ICC Profile - Major Photoshop Issue - Hair being pulled out

It isn't often I put up my hand for help nowadays but I'm at a loss as to the issue. Basically for the last two weeks (originally didn't realise until complaints came in) my Epson 7800 has been printing artwork darker than it should be. Same Sublinova Inktec Inks, same paper, same profile I have been using for years but bright yellow is much darker and all colours much more muted and detail lost.

I have printed yellow direct to the printer without using a profile and it comes out ok. I print using a different ICC profile for our Epson P800 and it comes out better. But when I use our usual profile it's dark.

I have checked ink locations and all seems ok. I have replaced all the black inks (B, LB, LLB) in case of wrongly putting inks in (never done this before) but all ok.

Could Photoshop have a new issue. Could the ICC Profile be altered in any way. Could Epson driver (I think there was an update recently) be the cause.

If anyone has a 7800 profile I can try...

Currently can't print a thing, so any ideas please?!

Just playing devils advocate but I assume all inks are still in date?

Any recent Windows/Epson driver updates that can be turned back?

Good question but yes.

I recently had this on a shitty little Epson I am running. FOr some reason the green was a country mile out even though absolutely nothing had changed.

Tried the file on a different paper and it was spot on. I can only assume that the paper manufacturer may have changed something in the make up of the paper that produced different results from previous.

Try a diffferent paper to see what happens, at least that will either eliminate or identify waht is causing the problem...

I had a very similar problem many years ago with with my wide format epson (forget which one it was but the heads delaminated just out of warranty!), any way back to the point. The tubes were gunged up from the ink reservoir to the heads. I saw it mentioned so had a look and found "clots". Cleared those out and was good to go again. That was with Sawgrass inks that were in date.
Can't promise it's the answer, but it's worth a look.

Janners

I've just found my old profiles for Epson 7800, maybe the same as you have but I can email them over if you want to look?

Thank you. Didn't think of the paper being an issue. Will try. Clots - interesting, will checkout. Justin - yes please could you email over to sales@ukprintedmugs.co.uk

Are your Color Management settings set to 'Preserve Embedded Profiles?'

The RGB was set to set to "convert to working rgb" but the others were Preserve. Would this effect printing? When I print a regular colour chart using "printer manages colour" then colours come out vibrant and "seem" ok but when using old profile they are so dull. Obviously I know they will change slightly when heat pressed but even so they are too dark to lighten up and not like they use to be. Two days of no printing now.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by UK Printed Mugs

Thank you. Didn't think of the paper being an issue. Will try. Clots - interesting, will checkout. Justin - yes please could you email over to sales@ukprintedmugs.co.uk

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Did you get my email? Files were quite large, a few Mb.

Hi Justin. I did and emailed you back :-) Probably in spam! Thank you for doing so. Well I uninstalled all the drivers, printer and profiles and reinstalled again late this afternoon before leaving. I did a quick print-out which looked more hopeful to be honest. I need to print more artwork in the morning to see if all these changes have kicked things into play. With this being my last 7800 (two others died this year already) then I am lost as to what I can get to replace. I don't do garment printing but need at least 24" for coasters, placements and glass. Just don't want to touch Sawgrass again though and I thought the F500 was locked down profile wise, Any ideas?

Not seeing anything but no worries :-) Re. another printer, do you need more than 4 colours?

Yes, min 6 but ideally 8 as 99% of what I print is artist work. I've reinstalled 7800 and the ICC profiles and I "think" things are nearly back to normal. With this being the only wide format printer left I certainly need to look at replacing.

We do a lot of work with artists and I completely agree re. 6/8 colours. That said, most of our work right now is textile and I can't emphasise enough what incredible results we get from our 4 colour Epson F6300. Sure, quality on a coaster isn't quite as good close-up (although perfectly acceptable) but the colour gamut we get onto textile is nothing short of amazing. After all these years printing we're not easily impressed :-) Obviously on a textile surface the fine detail isn't as critical but colours still are.

I have toyed with the new version 44" F6400 and had some test prints. It was better but not enough to justify the price tag for the work we do. Different colour combinations could work well for you though on this. Other than that you're really starting to look at 64" printers which seems overkill. Prices jump dramatically for the extra width and you can look at other manufacturers, Mimaki etc.

It's certainly something that has always interested me, the debate regarding 4 colour vs 6 and so on. We use a 12 colour wide format Canon for our art/canvas work which takes some beating and if we do any coasters/mugs etc. which isn't so many nowadays I run the through our little 6 colour Epsons.

Trying to find used printers isn't easy as they are like hens teeth.

We use the 6400H 44inch for most of our fabric stuff - thats a 6 colour machine, our coasters/mugs etc we currently run on 4 colour epsons and no isssues - we do our own profiles for them regularly though. Also primarily deal with artists and no complaints.