James Moe wrote:

This is a continuation of the topic "Color mismatch when an image is printed."

Then why not reply to that thread, or at least keep the same subject...?

opensuse 42.1
linux 4.1.31-30-default x86_64
gimp 2.8.16

Display color profile: Adobe RGB (1998) I have a Epson PM225 inkjet color printer.

Several months ago the printer output an image whose color was a very close match to the displayed image. Currently, the printer's output has a strong green tint, a poor match to the display. The previous topic had several discussions regarding color profiles. I have tried a variety of them for the display. None of the profiles has made the slightest difference in the output. In GIMP settings for Color Management, (Edit :: Preferences :: Color Management), I have set the "Printer simulated profile" to US Sheetfed Uncoated. It has made zero difference to the output. One of the suggestions was to create a color profile for the printer. The docs make no mention of how to do this. Epson does not offer a ICC profile for that printer.

1. How do I create a color profile for a printer? 2. Why has the output image changed color? 3. Why has changing the color profiles made no difference whatsoever?

Before going to the complexity of colour profiles, a quick question - does this only happen with GIMP, or other applications (e.g. LibreOffice / Word) as well?

From what I recall of your previous message, the printer hadn't been used for those several months. If all applications are affected, it sounds like you may have dried magenta (red) ink clogging the printer. Although you replaced the cartridges, ink can still dry in the print heads, and maybe even between the cartridge and heads.

Your printer probably has a feature to print a test page, usually accessed from the printer properties, which will print some patterns in various colours to check for blockages. One other thing I often do when having problems with colours is to create a page of text in LibreOffice consisting of the following in a large bold font: RED
YELLOW
GREEN
CYAN
BLUE
MAGENTA
BLACK
Each word formatted in the corresponding colour. Print that and see how it comes out. I suspect the magenta will come out faint if at all, and the red and blue will be off-colour (the red appearing more towards yellow and the green more towards blue).

Alongside the test page feature, your printer probably also has a head-cleaning function. It might need to be run several times to clear a severe the blockage.

Mark.

Am 29.09.2016 um 19:53 schrieb James Moe:

I imported one of the images from Gimp and printed it. The result was the same: an off-color green tint. This implies the problem is the printer, not Gimp or Libreoffice. While there a few processing steps between an app and the printer, I would expect them to treat the output data as sacred.

No, you got that wrong. The printer driver has both text and raster input. It's not Libreoffice which does the rasterization of text. So text colors can be handled differently by the printer driver than raster data.

I hate to suggest another software, but could you try with scribus instead of LibreOffice? Because I know scribus color management to work like a charm for various setups.

Turn on color management (screen icon left on the lower toolbar), insert colored text and your test image, then export the PDF with

* General tab - compatibility: PDF 1.3 * Color tab - output: printer, convert spot colors to process colors, solid colors: use color profile: sRGB IEC 61966-2.1, Relative Colorimetric.
images: use color profile, do not use embedded color profiles, sRGB IEC 61966-2.1, perception.

This is what a friend who is in printing recommended, and what gives perfect color output from scribus in his printing company and which also works with various online print agencies.

Kind regards

Jan

Am 29.09.2016 um 19:53 schrieb James Moe:

Turn on color management (screen icon left on the lower toolbar),

RIGHT not left. Sorry

Kind regards

Jan

James Moe wrote:

On 09/27/2016 02:38 PM, gimp-users.mbourne@spamgourmet.com wrote:

Your printer probably has a feature to print a test page, usually accessed from the printer properties, which will print some patterns in various colours to check for blockages.

Yes, it does. And I have. The test patterns look normal and are complete. Initially the patterns had missing segments; after a number of cleaning cycles they finally became complete.

That sounds like any blockage is probably cleared now.

One other thing I often do when
having problems with colours is to create a page of text in LibreOffice consisting of the following in a large bold font: RED
YELLOW
GREEN
CYAN
BLUE
MAGENTA
BLACK
Each word formatted in the corresponding colour. Print that and see how it comes out. I suspect the magenta will come out faint if at all, and the red and blue will be off-colour (the red appearing more towards yellow and the green more towards blue).

I have created such a test document, cool idea. All of the colors print normally AFAICT; the magenta *may* be a bit light, I have no way to be certain. All of the colors are solid, and look like the color they claim to be. The test document was created in Libreoffice. I imported one of the images from Gimp and printed it. The result was the same: an off-color green tint. This implies the problem is the printer, not Gimp or Libreoffice.

I wonder if something is slightly off, but not enough to notice with the solid blocks of pure colours. Maybe the magenta is coming out slightly light, which may be either a hardware or software problem...

While there a few processing steps between an app and the printer, I would expect them to treat the output data as sacred.

Not necessarily. That's where the colour profiles others have mentioned come in, transforming the colours sent by the application with the intention that they print correctly on a particular printer - but if set incorrectly they'll produce incorrect output.

Apart from specifying a colour profile, there may be other settings in the printer preferences which might affect the colours. For example, my Epson printer allows me to specify:
- Quality: Draft, Text, Text & Image, Photo, Best Photo - Paper Type: Plain, Matte, Gloss, Photo, etc. - On an "Advanced" tab, there's a colour mode settings button to adjust brightness, contrast, etc. and even nudge the colours in a certain direction - which can give everything a green (or any other colour) tint.

It may be worth going through the printer preferences checking each tab of options and/or resetting to defaults, in case they've been accidentally changed.

Do the apps reference some common system values for deciding the output color balance?

On Windows, the initial settings in the printer preferences usually come from those set in Windows' Control Panel. Anything set incorrectly there will affect most applications. If you find something wring in the printer preferences, you should be able to correct it permanently by finding something like "Printers" (exact name varies for each version of Windows) in Control Panel, then right-click your printer and select "Printing Preferences..." from the menu.

Mark.

Jan Kandziora wrote:

Am 29.09.2016 um 19:53 schrieb James Moe:

I imported one of the images from Gimp and printed it. The result was the same: an off-color green tint. This implies the problem is the printer, not Gimp or Libreoffice. While there a few processing steps between an app and the printer, I would expect them to treat the output data as sacred.

No, you got that wrong. The printer driver has both text and raster input. It's not Libreoffice which does the rasterization of text. So text colors can be handled differently by the printer driver than raster data.

I hadn't considered that text and images might be handled differently! As well as trying Scribus as Jan suggests, it may also be worth trying a similar test with blocks of colour from GIMP, and see if the magenta comes out any different than it did from LibreOffice.

Mark.