[Nico Vuyge Participant Posts: 6]

Epson Printers

on: November 26, 2020 at 5:54 am

I did my first test prints on my new P900 yesterday from Lightroom, using the Lightroom Print module and noticed the following issue: When switching to a different paper profile and corresponding printer settings using the ‘Printer…’ button, sometimes the new paper settings were not used, and I could see a mismatch between the paper type of the print job and the paper type loaded in the printer. By the time the printer shows the paper type of the print job, the first line is already printing. Although it’s possible to cancel the print at this time, this wastes a page of paper.

I found it strange that the printer didn’t complain about the paper mismatch. This morning I found out that there is a setting ‘Paper mismatch’ on the printer that is default off (‘Menu’ -> ‘General settings ->Printer settings -> Error notice -> Paper mismatch).  I switched this setting on and now the printer gives an error message when it detects a paper mismatch, and I can cancel the job without wasting paper.

Now it seems that the process of printing from Lightroom would be more error proof by using Epson Print Layout as Lightroom plugin, but I can’t find how to activate it. In the Lightroom Plugin Manager it is loaded and enabled, but I don’t find any menu option to start it. The P900 documentation mentions that Epson Print Layout can be used as Lightroom plugin, but refers to the Epson Print Layout documentation on how to actually use it. That documentation is nowhere to be found. In addition, some Epson web material refers to Epson Print Layout as only having a Photoshop plugin. Any ideas how to use Epson Print Layout as a plugin from Lightroom?

[Mark D Segal Silver Member Posts: 837]

Re: P900 Lightroom printing – no paper type check – no Epson print layout plugin

Reply #1 on: November 26, 2020 at 11:54 am

A 2020 htm version of the manual for Epson Print Layout is available and I downloaded it, but I can’t trace where I found it; sorry about that. However, I’m not sure that what I found is correct in all respects. For example, it does not include PSD and TIF as supported image formats, which I find really peculiar. But perhaps over-riding all this, why bother using this application in Lightroom altogether? Lightroom has a fully satisfactory and quite user-friendly Print module – and if you need instruction on how to use it, there is tons free on the Internet. If you are trying to print RAW files from this application I would be doubly apprehensive, because it isn’t at all clear how they are being converted and colour-managed.

Mark D Segal Author: "Scanning Workflows with SilverFast 8, SilverFast HDR, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop". Please check the PhotoPXL Store for availability.

[Nico Vuyge Participant Posts: 6]

Re: P900 Lightroom printing – no paper type check – no Epson print layout plugin

Reply #2 on: November 26, 2020 at 12:41 pm

Mark D Segal wrote:

But perhaps over-riding all this, why bother using this application in Lightroom altogether? Lightroom has a fully satisfactory and quite user-friendly Print module – and if you need instruction on how to use it, there is tons free on the Internet.

Epson Print Layout knows about the Epson Media Types, you basically select which media type you want and whether you want to use an ICC profile or not. It seems difficult to make mistakes that way. While in Lightroom you have to select the profile and separately the paper type/quality settings using the printer dialog box which makes it easy to make mistakes (as I had yesterday when I did test prints with 7 different papers, twice the paper type wasn’t changed for some reason although I thought I had made the necessary changes.

Mark D Segal wrote:

If you are trying to print RAW files from this application I would be doubly apprehensive, because it isn’t at all clear how they are being converted and colour-managed

I am printing RAW files from Lightroom, and I always assumed that there would be no information loss when using a plugin.  Apparently that assumption is wrong and that’s indeed a good reason to keep using the Lightroom Print module. Now that I changed the printers configuration to report errors on mismatching paper types I should encounter less mistakes.

[Christopher Sanderson]

Re: P900 Lightroom printing – no paper type check – no Epson print layout plugin

Reply #3 on: November 27, 2020 at 3:58 pm

When switching to a different paper profile and corresponding printer settings using the ‘Printer…’ button, sometimes the new paper settings were not used, and I could see a mismatch between the paper type of the print job and the paper type loaded in the printer.

That’s all built into the LR preset (or it should be). Make sure you create and save a LR preset with every possible setting both in Driver and LR itself, NEVER use anything but the “Preset:Default”: (not one saved within the Epson driver) instead.

Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management" (pluralsight.com)”

• This reply was modified 2 years, 10 months ago by Christopher Sanderson. Reason: Removed html tags

[Nico Vuyge Participant Posts: 6]

Re: P900 Lightroom printing – no paper type check – no Epson print layout plugin

Reply #4 on: November 28, 2020 at 9:24 am

Andrew Rodney wrote:

Make sure you create and save a LR preset with every possible setting both in Driver and LR itself, NEVER use anything but the “Preset:Default”: (not one saved within the Epson driver) instead

Thanks Andrew, I tried that and indeed it solves the problem of accidental misconfigurations!

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