Colour Control

[mastamak]

When printing to my Epson 3880 I turn the printer colour control off and let Lightroom or Photoshop control the colour with what I believe are quite satisfactory results. However, I recently saw a video by a professional photographer who does the opposite. That is, let the printer driver control the colour (after soft proofing). His theory seems to be that the printer driver provides a more accurate colour control than the software. Does anyone have any thoughts or advice on this subject.

[Black Pearl]

Have you tried it to see if its better or if there is a difference?

[Shadowman]

You are the final editor as to how you want your images to look, I would experiment and compare the differences and also have a third party give feedback. I typically allow Photoshop Elements handle color, for a while I would set my printer to allow exif printing. Sometimes I will use the enhanced color setting on my printer. I find that backlit photos generally come out muddy looking unless I adjust the midtones, so for me it's an image by image decision.

https://files.support.epson.com/html...rf/pimex_1.htm

[Manfred M]

There is a Kelby training video on printing where Scott Kelby has brought in a Epson's marketing manager for the USA (Dan Steinhardt) on the video. He recommends letting Photoshop control the colour when printing. If Epson recommends this approach, I think this is probably a logical direction to take.

Let me add one caveat to that statement, based on personal experience, I will not do that on my printer (and Epson 3880) when printing in B&W. I find I get a slight green colour cast to the image when I let Photoshop manage colours.

As for the recommendation of the professional photographer, without knowing his qualifications, I would not put too much stock in what he is doing. There is a lot of advice floating around the web on photography a lot of it is good, but also a lot of it is questionable.

[DanK]

I use a Canon printer but do exactly as Manfred does. I never let the printer control color when printing in color, and everything I have read from sources I trust indicates that this is the better option. However, when printing in B&W, I have the printer's driver take control, specifying B&W. It limits the printing to the black and gray inks and avoids a color cast.


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[Shadowman]

I created different workflows for specific images as well, one source I use is Uwe Steinmueller and Juergen Gulbins "Fine Art Printing for Photographers". Even with this reference I'll still revise as I see fit.

[chauncey]

The path traveled is not as significant as is the destination...if the print/digital appearance is satisfactory,
what does it matter how you got there. Which is why John said this...

Even with this reference I'll still revise as I see fit.

FWIW, Andrew Rodney is the color guru...http://digitaldog.net/

[rpcrowe]

I like using Canon Easy Photo Print software to print my images using my Canon Pixma Pro 9000 MkII printer because:

1. The results are quite good - in fact, they are excellent
2. It is easy for me to use

However... With my wife's new printer HP Office Jet 8710, we have enrolled in a program in which the ink for even color 8x10 inch color prints will only cost a few cents. The color is reasonable - not absolutely great but quite reasonable for give-away prints, like prints of our rescue dogs for the adoptive families and prints to show at our rescue events. I have to play with this printer and learn how to use it. I suspect that I will print the images using Photoshop as my print control...

[royphot]

I use a Canon printer but do exactly as Manfred does. I never let the printer control color when printing in color, and everything I have read from sources I trust indicates that this is the better option. However, when printing in B&W, I have the printer's driver take control, specifying B&W. It limits the printing to the black and gray inks and avoids a color cast.

I agree with Dank. I do not use Canon Paper or Ink in my Canon Pro9000 MkII, & I let Ps manage colour using my Profiles. No matter how much I tweak a profile I always get a slight colour cast when printing B & W that way, so I let the Printer manage the job while set to Greyscale.

If anyone is using O.E.M. Paper and Ink, they should be getting pretty good quality results in Colour and in Mono either way of managing.

[russellsnr]

Hi, I have CS6 and Lightroom 6 but I use this for printing.
http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage-u/learn.htm
That's what it does in life!!!
Russ

[Ian H]

I'm with Manfred on this one. When printing colour with my Epson 3880 I let LR/PS handle the colours with a custom profile and for b/w I use Epson's advanced b/w.

[James G]

I don't do a great deal of B&W printing, but when I do I switch mode to Epson's advanced B&W mode.

I did all my print research too many years back for me to remember exactly which manual/book/training session suggested this. Suffice to say, it's been kind of written in stone that I don't let the printer manage colour printing, so Grant's post got me thinking that I should maybe run a quick comparison.

Not very scientific, but I've just printed one of my insect macro's using my normal 'photoshop manages colour', and then run a second print letting the printer manage colour.

There are quite definite differences between the two. Basically the print generated using photoshop management is what I expected, with a vibrance and colour that matched what I expected (from the soft proofing on my monitor).

The print generated from letting the printer manage the colour was considerably less vibrant and there was a significant shift in reds and greens to a darker tone. Not displeasing, but not the match I expected from the soft proof.

I'm a bit surprised at the difference between the two prints if I'm honest and I think I'll stick with letting Photoshop manage colour for the present!

I'm printing on an Epson SC-P600 printer, using a Permajet continuous ink system rather than Epson inks. But I have a calibrated monitor and I have created printer profiles based on the inkset for all the papers I use.

It does occur to me that I should check if creating a new paper profile is possible by specifically requesting printer management of colour when creating the measurement patches.

Probably take me few days to do this because the diary is a bit full this week, but I'll report back when I've looked into it a bit more!

[Donald]

I don't do a great deal of B&W printing, but when I do I switch mode to Epson's advanced B&W mode.

Yep. Seems as if we're pretty much unanimous on this one. I do a LOT of B & W printing and always use Epson's advanced B & W mode.

[James G]

Had a chat with DataColor today and then went back to the manual for my Epson SC-P600 an did a bit of reading about letting the printer manage colour.

Yesterday as a test, I simply switched mode to 'printer manages color', set the normal renderring intent etc and the printed result looked quite a bit different fom the 'Photoshop manages Colors' option.

What I shouild have done was check out the Advanced Mode under the ICM settings. The printer has a default to render colours based on the image profile is sRGB. I changed this to Adobe RGB (1998) and then reprinted, and unsurprisingly the result was then identical to the print from 'Photoshop manages color'.

So going back to Grant's original question about the printer driver providing a more accurate colour control than the software....

Well not that I could see... once the various settings have been set correctly using either method, the prints looked identical.

This result should probably be tested using color patches rather than a 'real life' image, but I'm satisfied that in this instance there is no real difference.

Also, I doubt I would want to persist with letting the printer manage colours. Getting it set up is a good bit more complicated than simply letting Photoshop do it. It's a case of wasn't broke, so don't need to fix.

[mastamak]

Thank you everybody for your comments. It seems the consensus is to let LR or PS manage the colours except for B&W where Epson advanced B&W mode does a better job.This confirms my intuitive feeling so I will persist with a few test prints but take the advice of this forum in the longer term.

Grant