X dating back a few years have played havoc with different versions of Adobe and Epson software, in the colour-managed printing pipeline. It's important to be running versions of all of these that are either the latest, or are the ones designed to work together.

Follow up here after if there are still issues... as E.J. says there may be other issues. There are a number of settings that need to be done correctly in your printing application -- you didn't say what you're using for that, whether Lightroom, Photoshop, or something else. And there are settings that need to be correct within the driver. And you're strongly advised to have proper ICC profiles and so on, in order for the colour managed printing system to give you good results.

I've seen some references to PrintTao but not having a Mac I've never used it. Either way, I think looking at it wouldn't really address the root of what isn't working for you right now.
Royce Howland
 

by E.J. Peiker on Sat Aug 16, 2014 3:24 pm
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Yes, my is point exactly Royce although I didn't say it explicitly. Until you figure out what in your printing pipeline is causing the poor results, a new printing application may not fix it. most definitely use the printer manufacturer driver with the correct profile for that paper. Also make sure your monitor is properly calibrated and at a relatively low, for most monitors, lumens level. The brightness should be in the 90-100 cd/m^2 range as long as your monitor can go that low without turning it to below, say 20% brightness. Also you should let the application (photoshop or Lightroom or whatever) manage the printer's colors, not the default which is usually something else.
 

by Joerg Rockenberger on Sat Aug 16, 2014 4:43 pm
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Royce Howland wrote:Don't print with the Apple drivers for any Epson printer. You need to print with the Epson drivers. Go to the Epson web site, download & install the latest R3000 drivers and see how that works.
Note, that the printer driver update according to Epson is now only available via Apple Software Update.

Joerg
 

by Royce Howland on Sat Aug 16, 2014 7:35 pm
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Hmm, interesting, Joerg. Thanks for pointing that out. Hopefully that will be a positive step that corrects some of the trouble Mac / Epson users have had in the past with conflicting driver updates from Apple & Epson.

http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/supp ... m=OSF_M_X9

Steve, if you've done the update as described above then you should be running the proper Epson printer driver. If printing still isn't working, it's probably best to diagnose what else is going wrong rather than throw new software into the mix just yet. You may still decide to try out PrintTao if it does some things you'd like to bring into your printing workflow, but fixing whatever is wrong now is likely a good use of time no matter which way you go.

Let us know what app you're using to print now, and the colour management & printing settings in it as E.J. described...
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by Royce Howland on Sat Aug 16, 2014 7:49 pm
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One more detail -- looks like Mac OS X 10.7.x and newer can get the latest Epson driver via Apple Update. Mac OS X 10.6.x and older still have to download the driver and install it manually in order to have the proper driver running on the system...
Royce Howland
 

by Steve Rood on Tue Sep 23, 2014 1:46 pm
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Thanks everyone for the replies.

I've been on assignment. As has been pointed out, all updated Epson printer drivers are now distributed via Apple's Software Update. I am using OS 10.8.5 and have all the latest software updates. The latest printer driver I have is 9.29. I have a properly calibrated monitor via X-Rite and print directly from Photoshop CS6 while letting it manage color.

I am attempting to print on a letter sized sheet of Epson Velvet Fine Art.

The first problem is getting the printer to load the paper properly. This has always been an issue for me with Epson printers. Every model I have owned has always had issues with loading fine art papers. Epson really needs to get their act together in this regard. This was the primary reason I started letting a lab handle all my professional printing. Epson has let me down too many times with "paper jam" and "paper skew" issues. Not to mention pizza wheel marks and roller impressions left in too many prints. I was bleeding money because of this.

The second problem I am having is that no matter what selection I make for letter sized paper (and there are way too many of these - front loaded, sheet loaded, bleed, non-bleed, etc) I am unable to select Velvet Fine Art from the fine art paper menu. It is greyed out. I can select any of the glossy or matte papers. But no fine art papers. Seriously Epson, it's a letter sized sheet of paper. Why so many darn options? In fact, because this is a professional photo printer, there should only be one slot for paper. There shouldn't even be a slot for normal sheet paper. There should a top loader only with an option for rolled paper on the back. That's it.

I remember having the same issues with my last Epson Printer - the R2880. I had to design a workaround by creating a custom designed color profile I made for Ultra Premium Presentation Matte Paper and selecting this from the drop-down menu as my paper selection - even though I was printing on Velvet Fine Art. It worked great. Until the paper jam issues became too much to handle and I junked it for the R3000. I literally tossed it into an industrial trash can.

So here I am in the same situation. How can I get this printer to let me select Velvet Fine Art? Or any of the other fine art paper choices for that matter? And yes, I do have the proper black ink selected. Matte black.

Throwing my hands in the air.
Steven Rood |  Photographer
 

by Royce Howland on Tue Sep 23, 2014 4:45 pm
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Usually if a small format printer model officially supports heavier stock, it's on a feed path that's designed to run through the printer with minimal bends. A top feed or cassette feed wouldn't be the ones I'd try, I'd try a front or rear feed that runs the paper flat & straight through the print area. I haven't had hands on an Epson R3000, but I just checked the online manual for the R3000. It explicitly states compatibility with Epson VFA paper, via the front-load manual single sheet feed only. I suspect if that's not the feed path selected, the VFA paper type will be disabled.

Deselect borderless as well, while debugging the rest of the paper feed issues. Sometimes a feed path or a certain size of media isn't compatible with borderless printing. If borderless is selected from a previous print session, this may disable certain paper types from being chosen, adding to the confusion.

Feed path and borderless are a couple of the hot buttons I know from experience are related to blocked paper type selections. If working on those still doesn't clear it up, post details of all your driver settings ideally via screenshots. Perhaps we will see that something else is the culprit. It's a game of details... just work through them methodically.
Royce Howland
 

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