Printing problem: Color Casts

[kookeer]

I have an Epson 1280 and my pics have a blue cast. I just upgraded to PS CS3. The video workshop tells me to let PS to manage colors. The "Classroom in a Book" tells me to let the printer manage colors. I have tried both ways and I still get a blue cast. I can adjust it with the printer but since the pic looks great on the screen it's hard to adjust without printing every mistake. I hope someone can help me with this.

[crisscross]

Not a printer I know, but the steps are common to all
1 from the Epson software & manual, identify a profile for the type of paper you are printing on
2 choose this in the CS3 preferences (or in the print dialogue main box)
3 having given a print command from the software you should get a 2nd stage printer dialogue box of mainly Epson provenenance which includes a choice between software managed printing or potential modifications. With last Epson 1290 I used to have it was best to enter 'none/no change' and cancel all further printer modifications

But it is trial and error as one rarely uses a recommended paper. There are sources for paper profiles and ways of creating custom ones. Using NX2, I get a 'softproof' which shows whether a paper profile is going to badly mess what you see on screen, must be an equivalent in CS3. I then choose Canon SP4 (Canon ix4000 printer), put in a nice sheet of HP paper (and especially not Canon equiv) and get pretty good prints.

[kookeer]

Thank you, I'll try it.

[shreds]

Just a thought, and forgive me if it seems rather obvious, but could it be that one or more of your cartridges has a blocked nozzle, thus other colours dominate and give it the cast?

Bit like when you use a dye sublimation printer and the various colours are added in layers, so you see the unfinished product with different 'casts' as it runs through the process.

[Dave Humphries]

Good idea Ian (shreds),

Kookeer, I expect there's a test or maintenance option under Printer properties that can print an Epson test page which will be geared towards exercising all the cartridges/nozzles to spot such problems. If that does show a problem, try the head cleaning option. Apologies if you knew all this.

Regards,

[kookeer]

I have looked for a test page and can't find one. The nozzle check is fine. I think it is something I am not doing right. Sometimes it prints perfectly, maybe I'm trying to hard.
Thank you for your suggestions.

[Daniel Salazar]

Hi kooker, just to know exactly what your problem is, I would like to know if that happens always, or just when you choose a specific paper profile or if it was working before and suddenly isn't it. Also, if you're working on a color managed environment?

Knowing a little bit more could help us to rule out some possibilities.

Cheers,
Daniel