0
AndyMan

Printer help... epson 1280

Recommended Posts

Santa brought me a new Epson 1280, which I set up and played with last night.

The experience was frustrating, and largely left me questioning my geekness.

First, the colors were washed out. I was printing to Premium Glossy Photo paper, and the difference was tangible - the prints looked like crap. All the colors looked greyed out. I wonder if there's any calibration needed out of the box...?

Secondly, this part made me feel really dumb, I couldn't figure out how to properly resize in photoshop. I have a large image who's native size is 20*30 inches, and I want to print to a 4*6 card. When I resized it down in photoshop, the result had heavy pixelation. When I left it native in photoshop and just picked a 4*6 paper size, it was clipped. Picking "fit to page" in the printer driver did not seem to help.

Lastly images were printed with a very large left border, but no right border. I couldn't even print "borderless" at 4*6, when I selected the borderless box the 4*6 papersize disapeared...

Any tips for a new 1280 owner?

_Am (confused)
__

You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Camera: Olympus. The print I was testing with was one of our wedding pics, taken by someone else.
Computer Operating System: XP pro
I download the photos by: USB cable....? Not sure what you're looking for here.

_Am
__

You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Camera is important as it really does make a difference in some of the technicallities of what colors you get. Do a little digging in the manual and look for something along the lines of "embedded Color Sync profile".

Operating System makes a pretty big difference in that all of the Apple products handle Color Sync in a very predictable manner. Microsoft, not so much. You may have to fool around a bit.

Downloaded photos . . . I guess I should have been a bit more specific. I was actually looking for the software you used. Depending on the software, Color Sync may remain embedded in the photo or it may actualy get stripped out of the photo.

Additionally, depending on the software you're using, it may lump all the photos into one generic database or may save them as individual files.

What you really want are individual files with the Color Sync embedded from the camera.
quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Make sure you have the most current drivers from Epson...

Clean the printer heads and check their alignment (all done through software that comes with the printer)...

When you print, do a print w/ preview, and make sure all your settings are what you want (size, boarderless, correct paper type, photo quality print, etc)... some of the setting will be under page setup...

As for the camera, what type of media, CF, SM, etc? Or do you have to DL from the camera?

J
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. - Edmund Burke

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Thanks Josh, the alignments came out perfect with factory presets.

Through random flipping of settings, I'm now getting good results.

Can someone point to a good primer explainint:

- ICM and sRGB

- PhotoEnhance4 with the assorted Tone types, and Effect Types.

- Digital Camera Correction.

What do these actually do?

Good paper is way too expensive to try to figure this out by trial and error...

_Am
__

You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
ICM is Microsoft's bastard version of Color Sync.

sRGB is one of several preset color spaces. Usually used to describe a generic color monitor.

Before you can do any real color correction you need to calibrate your monitor and create profile that your computer and hopefully your printer will understand.

For painful detail go HERE
quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
If you're still having problems with quality printing with your 1280, call tech support at Epson.

The tech that helped me out when I got my Epson printer was incredible. He went the extra step into recreating the scenario I was having with my printer on his own time and called me back (the tech support book didn't cover the print trouble that my printer was giving me, so he went on to research it on his own).

I now get AWESOME prints. Was able to give some as Christmas presents to the family this year too! :)
Calling tech support -really- helps you from banging your head against the wall for too long...

ltdiver

Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

0