Printing 2-3 f-stops darker than shown on screen

[Trudy]

i have a mac book pro with OS X EI Capitan 10.11.6
My printer is an eps on stylus photo r2000
The photos print quite dark. An example is photo of a bright yellow flower will print dark and drab.
All print cartridges are full, printer heads have been cleaned.
Is there a way to maybe calibrate the computer screen to the printer??
Not sure if this is a hardware, software, or printer problem. Can you help?

 

[honestone]

When did this start occurring? How long have you had the printer? And are you using the printer software that is within El Capitan, or Epson's software? Usually, with the Mac OS, and for most printers, the printer software within the OS works fine.

Have you done any recent upgrades for any software?

One other thing: what third party software (ie, non-Apple) do you have on your machine)

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

Unfortunately, this is VERY involved and can be slightly to very expensive. The out-of-the-box "canned" color profiles for computers and printers are very basic starting points. To get a close match between display and print, you will need to calibrate both your display and your printer. Software-based calibrations are good, but you really need to purchase a hardware colorimeter device and first calibrate your display, then your printer. For even more accurate results, you can also calibrate your input devices - cameras/scanners/etc.

X-Rite: Print Does Not Match Display

Hardware/Software Calibration Companies
X-Rite/Pantone
Datacolor

C

 

[honestone]

Thanks, Cory. As usual, one of our "gurus" comes through!

It would still be helpful, though to know when this started to occur. If the op just purchased the printer and it happened, that would possibly go along with the necessity to go through a calibration. But if the op had been using the printer for a while, it would seem strange for something like this to happen.

I myself have owned numerous printers with my various Apple/Mac machines that I have owned, and I never had this issue.