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Equipment, News, Software

New Drivers (finally) Resolve Mac OS X 10.6 Epson 2200 Printing Problems

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(IMPORTANT NOTE: I generally do not remove old articles from this web site since search engines and other links tend to point to them. This short article and link to Epson 2200 printer drivers was accurate when it was originally posted, but you should consult current information sources and perhaps contact Epson directly for update information. In all likelihood, based on my past experience, this printer and other older Epson printers will not be supported indefinitely by Epson. For my part, I would not get a 2200 at this point, no matter how cheap it was – and I have not owned a 2200 since perhaps 2010 or so.)

A while back I posted about serious problems with the Epson 2200 printer when used with Apple’s Mac OS X 10.6.x “Snow Leopard” operating system. I won’t recount the whole story here (that’s what links are for!) but the short version is that Epson had not updated their drivers when Apple released the OS update, and then Epson failed to communicate with their customers or update the drivers in a timely fashion – leaving photographers who used several of their printers including the 2200 “high and dry.”

The good news is that Epson did release updated drivers during the past week. The updated driver appears to resolve the very serious printing problems that rendered the 2200 essentially unusable for several months.

Commentary

Update on the Epson 2200 and Snow Leopard OS 10.6 Problems

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Earlier I wrote that installing Snow Leopard on my Macs instantly turned my Epson 2200 printer into a very large paperweight. It is completely unusable for quality printing now. Over the past few days I’ve been working to try to find out what is going on, whether there is a work-around, and what Epson recommends to resolve the issue.

I can now report that…

… the printer still doesn’t work and Epson is completely silent on the whole issue.

If you have a 2200 (or any of several other popular Epson printers of similar vintage) it is my recommendation that you should not upgrade to OS 10.6 Snow Leopard until this is sorted out – or you may well lose the use of your printer.

I’ve summarized some additional information about the situation in a comment that I have added to the original post.

Commentary

OS X 10. 6 “Snow Leopard” installed – and printer problems ensue.

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I was actually on the beta test list for “Snow Leopard,” so I have been using it without problems for a while – but not on the computer I use for my photographic work but rather on a separate laptop. After the very trouble-free experience on the test machine I went ahead and installed in on my photography workstation yesterday.

Today I tried to print. Ouch!

The first problem I encountered was that the Epson 2200 sitting next to my computer no longer appeared in the the printer dialogs in Photoshop. Knowing that Snow Leopard supposedly will add new drivers as needed I tried to use the 10.6 preference panel to add drivers for the 2200. No luck – the system didn’t even see the connected printer.

I finally went to the Epson web site and followed their instructions which include:

  1. Install Rosetta from Apple install disk.
  2. Download the most recent pre-10.6 drivers for my printer and install.
  3. Download and run their updater for drivers under 10.6

Done. Now I can see the printer via its Firewire connection… but not, as far as I can tell, via its USB connection.

So, I fire up Photoshop and try to make a test print using a black and white image. Things seem to be going more or less OK as I work my way through the usual setup and print process: Photoshop manages colors and all. But the print emerges looking very green and way too dark. I attempt to download and reinstall the Epson profile for the Epson Premium Lustre paper I’m using at the moment. Installer downloads… but won’t run.

I do a restart and try the profile installer one more time – still no go. Since the photo was one that I had not previously printed I decide to remove one variable and instead print a color image that I had successfully printed right before installing the update to OS X. Again… very greenish and far too dark.

There is no joy here at the moment…

Update 8/31/09:

  • I will try to continue reporting on my CS4/Epson 2200/Snow Leopard printing issue as I continue to try to understand and resolve it. This may take a while, as I don’t have any urgent printing business to take care of.
  • As a – otherwise very successful – beta tester of Snow Leopard, I should not have allowed my enthusiasm for the new OS and otherwise good experience with it on the test machine to blind me to the standard practice of waiting a while to install on my production machine. Some of us never learn!
  • Other than this issue – serious to me, but probably a non-issue to most – the upgrade has otherwise been positive. One pleasant surprise was that the installation gave me back 125GB of space on my main drive!
  • I welcome any information about the printer issue that you may have. Please either leave a comment or send me an email.