[alt-photo] epson printers and diginegs

[Christina Anderson]

Dear All,
This perhaps is an answer to the dreaded CS5/Snow Leopard/Epson driver problem.

I contacted Epson with my query: no ability to turn off color management, colors came out easter egg colors not the normal dense ones with my 3880.

Here is the response from Epson:

Thank you for contacting Epson regarding your Epson Stylus Pro 3880. It is my pleasure to respond to your inquiry.
If you are running the correct driver for the printer then you would have the option to disable color management in the Epson driver. Once you click on print and select Printer Setting and then under Layout do you see Print Features or Print Setting. If you see Print Feature then you are not issuing the correct driver that is Apple driver an not Epson. To correct that please do the following. 
Turn the printer OFF
Go into Print and FAX
Remove the SP3880 ( an any other Epson printer) 
Open the Hard Drive>Library>Printer
Delete the whole Epson folder 
Restart you MAC and empty the trash
Reinstall the latest driver that you downloaded from our site. Epson13579.dmg and Epson13884.dmg. Install the Epson13579.dmg first and then Epson13884.dmg. 
After the Reinstall restart the MAC again 
Once back on the desktop and if you are connecting USB by turning the printer back on it will automatically set the printer up on your MAC. If you are connecting Ethernet go into Print and Fax, click on plus button to add the printer. Make sure that you are on the Default button and then under Kind select EPSON TCP/IP. 
If you do see Print Setting under Layout then under Color Mode is where you would disable the color management in the Epson Driver. 


I then printed some test prints with CS5 and now yes, there is the option to select "no color management." I used both CS4 and CS5 and it seems CS4 still does a better job of printing. I also was able to up the ink density to +50% and will see how that prints in gum anyway. My bigger worry is platinum. 

In other words, I am finally getting somewhere, but not quite there yet. I was ready to send back the 3880. The 3800 is great. The 3880 not so. It has a "new feature" that enables less ink to be laid down--a GOOD thing by Epson's way of thinking because it saves money, but not a good thing for diginegs.

End of story...for now.

BTW I tried all the other workarounds and it was a no-go. This is the best I have found to date.
Chris

Christina Z. Anderson
christinaZanderson.com