Printing from Photoshop Creative Cloud to the Color printers using the RIP

(Note: The lab printer uses an Epson R800 print engine (and another model not yet online), but printing is not done directly to them. The interfacing software is called VisCom Lab Printer - VisCom RIP, and that is selected in the printer list on your computer.)

Before sending a print job to the Epson  printers, be sure that your document is in the AdobeRGB (1998) color space. The RIP expects AdobeRGB color files. Sending files in other color working spaces (i.e. sRGB) may result in unpredictable colors!

VisCom has an R800 printer, controlled by ColorBurst RIP software running on a computer in the print room. When the other printer becomes operational, each printer will be stocked with only one paper size, and the choices of paper size are shown below:

 If you want prints larger than 8.5"x11", choose 13x19 inches (or Super B/A3) as the default paper size in the Mac's System Preferences>Print & Scan dialog. The lab monitor will release the job and send smaller prints to the letter-size printer, and larger ones to the 13x19 printer. You will be charged accordingly on your print card.

Print cards, available for purchase in the VisCom office, are required to use these printers. The lab managers must be informed of your intention to print and will check the boxes on the card required for the print job.

Steps for printing to the VisCom_RIP letter-sized printer are as follows.

1. In Photoshop, be sure that your picture is in RGB mode, and is using the AdobeRGB (1998) color space.

If it is not in AdobeRGB(1998) working space (or if you don't know), go to Edit>Convert to Profile and select AdobeRGB (1998) as the Destination Space profile. Uncheck "Flatten Image to Preserve Appearance" to keep a layered file, but this may not work on rare occasions.

With grayscale pictures, change the working space to Gray Gamma 2.2, or better yet, convert them to AdobeRGB (1998) color just before printing.

2. Select File>Print from within Photoshop. This opens the Print dialog box.

Check to see if your print settings match the settings below:

• Be sure the printer is set to VisCom Lab Printer - VisCom RIP ( the area is highlighted in yellow in the picture below). You may have to go to the Mac's System Preferences > Printers & Scanners to change to the this printer or to choose the proper paper size.
• In the Color Management section, double-check to see that your picture is AdobeRGB(1998) in the Document area (second section in the pic below).
• Choose "Photoshop Manages Colors" in the Color Handling option, and choose "AdobeRGB (1998) in the Printer Profile section of the dialog box. If you get a light lavender tint in your whites, this was not done properly*.
• In the Rendering Intent section, choose "Perceptual". Check the box "Black Point Compensation".
• Avoid scaling in the Print dialog box. It can cause an edge of your picture to be cut off. It should remain 100%. Scale in Photoshop's Image>Image Size dialog if resizing is needed.
• Click the Print Settings button, and be sure that the paper size is US Letter (8.5x11) as shown in the second illustration below.

To check the printer and its settings (paper size, etc.) before printing, click the Print Settings button in the screen above to get this one:

3. Check to make sure that the paper size is correct, and that the printer is properly identified. Once these things have been accomplished, click the Save button to exit the Print Settings dialog, then click Print in the main printing dialog.

4. The lab manager must punch your print card and activate your print job once it is spooled up onto the RIP computer.

*Note: We found that using choosing "Let Printer Determine Colors" put a faint tint in pure 255, 255, 255 white for some reason, and that using "Photoshop Manages Colors" works best if the picture is in the expected color space (i.e. AdobeRGB(1988). This is not a truly color managed workflow, but is a work-around for our equipment. It's important to know that the RIP expects AdobeRGB(1998) RGB documents, and the steps shown deliver an Adobe RGB (1998) document to the printer.

Created 10/7/2005 WRS
modified 11/15/2005
modified again 10/11/2006
and yet again 10/12/2006
here we go again 2/9/2007
revised for CS3 10/11/2007
added CS4 references 5/3/2010
major revision for CS5 10/12/2010
changed 4800 to 4900 for new printers
changed to CS6 9/24/2012
modified text and pics for new RIP software
revised one more time for Creative Cloud 10/13/2014
revised in late 2016 for the new Epson R800 printer