Lightroom printing

[StephenL]

Has anyone else experienced this problem? When printing from Lightroom 2, I find the output darker than if I print from Photoshop.
This problems occurs irrespective of computer (tried it on 3), printer (tried it on 4), paper, profiles (monitors are profiled but I've also tried it on unprofiled systems), etc.
It's a pity, as otherwise the printing module is very good, but not if the output isn't up to scratch!

[OlyPaul]

Re: Lightroom printing

Hi Stephen I had this problem when I first tried printing from lightroom and it took me a good 15 minutes to work it out.

You have given no specifics but I will presume its the same problem I had and I will also suppose that you want Lightroom to manage the colours.

If you have a monitor or ARGB/srgb colour space profile showing in the profile box the chances are it is still set to the printer managing colours and so is double colour managing the image which will result in your problem.

So click on the profile tab and select other then go to your printer profile and selct this. It will then show in that drop down tab permanantly and when you select it lightroom will be managing the colours and not the printer. After this I got the same output as i was getting from CS3.

Hope this helps, but if not get back to me with a few more specifics.

[StephenL]

Re: Lightroom printing

Thanks Paul - I will try this.

[Gwyver]

Re: Lightroom printing

Has anyone else experienced this problem? When printing from Lightroom 2, I find the output darker than if I print from Photoshop.
This problems occurs irrespective of computer (tried it on 3), printer (tried it on 4), paper, profiles (monitors are profiled but I've also tried it on unprofiled systems), etc.
It's a pity, as otherwise the printing module is very good, but not if the output isn't up to scratch!

Stephen,
If you look at the Lightroom Forum website http://www.lightroomforums.net/index.php and then perform a search = "dark prints" you will find this is a very common problem (and apparently arises because somewhere between LR and print driver the profile is applied twice).

I experienced this problem using an Epson R1900 and applied have successfully resolved it using the instructions found here.

http://www.lightroomforums.net/showthread.php?t=3164&highlight=dark+prints

Many folk using a wide variety of Epson printers report success this way, and if you have a printer from another manufacturer you may be able to adjust the driver advanced settings in a similar way (NB HP printer users report these problems but their drivers are less configurable.)
HTH

[Ian]

Re: Lightroom printing

I have just printed the same images four times using PS CS4 (with PS and the printer driver managing the colour) and Lightroom 2.3 (with LR and the printer driver managing colour).

The only print that came out wrong was when attempting to let the printer handle the colour management under Lightroom. My theory is that as Lightroom doesn't apply a standard colour space (e.g. Adobe RGB or sRGB) until a copy of the image is exported, the printer driver has little chance of getting it right if it has to handle the colour management. When the application manages the colour, the colour space issue is not relevant. When printing from PS, the image has already had the colour space applied, and as long as you match this to the expected colour space in the printer driver, all should be well.

Ian

[Ian]

Re: Lightroom printing

Stephen,
If you look at the Lightroom Forum website http://www.lightroomforums.net/index.php and then perform a search = "dark prints" you will find this is a very common problem (and apparently arises because somewhere between LR and print driver the profile is applied twice).

I experienced this problem using an Epson R1900 and applied have successfully resolved it using the instructions found here.

http://www.lightroomforums.net/showthread.php?t=3164&highlight=dark+prints

Many folk using a wide variety of Epson printers report success this way, and if you have a printer from another manufacturer you may be able to adjust the driver advanced settings in a similar way (NB HP printer users report these problems but their drivers are less configurable.)
HTH

The double application of the profile must be when the user forgets to cancel colour management at one end of the print workflow?

I used to have this problem when I first used Lightroom, but I now work exclusively with Lightroom controlling colour management and CM switched off at the printer driver.

Ian

[StephenL]

Re: Lightroom printing

Thanks for your trouble, Ian. I really must put some time aside to try out these proposed solutions. I know that colour management isn't the easiest of topics, but as long as I get the same "brightness" in Lightroom as CS4, at least it's a start!!

[Ian]

Re: Lightroom printing

Thanks for your trouble, Ian. I really must put some time aside to try out these proposed solutions. I know that colour management isn't the easiest of topics, but as long as I get the same "brightness" in Lightroom as CS4, at least it's a start!!

Can you remind me what printer you are using and what paper as well.

For example, I'm using an Epson Stylus Pro 3800 with Epson Premium Glossy Photo Paper and have set the printer driver to no colour management, and from Lightroom selected the Epson profile for the paper I'm using (called Pro038 PGPP).

Ian

[StephenL]

Re: Lightroom printing

Most of the time I use an Epson R360 (not the most profiled printer in the world!) with a wide variety of paper, but for the purpose of testing Epson Premium Glossy.

[sapper]

Re: Lightroom printing

Thank you oh thank you. I just couldn't understand why my prints were not coming out right. Much better now.