How to easily get good results from an Epson 2200 and Adobe Photoshop

This how-to assumes that you have installed your Epson 2200 printer drivers, and have a functional copy of Adobe Photoshop. I wrote the how-to using ith Photoshop 7 in mind. Your version may vary slightly. It also assumes you have used Adobe Gamma or some other method to get your monitor into approximate calibration. There are many guides on using Adobe Gamma found on the internet.

With your image ready to print, start Print With Preview (Ctrl-P). You will see a dialog like this:

The first thing you'll need to do within this dialog is to ensure the correct printer is selected, correct paper size, correct media, and so on.

Click on Page Setup.

When presented with the Page Setup dialog, you'll want to first select the right printer. Click on Printer...

Select your EPSON Stylus Photo 2200 from the drop-down. Click OK when done.

You will return to the first Page Setup dialog. It will now contain the list of 2200 compatible paper sizes and Sources:

In this case, I wish to use Letter paper and I've selected Landscape orientation.

Most epson papers will use the Sheet feeder. Epson Velvet Fine Art paper requires that you manually feed it. You would select Manual as the Source if you were using the Velvet Fine Art paper.

Click OK and we can proceed to set up the print job on the Print With Preview dialog.

You'll want to make sure that the image will print to the desired size. The preview box will show the image size relative to the paper. If you have set your image up in the Image Size dialog (found under the Image menu) to be the correct dimensions and DPI, then it should be showing in the correct relative proportions in the preview window. In this case, my source image is larger than the paper, so I have chosen to be lazy and let the Photoshop print driver resize it to fit the paper for me by selecting Scale to Fit Media.

If you Do not see the Color Management section on the lower part of the dialog, be sure to check of Show More Options. After clicking Show More Options, change the drop-down from Output to Color Management. You will then want to ensure you have the correct profile selected for your choice of paper and ink. The profiles available are shown below in the screen-shot showing the Profile's drop-down's contents. Your list of profiles may vary, however the only ones you need for printing are:

SP2200 Enhanced Matte_MK
SP2200 Enhanced Matte_PK
SP2200 Premium Glossy_PK
SP2200 Premium Lustre_PK
SP2200 Premium Semigloss_PK
SP2200 Velvet Fine Art_MK
SP2200 Velvet Fine Art_PK
SP2200 Watercolour - RW_MK
SP2200 Watercolour - RW_PK

The PK Stands for Photo Black, and MK stands for Matte Black.

If you do not have these profiles, you can get them from epson at http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/EditorialAnnouncement.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=42114986. Instructions on installation are available the page as well.

In this case, I have Letter size Epson Enhanced Matte paper loaded and Epson Matte Black ink installed. I selected the SP2200 Enhanced Matte_MK profile in the drop-down.Relative Colorimetric intent provides good results, so I don't change it. Many web pages and even Adobe Photoshop's manual explain the purpose of the Intent better than I can.

At this time, we're ready to tell the print driver how to print, so we can click on Print...

There are a number of adjustments we need to make at this stage. The above represents the default settings for the driver.

First we need to check or change: Paper Source, Paper Type, DPI, Paper Size, High Speed, and Edge Smoothing.

The settings I want for my example are Sheet source, Enhanced Matte Paper (you will find that a number of paper choices are unavailable to you if you have the Matte Black ink installed), Photo - 1440dpi, and Letter (8 1/2 x 11 in). I also uncheck High Speed and Edge Smoothing.

The next step is to disable switch to ICM for Color Management, and then select No Color Adjustment.

At this time, I usually check that I have sufficient Ink and/or check my nozzles if its been a while since I last printed by using the tools on the Maintenance tab.

When I am ready to print, I click OK. The Print dialog will return, at which time I click OK and Photoshop informs me it is printing the document. Some short amount of time later, I have beautiful prints.

There are other methods of getting great prints out of the Epson 2200. Feel free to experiment with the various settings you may have discovered in reading this how-to. The approach to printing on the Epson 2200 described above is the method I have personally found to be successful at producing great prints with minimal effort on my Epson 2200. In fact, my very second print on the Epson 2200 was made this way and was stunning. I was truly amazed how close to what I was seeing on the monitor the results were.