So now that you have installed the printer according to the instructions provided you are ready for your first color print.  The steps are relatively straightforward as outlined in the below process for color prints and black and white prints.

Color Prints

Firstly select “Print” from the “File” menu and the window below should be displayed:

Let’s first concentrate on the right side of the screen “Color Management”

You will see here that the “Document” radio button is selected showing the current color profile of the file which in this case is ProPhoto RGB.  Remember to use this file format and if you are a Lightroom user it is the default format.  It is generally acknowledged that ProPhoto will give better renditions on Epson printers and K3 ink set.  “Color Handling” should be set to “Photoshop Manages Colors”.  Note the warning about disabling the printer’s color management.  “Printer Profile” should be set to SPR3000 Epson Premium Glossy or whatever media you will be printing on.

Personally I like to print out a 4R Premium Glossy print first as a work print to check for color or any other major problems.  As for “Rendering Intent” there are couple schools of thought.  If you’ve read the “New Epson Complete Guide to Digital Printing” by Rob Sheppard then you’ll know that he advocates sticking to either Relative Colorimetric or Perceptual so that you can master and start “seeing” in that intent.  Others will tell you to see whichever intent looks more right to you on a case by case basis.  For me, I will go with Relative Colorimetric as a default first and then if necessary switch to Perceptual to check if it is any better or worse.

Lastly, you want to select “Black Point Compensation” which will move the black point in your photo depending on the output gamut of the printer.  For more details on BPC please check here.  So up to this point the printing config on the R3000 is pretty much straightforward color prints.  However, for B&W prints there’s a little catch that will stump you if you are not careful so read on.

B&W Prints

Up to this point the process for color and black and white prints is the same.  To take advantage of Epson’s “Advanced Blank and White” (ABW) mode there are a couple things to note.  Firstly in the “Color Management” screen the “Color Handling” setting needs to be set to “Printer Manages Color”:

IF YOU MISS THIS STEP THE ABW MODE WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE IN THE “PRINT SETTINGS” DIALOGUE BOX.  To do the ABW fine tuning you then press the “Print Settings” button on the left side of the screen:

This will bring up the following dialogue box:

Where it says “Layout” in the above screen you want to choose “Print Settings” which will activate the following dialogue box:

Check to make sure that the “Advanced B&W Photo” option is available as a “Color” setting.  Then select the “Advanced Color Settings” as pictured above.  Which will take you to the following screen:

The only setting you want to adjust here is the “Tone”.  This will adjust how dark or light the photo is printing.  All other settings should be done in Photoshop proper and not through this panel.  Now you can go back to the previous screen to make sure that the correct “Media Type” is selected and the “Photo Quality” is set to 1440 dpi or above (1440 should be sufficient).  Also make sure that the “High Speed” setting is off for maximum print quality.  Finally hit “Save” and away you go!  Whew!

As you can see there’s a couple of steps that can be made redundant with some smarter algorithm and predictive programming.  But that’s probably a future driver update.

Epson Complete Ink Cartridge Set for Epson Stylus Photo R3000 Printer