printing problems help please

[DeepSpring]

I have an epson stylus CX3810 and i have been printing thru adobe lightroom.
All of my pictures come out almost completely desaturated the color is horrible. I have messed with the properties a little bit but i dont really understand it all. I have used a few different photo papers. I cant seem to get it to print nice colors. If anyone had any ideas what to do to solve it would be greatly appreciated. Now its not an old printer or anything maybe 2 or 3 months and the ink is new. thank you

 

[PlasticSpanner]

Have you set the paper type to glossy and changed the print quality to max/best in the printer preferences?

 

[DeepSpring]

yes i set it to glossy, the printer has about6-7 different papers you can choose from and i clicked on the best image button because you have preferences for image text and such

 

[DeepSpring]

anyone have any suggestions?

 

[PlasticSpanner]

Is the printer software trying to scale up the photo?

e.g if you have a 4X6 inch image & the printer is trying to scale it up to A4?

If so make sure you re-size the photo in your photo editing software to the same physical size you are printing it at.

 

[Digital Matt]

I think using Adobe Lightroom might be a mistake, because it is just a beta, and already has quite a few bugs. Use an established program, like photoshop, or even just try printing through Windows before anything else.

 

[D-50]

I agree with Matt, try printing through Photoshop. Select ICM and turn off the color managment. Also make sure you set your paper types in both the printer properties box as well as the advanced settings on your photoshop print menu. I find using Absolute chromatic will give you better results than relative. You'll find there is a lot more to printing then just hitting the print button, you have to make sure your using the right color managment, space, and profile settings. Also realize the angle you view your monitor at will effect the color you see so make sure you not viewing it from an odd angle or you will have a hard time printing what you see.