Epson 2200 wild color substitution

[Mark Aiken]

I've been using an Epson Stylus Photo 2200 with Photoshop for a couple of months and have been generally very pleased with the results. I have just encountered a problem, though, that has me stumped.

I have a photo that includes a person wearing a very saturated magenta shirt. Whenever I print this image, the color reproduction is correct over the entire print, except that the subject's shirt comes out blocked to a medium magenta tone (rather different than the actual color), and surrounding areas where there should be a slight magenta reflection on skin tones and in shadows are instead printed as shades of a bright, neon GREEN. This is not a subtle effect; these portions of the image are obviously, wildly wrong, even to the casual observer.

Turning on color proofing in PS revealed that the magenta shirt and some surrounding areas were out of gamut for the 2200 and the paper I am using. However, I dodged / burned the offending areas until PS showed them as within gamut, and the print came out identically. Ditto for switching from Relative Colormetric to Perceptual for the ICM intent. Finally, choosing "print preview" in the print dialog shows an image with a heavy magenta cast (as usual), but no trace of the neon green highlighting. Letting the print process proceed, however, reveals the rogue green.

I've wasted a number of sheets, and a bunch of ink, trying to get this one image to come out correctly. Has anyone seen anything like this with the 2200, or have any suggestions? I'm using PS 7.0 and my print dialogs say "version 5.40" on the "maintainance" tab. I'm printing with Photo Black onto Premium Glossy paper and using the ICM profiles that came with my printer. Other images come out fine, as does the entirety of this problematic image, except for this one area.

Any help appreciated!

[Robert Sinclair]

Sounds like you're having a lot of fun with that one... I'm sure you already tried this, but is the image in CMYK or RGB mode? I have noticed that this makes a difference with the results from the 2200 if you're not running the Epson Styus RIP Server. Try switching color modes.

[LenHewitt]

Try de-saturating that area of magenta.....

[Ian Lyons]

Mark,

In Photoshop Print dialog choose "Printer colour management" rather than a media profile and int he Epson driver choose ICM mode. How does the print look??

[YrbkMgr]

Also, if you do not use Print Preview, you will not use color management so make sure that's what your using. Then you can tweak color.

[YrbkMgr]

Mark,

No I'm not sure. I've re-read today, what I read months and months ago. Here's what Ian says

From Ian Lyons' Site:

In Photoshop 7 the "File > Print" menu option no longer gives the user access to colour management settings. Not to worry - to gain access to the settings formerly found in the Print dialog we must now choose "File > Print with Preview"

The first time I read it I interpreted it to mean that you no longer *use* color management; I now see that it's possible he means that you use color management, but have no access to the control of color management. Ever since I read it the first time, I always use Print with Preview.

I suppose, now, that it's possible you are still using color management even if you don't use print with preview, but let's put it this way.

Until Ian can clarify it, I'd suggest making sure you use Print with Preview.