Problems getting consistent colors from HiTi 731ps with CS3

[dalippe]

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Hi,

 

I'm stumped in my attempt to print from Photoshop CS3 with my new HiTi 731ps on a Mac. Unfortunately there are two variables here as the printer is new and I only recently upgraded from CS2. Perhaps I'm simply misusing the software but I'm beginning to wonder if this is related to the printer or perhaps its drivers as I believe the Mac drivers are new and might be buggy.

 

I'm working with a calibrated and profiled monitor, have the supplied printer profiles, and am attempting to have Photoshop manage colors. One source of frustration is that the documentation I've found for the printer says nothing about how to turn off automatic printer color correction and other adjustments, although I believe I've tried just about every reasonable setting of the printer and nothing seems to help.

 

I am trying to print a portrait taken at sunset that contains an obvious warm tone because I chose not to "fix" the white balance to neutralize the colors. Soft-proofing on a calibrated monitor with the supplied printer profile confirms that the warm tones should survive in print.

 

1. When printing, I choose "photoshop manages color", the supplied printer profile, "relative colorimetric" rendering and "black point compensation"

2. I then click print

3. In the options that come up for the printer:

a. Under "image adjust" I've tried both "I20" and "Manual", in both cases with all relevant sliders set to zero.

b. Under "color preference" I've tried all three choices:

i. "Do not use color preference setting listed above": This sounds the most like turning off printer color management and was my first choice.

ii. "Use ColorSync color management profiles": This sounds like turning on printer color management but I tried it when the above failed.

iii. "Skin tone best quality effect": This is obviously the wrong choice, but I tried it out of desperation.

4. I then hit either "Preview" or "Print". This yields a preview (respectively print) completely lacking in warm tones.

 

I find it odd that even the preview I see when I hit "preview" looks completely different from both the soft-proof that I get using command-Y and the soft-proof that appears in the print window.

 

Another very strange fact is that if I try printing the same photo from Lightroom I get a result that maintains the warm tones that should be in the photo. In Lightroom I'm using relative colorimetric conversion with the supplied profile, allowing Lightroom to control colors and doing my best to turn of the printer's color management as described above.

 

Any thoughts appreciated. This is driving me nuts!

 

Thanks.

 

David

 

P.S. Sorry about the formatting. I typed the above list like an outline with letters more indented than arabic numerals and roman numerals more indented than letters, but the site got rid of my white space and left justified everything....

P.P.S. I know this question really isn't Leica specific, but I find this forum more useful than most so I figured this was a good place to try. And for whatever it is worth, the portrait in question was taken on an M8 with 35 Lux