Need a little Mac to PC help with color matching

[ctp93]

I have an interesting deal going on here, and I am sure there is an easy fix.

First of all, in the office here, I use my Macbook pro for just about everything. I have an Epson R1800 printer that is hooked directly to a PC in the office. That is really where i do all my printing from. I have the printer shared on the network, but it seems a little generic. In other words, I can't do any of the fancy settings from my Macbook like I can directly from the PC attached. I am sure that has something to do with the Linux drivers I am using from CUPS.

So, what I have been doing is copying the files from my Mac to the PC and printing them.

Now, on my Mac I edit the RAW images with a quick first pass through LightRoom. Then I export them as JPG and do any detail work in Photoshop. But when I bring them over to the PC, and pull them up in Photoshop, they seem to go flat. Almost as if none of the LightRoom and Photoshop edits never happened. I didn't really expect that.

I have a Spyder 3 Elite and calibrated both monitors, but the pictures still seem to look pretty flat when I bring them into the Photoshop on the PC.

I don't know if it is a colorspace issue or something equally above my head? I just know I want to edit my pics on the Mac, and have them print out to match what is on my screen. Right now, that doesn't really happen. They print out like they look on the PC.

My goal is to edit a pic on the Mac, bring it to the PC and have it keep the changes, and then have it print as it is on the screen.

I know there is quite a number of things to check here, but I don't know what they are.

Thanks

[Rcowan]

I am confused about the printer driver. Did you get them from Epson or someone else? What is CUPS? I just checked Epson's website and they show Mac drivers for that model.

[studiocygnet]

I'm not a computer expert, but there are two things I would check. One is the gamma. Normally macs are set to 1.8 and Pc's are at 2.2. I run my macs at 2.2 just for this reason. The other thing is to make sure one is not running AdobeRGB, and the other sRGB. Going from Adobe colorspace to sRGB will often flatten and desaturate a little.

[ChuckW]

Originally Posted by studiocygnet

I'm not a computer expert, but there are two things I would check. One is the gamma. Normally macs are set to 1.8 and Pc's are at 2.2. I run my macs at 2.2 just for this reason. The other thing is to make sure one is not running AdobeRGB, and the other sRGB. Going from Adobe colorspace to sRGB will often flatten and desaturate a little.

The suggestions about the gamma and the color space are excellent, I have seen images go flat as a result of changes like this. Also, is it necessary to export as jpgs? Exporting in a lossless file format like tiff or psd will retain a lot more of the original color information.

[ctp93]

It appears that my issue was color space. Somehow the Photoshop on my PC was set to Adobe, and the Mac was at sRGB.

The Adobe color space was the one that was flat.

Thanks!