This is a complex problem wrapped in a short-ish email...

Is your monitor calibrated and profiled? Did you also generate a profile for your printer? If not it's not going to be possible to accurately gauge or anticipate what your prints will look like compared to what you see on your monitor. :(
On Wed, Sep 21, 2016 at 8:34 PM James Moe wrote:

opensuse 42.1
linux 4.1.31-30-default x86_64
gimp 2.8.16

Color profile: sRGB Printer Driver description: EPSON PictureMate PM 225 with driver Epson PictureMate PM 225, Epson Inkjet Printer Driver (ESC/P-R) for Linux

I have a Epson PM225 inkjet color printer.

I have printed images previously with the printer and there was no noticeable difference in color. The printer has been not used for several months. There has likely been some GIMP updates during that time.

Currently, when I print an image that has a blue sky, the printed color has a strong green tint to it, not really close to the displayed blue sky at all. Other images have printed similarly with the green tint.

I have tried changing ink cartridges. No difference.

The online manual mentions that the display uses RGB while printing is CMYK. It does not discuss what to do there is a mismatch between the two.

Any suggestions about what may be done to correct the color issue?

-- James Moe
moe dot james at sohnen-moe dot com
520.743.3936
Think.

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Hi James!

On Fri, Sep 23, 2016 at 2:59 PM James Moe wrote:

On 09/22/2016 09:13 AM, Pat David wrote:

Did you also generate a profile for your printer?

How do I do that?
I'd search the online manual, except... There is no search function! Thus rendering the manual somewhat useless for finding specific topics.

http://imgur.com/a/mnhLn

The problem as I understand it (there are far smarter folks than I for color management stuff here) is that we are talking mainly about a problem of degrees. Your uncalibrated monitor may or may not show you colors that are representative of what they should be for a given colorspace. So far it may _seem_ ok to you, but the best you can hope for w/o calibrating or profiling is that it looks close enough for you. Apparently the "close enough" has drifted recently for any number of reasons.

Pascal has a still relevant tutorial on display color profiling in linux: https://encrypted.pcode.nl/blog/2013/11/24/display-color-profiling-on-linux/

If you have the hardware, you can use displaycal to do the calibration and profiling: http://displaycal.net/

Basically, this will get you a profile for your monitor and hardware to show you the correct colors. At that stage you can be reasonably comfortable that what you see on your calibrated hardware should look the same on someone elses calibrated hardware (or at least really close).

The next problem is that you will need to print a reference target on your printer, with your inks, and then use that reference print to generate a profile for your printer. This will allow you to use the profile for soft-proofing your images prior to printing so that you can see what they should look like when printed. This is beyond the scope of a quick email, but I'm hoping some folks on the list might have some better references to post for you to follow...

I have some standard ICC profiles: CMYK:
un-/coated
web un-/coated
US web un-/coated
US sheetfed un-/coated

Would any of those be an appropriate default?

Maybe? I doubt they would be any better than any other profile that isn't generated from your printer and created by you.

pat

Am 23.09.2016 um 23:28 schrieb Pat David:

I have some standard ICC profiles: CMYK:
un-/coated
web un-/coated
US web un-/coated
US sheetfed un-/coated

Would any of those be an appropriate default?

Maybe? I doubt they would be any better than any other profile that isn't generated from your printer and created by you.

A cheap home/office printer wouldn't match any premanufactured color profile. Maybe there is one supplied with the printer (check the manufacturer's website) but that one is only valid when used with the overpriced ink cartridges from the manufacturer.

So you have to calibrate your printer by hand. I wouldn't bother to create a full profile myself but instead, do a few test prints and see if they are okay. The ink isn't color-stable enough over years anyway.

But you should to calibrate your monitor in any case so your test prints match a common standard instead of an arbitrary non-calibrated monitor.

Kind regards

Jan

I would start by buying a monitor colour calibration device like a SPYDER regardless of who is doing the printing, yourself at home or a print shop. Google SPYDER. It's simple to use, fast and accurate. There are others.

If you are sending files out to a print shop send CMYK images in North America. The preference in Europe I think is LAB. Check with your printer. Try the US Sheetfed/un-coated profile at home or anything that matches your paper and gets you close to your calibrated monitor image.

Rick S.

Don't send CMYK to a photo print shop unless they specifically ask for it. The majority of high end US print shops want sRGB for photo prints (not books or offset printing - in that case I'd let them do the conversion unless you know what you're doing).
On Fri, Sep 23, 2016 at 8:35 PM Rick Strong wrote:

I would start by buying a monitor colour calibration device like a SPYDER regardless of who is doing the printing, yourself at home or a print shop. Google SPYDER. It's simple to use, fast and accurate. There are others.

If you are sending files out to a print shop send CMYK images in North America. The preference in Europe I think is LAB. Check with your printer. Try the US Sheetfed/un-coated profile at home or anything that matches your paper and gets you close to your calibrated monitor image.

Rick S.

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That is, check with the printer first to see what they want. On Fri, Sep 23, 2016 at 8:37 PM Pat David wrote:

Don't send CMYK to a photo print shop unless they specifically ask for it. The majority of high end US print shops want sRGB for photo prints (not books or offset printing - in that case I'd let them do the conversion unless you know what you're doing).
On Fri, Sep 23, 2016 at 8:35 PM Rick Strong wrote:

I would start by buying a monitor colour calibration device like a SPYDER regardless of who is doing the printing, yourself at home or a print shop. Google SPYDER. It's simple to use, fast and accurate. There are others.

If you are sending files out to a print shop send CMYK images in North America. The preference in Europe I think is LAB. Check with your printer. Try the US Sheetfed/un-coated profile at home or anything that matches your
paper and gets you close to your calibrated monitor image.

Rick S.

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I wasn’t meaning a photograph printing store, I was referring to a printing shop that prints posters, flyers, books, etc. on paper. Like with a printing press. However, if what the man wants is photo prints printed by someone else, then yes, sRGB is most likely what he needs to send.

In any and all cases, ask what they want and send them that. After you have calibrated your monitor, of course.

Rick S.

From: Pat David Sent: Friday, September 23, 2016 8:37 PM To: Rick Strong ; James Moe ; gimp-user-list@gnome.org Subject: Re: [Gimp-user] Color mismatch when an image is printed

Don't send CMYK to a photo print shop unless they specifically ask for it. The majority of high end US print shops want sRGB for photo prints (not books or offset printing - in that case I'd let them do the conversion unless you know what you're doing).

On Fri, Sep 23, 2016 at 8:35 PM Rick Strong wrote:

I would start by buying a monitor colour calibration device like a SPYDER regardless of who is doing the printing, yourself at home or a print shop. Google SPYDER. It's simple to use, fast and accurate. There are others.

If you are sending files out to a print shop send CMYK images in North America. The preference in Europe I think is LAB. Check with your printer. Try the US Sheetfed/un-coated profile at home or anything that matches your paper and gets you close to your calibrated monitor image.

Rick S.

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