I think I recall someone saying that Elements is not Color Management ready. Can you check that?
Fred

Hello John,
I wish I had Elements so I could check it. Maybe someone who does have it will pop in and advise.
It's just a nagging memory in the back of my mind where I seem to recall that Elements didn't really use the printer profile.
I am probably wrong (again), so we had better wait.
PS I just called a friend with El 8. He said he will look into later on today.

Fred

Steve,
Thanks you so much for coming in and letting us know that EL-8 can handle printer profiles.
My friend never got back to me on that.
Could you help a little more with some steps to get to the place in the program where you are asked for the printer profile?
In Qimage there's a location that asks for Prtr ICC.
If I recall my friend's CS4, he went to FILE and Print. Then clicked Color management, Let PS handle the color, and that opened a box that said,
PRINTER PROFILE from which you selected the profile.
Appreciate it if you could compare the steps so I can call my friend and set him right.
He didn't call me back, because he couldn't find it. (Just spoke to him)

Thanks in advance.

Fred

Hi John,

presumably, when you obtained the profile, you had to mail a print of a colour pattern, closely following the instructions for how to generate that print. The profile will only be accurate for that particular printer, ink, paper and exact printer settings when you come to use it. It should only be applied once, either by turning off the colour management in the printer driver, and selecting the correct profile in elements (if it is similar to cs4 in that respect, then Fred has answered more or less where you can do that) or alternatively set elements to not colour manage, and select the correct profile in the printer. For many situations, sometimes, the printer will select a generic profile for the type of paper you have selected, and as you found that gives a good enough result. That good enough result will be better in many cases than applying a better profile incorrectly.

Also, 2004 is maybe a long time to remember printer settings, etc. - are you sure you're using the same printer

hth

Best wishes,

Ray

Hi Guys,
Many thanks for all your comments.
My printer profile was purchased from DDIsoftware as a premade profile for the printer and the paper - canon pro plus.
I use to use Elements 3 and my prints were fine using this as the image management and output source but no colour management and the printer set to manage colour.
My prints were printed as seen on screen - no difference between either.
Now using Elements 8 and it's colour management with the DDI profile and the same images and paper my prints are lighter in colour - mainly a loss in red area.
To check my screen and output I have obtained an image from another source of the same shot I took on my camera that I am using as a test image - the two images onscreen are identical - so I am quite sure the screen is calibrated OK.
I have printed sample images to my printer using Windows Explorer and get the same lighter image result - so for now I suspect something has changed with my printer - but nozzle checks etc. all show each colour is being printed.
I will keep checking to see if I can find the problem.
Thanks everyone.
JohnA
Addendum
After two frustrating days I have found a workaround for my problem - noted here in case it helps someone.
My initial images are SRGB so I have set the whole work flow up as SRGB.
Elements 8 I have left as per screen in SRGB, I have loaded a SRGB printer profile, a screen driver for my Dell panel in SRGB. I have put my DDI printer profile to one side.
The printer is set at colour adjustments manual, enabled the ICM, image intensity increased to +5 and print quality high.
Result is very little difference between screen and final print.
Not ideal but gets me there.
Reason - I think Elements 8 is not recognising a part of the workflow that it should do.

Hi Fred,
I was just getting ready to answer your question about selecting and using profiles in Elements 8 when I saw you had answered your own question.
It is not easy to set it up in Elements. Actually I spent a few minutes trying to find out what I had done myself. As I said earlier, it is so much easier in Qimage. I do my major edits in Elements and save the image for printing in Qimage.

Steve W.

That is a question that will get you many answers; like which car do you drive and why?
My 2 cents sounds like this.
I have both a Canon and an Epson.... and there may be times when the Canon dye ink produces a slightly more accurate red than the Epson with the pigment ink, (which is improving as each new ink set is developed), but nothing beats a good Epson.

As for maintenance, I have this R1800 about 2 and a half years, and I print at least twice a week. I use Epson ink. I have never had a clogged nozzle yet.

Fred