Epson R1800

A friend gave me an Epson R1800. It prints to the red side. Whites are slightly pink and blue tend to turn purple. I tried everything, including spending several hours on the phone with Epson Technical Support and they seen to think something is wrong with the printer. However, they were the typical outsourced technical support and I do not think they are allowed to (think). I noticed that the ink in the printer is not Epson ink, I am wondering if that could affect the resulting prints? My friend said she always had the same problem and the ink she gave me was the ink she always used. Any one have any thoughts on this.

I would always use Epson ink, without question.

I use a R1800 and have been very pleased with the results... I have always used the Epson inks, so that may be your first step to try in troubleshooting.

I think I may have solved the problem. It now prints the right colors. I changed all the ink and uninstalling, than reinstalling the printer and bingo no more pink cast. There is one "but" to it, I ran out of photo paper so was printing on some that was labeled on the package as "photo quality" ink jet paper. I have had it for several years and have no memory of why I bought. To me it doen't look any different than any other paper I have ever used. So the bottom line is - I think the prints will look much better on paper meant for printing photographs. I will pick some up tomorrow and try again. Believe me, I will be using epson ink "only" from this time forward. Thank you all for your input. I can hardly wait to start printing.

Good to hear Elsa... I also recommend from my experience to make sure you have the latest paper profiles from Epson (which you can download off their main site) and then use the matching Epson paper with the matching profile listed in the Photoshop print dialogue.

I've also used some of the paper and profiles from Moab Paper, which have worked very well with my R1800 as well.

Have fun printing!

I have already downloaded the Epson paper profiles. Do you use the Moab Paper profiles with the Moab paper and the Epson profile with the Epson paper or can they intermix? Sorry about my ignorance, but this is the first photo printer I have had, I always used the photo lab to print. I am kind-of excited about learning to do it myself.

I never mix the two... print profiles are developed specifically for the matching papers, and I've stayed true to keeping Epson profiles with Epson papers, Moab with Moab, etc.

For me there was a learning curve with printing at home, and I'm no pro at it, but my best piece of advice is to be consistent (use the same ink, same papers, and the same procedure in Photoshop) for consistency. Inks are not cheap, and with all those cartridges in your printer, it's an investment to keep a good ink supply on hand, etc. In the end it's rewarding to produce a quality print of your own work at home. ;-)

That is what I am hoping. Know any good internet supplier of ink and paper at better prices than local stores?