Lightroom & Epson 7600 Problems

Errors in your workflow can cause printing problems.

Lightroom is a program that enables you to organize and manipulate your photos. You have the option for the program to work in tandem with the printer driver software of the Epson 7600 to print your photographs. Unfortunately, problems can occur. In order to troubleshoot any issues, you have to evaluate your workflow, making sure you have selected the correct options for optimal prints.

Calibrate and Profile Your Monitor

A common Epson 7600 problem might not be with the printer, but with your monitor colors. Print color needs to be accurate. If your monitor isn't displaying the colors correctly, your prints will be the wrong tone or hue. Macs and PCs are calibrated using utilities in the computer. The directions for calibrating a Mac can be found at computer-darkroom.com and directions for calibrating a PC are at pcworld.com. Third party software and measuring devices are also available that calibrate your monitor correctly.

Color Management Problems

Most people decide that Lightroom should decide to handle the colors when printing, and not the printer. The color management in Lightroom is much better than that decided by most printer drivers. Adobe, the manufacturer of Lightroom, recommends, "If you choose a custom printer color profile in Lightroom, make sure color management is turned off in the printer driver software. Otherwise, your photos will be color managed twice, and the colors might not print as you expect" A printer color profile matches the type of paper you are printing on and the ink you are using. For example, if you are using matte paper, you will specify that in the color profile. If you don't, choosing glossy instead, the colors won't come out right.

Ink and Paper

If you use any paper or ink products on the Epson 7600 other than those made by Epson, you'll likely to have printing problems ranging from banding issues to color mismatches. While there are less expensive ink and paper brands, they will not work with an Epson 7600 printer. Finally, if you refill used ink cartridges, there is a danger of not only getting photo printing problems, but you could also damage your printer.

Other Issues

The website Computer Darkroom reports: "Epson series 3.x printer drivers are not 'fully' compatible with Lightroom 1.3.1. Printing from Lightroom 1.3.1 with these drivers will result in double color management (i.e. prints will tend to have a magenta color cast)." The printer drivers are necessary to print on an Epson 7600 printer. Lightroom 1.4 full compatibility with Epson legacy drivers (series 3.x) has been restored.

References

• Adobe: About color management in Lightroom
• Epson America: Support; Macintosh OS X 10.5 Leopard Compatibility - Professional Imaging FAQs
• Computer Darkroom: Apple Display Calibration Utility
• PC World: Digital Focus: Calibrate Your Monitor
• Adobe: Set Printer Color Management
• Computer Darkroom: Printing in Lightroom 1.x Epson Printers and Leopard

Resources

• Pantone: Printer and Monitor Calibration