photo print quality issues

[keypix]

Hi

I am unable to get prints from Photo as good or accurate as I can from Photoshop. 

The problem I am having is not so much colour but density, the AP prints are much darker in the shadows with dark detail blocking up whereas the Photoshop prints are pretty much perfect  with subtle shadow detail printed as I’m seeing on screen.

Both monitor & printer are calibrated with custom profiles and rendering intent is the same when printing from both applications. 

Has anybody else seen this difference and can offer any solutions??

I’m using Mac High Sierra printing to an Epson 7600

thanks

[walt.farrell]

Have you tried Soft Proofing?

[keypix]

7 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Have you tried Soft Proofing?

Hi Walt 

yes they look fine with ‘soft proof’ layer, exactly the same as they do in Photoshop. 

The only difference is when printing through Photoshop I’m using colour ‘managed by Photoshop’ where as in AP it has to print via the system. 

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, keypix said:

The only difference is when printing through Photoshop I’m using colour ‘managed by Photoshop’ where as in AP it has to print via the system. 

On Macs, you can set the color management options in the Print Dialog after clicking the "Show Details" button. As shown here, there are various pop-up menu items & options that change depending on what item you choose. The items & options vary depending on the printer make & model so I don't know what they look like for your Epson 7600, but for example, this is what I see for my (ancient) Canon MP620 when I select the "Color Matching" popup item:

As you can see, I have set it to use ColorSync matching instead of the Canon printer's matching & the "Automatic" ColorSync profile. There is a second option besides "Automatic" named "Other Profiles" that opens yet another window where I can choose any color profile installed on my system & override the one set in Affinity.

Like I said, the popup menu items & options for your printer will probably be very different from mine, so it is a good idea to refer to your printer's manual for help with what you need to select to either let your printer or ColorSync control printer color management.

[keypix]

So after much testing, wasted paper and Ink, I have finally found the answer!!

I recreated the paper profile to an ICC version 2 (instead of the default 4) using Xrite Colormunki.  It turns out Colorsync has a problem with V4 ICC printer profiles (at least in my case) and will crush shadow/black areas.  I remember having this problem many years ago trying to print from Apple's Aperture but would have thought it had been resolved by now.

The reason it doesn't manifest itself with Photoshop is Adobe takes overs the CMS and bypasses Colorsync and Adobe's conversion engine is fine with V4 ICCs.

Its a very subtle difference but its definitely noticeable in the shadows, if you have a V4 ICC and want to test for yourself I would recommend printing an Evaluation Print through 'Photoshop Managed' and then through 'Printer Managed' and use Colorsync to choose the correct printer profile.

Thanks for everyones replies.

Now need to go and by some more ink and paper :-(