I have tried printing from gimp to my Epson Stylus Photo 1280, with horrible results--the colors are off by a significant amount.

I also had rotton results:
I use SuSE 10
epson color stylus 3000
gimp 2.2.7
I forgot what driver (hsn't been installed in over a yr), but it was the latest gimp one. I switched printer VERY quickly to my win laptop in frustration. I use my card readers & old cards to transfer files that need GOOD color...photos, posters booklets etc, a read PITA.

I would love the not have to move files back & forth.

-- Gracia...Cooleemee, NC Registered Linux user #263390 - SuSE 10 Pro My country, right or wrong. If right, to be kept right, if wrong, to be put right.

Paul Waldo wrote:

Hi all,

I am evaluating gimp on linux as a replacement for Photoshop on Windows. I am currently using Photoshop/Windows primarily for the color management capabilities. I have tried printing from gimp to my Epson Stylus Photo 1280, with horrible results--the colors are off by a significant amount. System specifics below. Does anyone out there use gimp for serious printing? If so, please let me know your workflow and how you achieve color fidelity. Thanks in advance!

Paul

Running: Kubuntu Breezy
gimp 2.2.8
gimp-print 4.2.7
Epson Stylus Photo 1280

What version of Gimp-Print are you running:

http://gutenprint.sourceforge.net/index.php3

Also, are you printing through CUPS?

When I have ink in my printer, I can print just fine on my Epson Stylus Photo 700.

Peace...

Tom

Paul Waldo wrote:

On Sunday 19 February 2006 2:00 pm, Tom Williams wrote:

What version of Gimp-Print are you running:

http://gutenprint.sourceforge.net/index.php3

Also, are you printing through CUPS?

When I have ink in my printer, I can print just fine on my Epson Stylus Photo 700.

Peace...

Tom

Hi Tom,

Running:
Kubuntu Breezy
gimp 2.2.8
gimp-print 4.2.7
Epson Stylus Photo 1280
Cups 1.1.23

Thanks for the info. I found THIS page on your printer at the LinuxPrinting.org site:

http://www.linuxprinting.org/show_printer.cgi?recnum=Epson-Stylus_Photo_1280

See if it contains some driver info that might be of help to you. Maybe switching to a different driver might help with your printing problem. There is also a forum there for Epson printers that might be of help:

http://www.linuxprinting.org/forums.cgi?group=linuxprinting.epson.general

That's about all I can do to help you out. :)

Good luck!

Peace...

Tom

Paul Waldo writes:

I am evaluating gimp on linux as a replacement for Photoshop on Windows. I am currently using Photoshop/Windows primarily for the color management capabilities. I have tried printing from gimp to my Epson Stylus Photo 1280, with horrible results--the colors are off by a significant amount. System specifics below. Does anyone out there use gimp for serious printing? If so, please let me know your workflow and how you achieve color fidelity. Thanks in advance!

Have you tried the gimp-print list? There's active development going on with gutenprint, especially with the newer Epson photo printers, and some of the colors are still being tuned. Check the archives to see if your printer is one of the ones updated recently. You might find a lot more people who know about color balance on specific printers on that list.
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gimp-print-devel

I use gimp and gimp-print or gutenprint to print 8x10 wall photos and greeting cards on an Epson C86, which probably isn't what you would consider "serious printing". The colors are usually okay though the default black level is sometimes too high (that might have something to do with the paper; I haven't done much experimenting yet).

...Akkana

Tom Williams wrote:

Matt Gushee wrote:

Tom Williams wrote:

See if it contains some driver info that might be of help to you. Maybe switching to a different driver might help with your printing problem. There is also a forum there for Epson printers that might be of help:

If I read the original post correctly, the issue is not a printing problem, but a *color management* problem--i.e., can the GIMP produce good quality CMYK output?

I've hesitated to jump in because I really don't have much expertise in this area. But I do know that for professional print work, it's not enough to have a good printer and a good printer driver, and to have them configured correctly. Your application also has to be able to adjust the colors for print, and I'm afraid GIMP 2.2 can't do that.

GIMP 2.4 is supposed to have greatly improved color management, though. Depending on your timeline, you might try the latest 2.3 beta version, which is what will become 2.4.

Yep, assuming the drivers he's using aren't interfering with the quality of the image output, you're absolutely correct in your assessment. Do you realize you *did not* copy the list in your response to me? I was going to copy the list with my response but I wasn't sure if you wanted your comments on the list or not. :)

Oops. Yes, I meant to reply to the list. Most of the mailing lists I'm on have replies going to the list by default. I just forgot that this one doesn't.

While (advanced) CYMK capabilities is a current project in Gimp development, the LINUXPRINTING site is valuable for the HP designed/created print drivers, and I assume other print drivers. I have an HP6122 (color duplex inkjet) and with the HP PPD file (driver) am now able to get more control over the printer than I had with "generic drivers". The driver is also recognized by all of the software that I use which provides for better and more complete print control. As a side affect, Gimp color output was truer to what it displayed, though I have not attempted to verify exactness nor CYMK control other than a couple of simplistic tests.

Tom Williams wrote:

Paul Waldo wrote:

On Sunday 19 February 2006 2:00 pm, Tom Williams wrote: Kubuntu Breezy
gimp 2.2.8
gimp-print 4.2.7
Epson Stylus Photo 1280
Cups 1.1.23

Thanks for the info. I found THIS page on your printer at the LinuxPrinting.org site:

http://www.linuxprinting.org/show_printer.cgi?recnum=Epson-Stylus_Photo_1280

See if it contains some driver info that might be of help to you. Maybe switching to a different driver might help with your printing problem. There is also a forum there for Epson printers that might be of help:

http://www.linuxprinting.org/forums.cgi?group=linuxprinting.epson.general

Paul Waldo wrote:

Hi all,

I am evaluating gimp on linux as a replacement for Photoshop on Windows. I am currently using Photoshop/Windows primarily for the color management capabilities. I have tried printing from gimp to my Epson Stylus Photo 1280, with horrible results--the colors are off by a significant amount. System specifics below. Does anyone out there use gimp for serious printing? If so, please let me know your workflow and how you achieve color fidelity. Thanks in advance!

Paul

Running: Kubuntu Breezy
gimp 2.2.8
gimp-print 4.2.7
Epson Stylus Photo 1280

On Monday 20 February 2006 07:38, Doug wrote:

Paul Waldo wrote:

Hi all,

I am evaluating gimp on linux as a replacement for Photoshop on Windows. I am currently using Photoshop/Windows primarily for the color management capabilities. I have tried printing from gimp to my Epson Stylus Photo 1280, with horrible results--the colors are off by a significant amount. System specifics below. Does anyone out there use gimp for serious printing? If so, please let me know your workflow and how you achieve color fidelity. Thanks in advance!

I am evaluating two products to use while waiting for Gimp to adopt the CMYK color model, Scribus and Krita (part of Koffice). Scribus is really a Quark replacement and Krita (inspired in part by Gimp is still in an early stage. The Krita manual says it will do CMYK but my copy doesn't have it yet. It is however very Gimp-ish in look and feel.

Paul Waldo wrote:

Thanks for the reply, Doug. This looks like it may be the ticket. If it works as advertised, $39 is *nothing*. After spending many tens of hours trying to get wine to work for me, the purchase of Crossover office was a godsend! I think this product may be in the same vein. I want to print pictures, not mess with printing software! Thanks again; I'll post my results back to the list once I've had a chance to test.

Paul

On Monday 20 February 2006 7:38 am, Doug wrote:

Hi,
I've had much the same problem with Gimp 2.2.4 and the Epson Stylus Photo 2100 running under Linux Mandrake LE2005. However, while waiting for a proper colour management solution to arrive in gimp/gutenprint, in the interim I've been able to get a pretty good match between monitor and printer output using Turboprint (http://www.turboprint.de/english.html). The only thing is that it costs (30 euros, 39 dollars) for the full capabilities.

Hope that may help.

Doug

If you do decide to go with turboprint, a couple of tips -

You *should* follow the recommendations to adjust Saturation and Gamma in Gimp. Otherwise Gimp images that print with perfectly good colour matching in other apps, say OODraw, come out very wishy-washy when printed directly from Gimp itself.

Not all apps allow the full range of printer adjustments; use xtpconfig if you need these.

HTH

Doug

Hi,

"John R. Culleton" writes:

I am evaluating two products to use while waiting for Gimp to adopt the CMYK color model, Scribus and Krita (part of Koffice). Scribus is really a Quark replacement and Krita (inspired in part by Gimp is still in an early stage. The Krita manual says it will do CMYK but my copy doesn't have it yet. It is however very Gimp-ish in look and feel.

I hope you are aware that using the CMYK color model is not going to solve your print problems. Actually for most image manipulation needs your source images will be in an RGB color space and it is then recommended to do all the work in RGB and to let the printer driver care about the rest.

Sven

On Wednesday 22 February 2006 03:26, Sven Neumann wrote:

Hi,

"John R. Culleton" writes:

I am evaluating two products to use while waiting for Gimp to adopt the CMYK color model, Scribus and Krita (part of Koffice). Scribus is really a Quark replacement and Krita (inspired in part by Gimp is still in an early stage. The Krita manual says it will do CMYK but my copy doesn't have it yet. It is however very Gimp-ish in look and feel.

I hope you are aware that using the CMYK color model is not going to solve your print problems. Actually for most image manipulation needs your source images will be in an RGB color space and it is then recommended to do all the work in RGB and to let the printer driver care about the rest.

Printers often specify CMYK color model for finished color work sent to them in either pdf or tiff format. And the color shift caused by the lower gamut of CMYK can be serious, especially where flesh tones are concerned. Obviously what is seen on screen is presented in RGB. but if it starts from a CMYK base image then the CMYK color gamut will be properly presented. It is a proper subset of RGB.

I understand that major surgery needed to bring Gimp up to the capabilities of e.g., Photoshop in the CMYK area. But the fact remains this lack of CMYK and also ICC color profiles puts Gimp at a disadvantage to other programs where printing is concerned.

Let me quote from a recent book, "Book Design and Production", by Pete Masterson:

"For professional designers, [Photoshop] Elements is crippled by not being able to work in the CMYK color space---a requirement if you are preparing color artwork for printing."

Or as my own father used to say "Don't fight the problem." The problem is that most printers expect or demand CMYK. Either you produce artwork in CMYK model to start with or you prepare it in RGB and then convert it---and hope.

Perhaps command or plugin titled as "use CMYK gamut" could convert a Gimp image to the gamut of CMYK but leave it in RGB. Each RGB tone would be converted to the nearest CMYK equvalent. Is this possible? That feature would give the user an idea of what the printed output would look like while leaving the base image in a more limited version of RGB color space.

A table of named colors used in a document, expressd in CMYK notation and in RGB notation, is embedded in every sla file produced by Scribus. Scribus sla files are in plain text XML format. If you like I can send you a sample. If not, not.

Hi,

"John R. Culleton" writes:

Or as my own father used to say "Don't fight the problem." The problem is that most printers expect or demand CMYK. Either you produce artwork in CMYK model to start with or you prepare it in RGB and then convert it---and hope.

Perhaps command or plugin titled as "use CMYK gamut" could convert a Gimp image to the gamut of CMYK but leave it in RGB. Each RGB tone would be converted to the nearest CMYK equvalent. Is this possible? That feature would give the user an idea of what the printed output would look like while leaving the base image in a more limited version of RGB color space.

That is possible. You can already do that in GIMP 2.2, but I admit that using the Softproof filter in 2.2 is somewhat tedious. This will be improved in 2.4. It allows you to work in RGB but the screen (if properly calibrated using a monitor profile) will show you what the print will look like, taking the printer color profile into account. And that is indeed the workflow everyone is converting to nowadays. It really doesn't make much sense to work in CMYK except for special tasks like using spot colors.

Sven

That is possible. You can already do that in GIMP 2.2, but I admit that using the Softproof filter in 2.2 is somewhat tedious. This will be improved in 2.4. It allows you to work in RGB but the screen (if properly calibrated using a monitor profile) will show you what the print will look like, taking the printer color profile into account. And that is indeed the workflow everyone is converting to nowadays. It really doesn't make much sense to work in CMYK except for special tasks like using spot colors.

In 2.3.7 I don't see a softproof filter. Do I need 2.2.x. to use it?

Hi,

"John R. Culleton" writes:

In 2.3.7 I don't see a softproof filter. Do I need 2.2.x. to use it?

You better just wait for 2.4 and a few weeks more to give the gimp-docs team a chance to update the documentation.

Sven

Hi Paul,

Sorry you're not having much joy so far. I don't know that I can offer any specific advice - I do remember suffering a similar problem to yours at first which did get resolved, perhaps by following the instructions in the manual religiously, but now I don't recall how. I do find the printed colours I get are a close match to the monitor - as judged by eye - although I agree, that's only an interim solution till there's proper colour management in Gimp.

However, what I would recommend is submitting a bug report to

http://www.turboprint.de/feedback.html

The people there are very prompt in replying and helpful - I found, for example, that I could not print on two of the better quality Epson papers with my Epson Stylus Photo 2100; and within a few days received a new PPD file that solved it.

Hope you have some success!

Doug

Paul Waldo wrote:

Hi Doug,

I have been experimenting with TurboPrint and have not been very impressed with the results. It is still better than the stock gimpprint, but my test image has a noticeable red-cast. Can you give some more details on your results with TurboPrint?

If it would give me Windows-quality prints, I would gladly pay them twice what they are asking, but so far it is really unusable for me :-(. I don't see how they can expect decent color without having some kind of monitor profile in the loop...

Any thoughts you have would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Paul

P.S. If like me you don't have any German, you'll need Babelfish http://babelfish.altavista.com/
in order to understand the bug report form, but you can report in English and the reply comes back in English as well

HTH Doug

Doug wrote:

Hi Paul,

Sorry you're not having much joy so far. I don't know that I can offer any specific advice - I do remember suffering a similar problem to yours at first which did get resolved, perhaps by following the instructions in the manual religiously, but now I don't recall how. I do find the printed colours I get are a close match to the monitor - as judged by eye - although I agree, that's only an interim solution till there's proper colour management in Gimp.

However, what I would recommend is submitting a bug report to

http://www.turboprint.de/feedback.html

The people there are very prompt in replying and helpful - I found, for example, that I could not print on two of the better quality Epson papers with my Epson Stylus Photo 2100; and within a few days received a new PPD file that solved it.

Hope you have some success!

Doug

Paul Waldo wrote:

Hi Doug,

I have been experimenting with TurboPrint and have not been very impressed with the results. It is still better than the stock gimpprint, but my test image has a noticeable red-cast. Can you give some more details on your results with TurboPrint? If it would give me Windows-quality prints, I would gladly pay them twice what they are asking, but so far it is really unusable for me :-(. I don't see how they can expect decent color without having some kind of monitor profile in the loop... Any thoughts you have would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Paul