# Leopard problem with Epson 3000



## jfraz3129 (Feb 14, 2008)

I have been printing to an Epson 3000 for years via Mac OSX tiger. I recently upgraded to Leopard, and for the life of me I can't get my Mac to print to the Epson anymore. I have checked the Epson site for driver upgrades (none for 10.5), and I found the Gutenprint 5.0 driver. But I cannot get it to work either thru Appletalk or IPP. Any answers? I have a screenprinting biz and need to output film urgently.


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

You were unable to run the Tiger installer and get it to work, or goto the printer utility and add it that way?


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## mikepeartree (Aug 21, 2008)

Hi,
I've been succesfully printing with Epson 3000 and Leopard but the print quality is terrible. The printer seems to print with "standard" setting only, even if I set "quality" printing. Ist here anybody that knows how to resolve this problem?
mikepeartree


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

You should start a new thread, not drag one up from the past, please. It still sounds like a driver issue, have you gone to Epson's site and made sure that they are up to date?


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## mikepeartree (Aug 21, 2008)

sorry, I'm new to this. Epson does not have any new driver since Panther for sure, probably before. With Tiger macosx was using a Gimp, now it's a Guterprint (CUPS) which updates come automatically with apple software update. The printer does not print "quality"


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

Is this the printer here? Being it has System 7 drivers, I'm suprised there are OS X drivers. But there are 10.4 drivers listed, and they should work in 10.5 too. Have you tried them yet?


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## mikepeartree (Aug 21, 2008)

yes, the printer is that one and I am using it since the Mac G3 with OS 9.0 thru G4, G5 and mac osx 10.3 and 10.4. Until Tiger it was working pewrfectly, even after my macs turned into Intel core duo. A week ago I installed finally the Leopard and the printer works, but it prints badly, llike when you choose "standard quality" in the regular printer features. I cannot obtain high quality prints anymore. That's my problem with Leopard. I think I am going to go back to Tiger again.


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## MacTherapist (Sep 21, 2008)

Here's what worked for me, turning my old Epson Stylus Color 3000 into a graphics printing near-genius with Leopard 10.5 (not yet upgraded beyond this version) on a MacBook (1.83 MHz Intel Core Duo with 1 GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM):

1. Remove ALL drivers for Epson Stylus Color 3000 you may have on your Mac, not just the driver that's acquired directly from Epson, but also any third-party drivers you may have tried, such as Gutenprint.

2. Repair permissions using Disk Utility.

3. If you have a current version of DiskWarrior (from Alsoft - by the way, in my experience by far the best hard drive fixer-upper utility), preferably version 4.1 or later, then use it to repair the Directory of your boot (startup) hard drive. Otherwise, just skip this step (don't try disk repairs with any other utilities; they can add to your problems). Note you should NOT use DiskWarrior's Repair Permissions option that's found in the Files procedure of DiskWarrior; just skip Files altogether and use just the Directory procedure.

4. Now go to Epson's website, to the Epson Color Laserwriter's page (English language - if you need another language, go to the analogous web page for your language). The English page is:

http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/..._UseBVCookie=yes&oid=14430&infoType=Downloads

5.Download and install the following driver (toward the bottom of the list when you arrive there using the link in step 4):

Printer Driver v1.7a

which is listed as for PowerPC Macs with OS X (v10.2.4 - 10.4.x). Don't worry that Leopard isn't listed. This one works fine for me.

6. Create and type a very brief file in TextEdit - typing just a few nonsense characters will do just fine - and start to print AS IF you were attempting to use your Color Stylus 3000. In the Print window that comes up, if your 3000 is shown in the list of available printers anywhere in the pop-up menu at the top of the Print window (to the right of the word "Printer:"), choose the Add Printer... option and DELETE each and every listing referring specifically to your 3000 (leave listings for other printers, if any, alone).

7. Now that your list is cleansed of any references to the 3000, go ahead and install the Printer Driver v1.7a driver you downloaded.

8. Using that same TextEdit file, again start AS IF to print it, and when the Print window comes up, again choose Add Printer... and now add the 3000. This makes sure you have it listed freshly, after first removing any old driver copies and installing a clean, fresh copy. 

At this juncture, in all likelihood, the Print window will be a short one, as shown here:










9. Note that there should be a small, separate button just to the right of the printer name choice. Unlike the pop-up menu to it's left (which has both an up and down arrow for choosing the printer desired (your 3000 is shown already chosen), this small button has only a SINGLE arrow. If the Print window is short, the arrow will be pointing DOWN, as shown in the first illustration, Screenshot1.jpg. When the Print window is fully expanded, the arrow will be pointing UP (second illustration):








. 

If the arrow is now pointing down, click it. You will see the window expand. It's this expanded window that has the controls you want, but they're not at all immediately obvious YET. Read on:

Now, you're almost there!

10. In the expanded Print window, move down to the pop-up menu showing the name of the application you're using (in this example, I'm using TextEdit). Click on this pop-up and you will see a list similar to what is shown in the third illustration:








. 

Notice that since I didn't bother to save the file, it's name in the picture is "Untitled." THIS EXPANDED PRINT WINDOW IS THE GOLD YOU NEED!!!

11. Most of the items offered in this "Gold" list have many great options, and the one named Printer Features has an unbelievably rich group of yet further sub-groups, and sub-sub-groups of features.

I might mention I bought our 3000 used about 18 months ago. It wasn't very useful, as the rollers were not pulling the paper through reliably, but I finally had it repaired (I bought the 3000 for $100, and the repairs were three times that). I was pretty disappointed when I started using it - really crummy prints - with the graphic images and solid areas especially badly banding. Not at all suitable even for routine use except as sort of rough draft when printing images (the text printout was adequate).

But when I discovered these controls and started to play with them, the controls for saturation, sharpness, color, contrast, and a zillion other options and nuances went through the roof. Very, very excellent quality, printing beautifully, albeit very slowly, at the highest resolution offered: "1140 x 720 Highest Quality"! The options/control combinations available are enormous and nearly infinite in comination - I'm sure a professional graphics printing business would especially find them both familiar and at a level of sophistication workers doing very high quality printing would covet. Considering that the 3000 has only black and three colors of ink, it was jaw-dropping.

This actually is way far superior to the control of the 3000 that I had in Tiger 10.4.11. The only problem I'm experiencing now is that the EPSON Printer Utility version 2.14 no longer works - it crashes when I attempt to launch it, so if I want to use it, I have to temporarily boot up from another hard drive into 10.4.11 when I want to check ink levels, align or clean the heads, etc. I have a hunch one or more of this EPSON Printer Utility program's components needs to be trashed or perhaps that simply the utility and all of its components need to be re-installed, but I haven't had a chance yet to figure out how to make it work again (it did work briefly after I upgraded my main HD to Leopard, but began quitting on launch shortly thereafter). If anyone has had any experience with this latter problem, please post your comments here! 

Happy Printing!

Don, The MacTherapist, Los Angeles

:wave:


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## matatl (Mar 27, 2009)

Have os 10.5.6 with es 3000. Had same problem with epson printer utility.
Opened new finder window typed in "epson utility" and found an alias in
the applications folder. It was v2.14 that was on another drive with os 10.4.
Don't know how the alias got to the drive with os 10.5.6 but it does work.
When I click on the alias in 10.5.6 Leopard box opens says "Epson SC 3000"
then I click "OK" and the utility opens to : status ink and paper supply,
nozzle check, head cleaning and head alignment.
Still having issues with grainy print even at 1440x720 HQ. 
Settings : PS manages color - Profile i1 gretagmacbeth sc 3000 profile -
"Perceptual"
RGB color - Best - Paper - Photo Glossy Paper -1440x720 HQ - Best.
The paper may be the problem - Cannon Photo Paper Glossy.
This paper works great on e 1280 but with the sc3000 it looks grainy !
The color is perfect on both printers , thanks to the i1 Match system.
Could the grainy results on the sc3000 be due to this paper ?
Thanks. matatl


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

THe best way to find out is to get some Epson paper made for that printer and try it. If the prints come out fine, it's the paper, if they look bad too, then there is something wrong with the printer or drivers. Connect it to an older Mac or Windows PC and print and see how the images come out. if good, then it's a software issue. If bad, then the printer is bad.


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## matatl (Mar 27, 2009)

Thanks-
I did try with mac G4 OS9.2.2 and works fine. Could be the driver in the G5
running OSX 10.5.6 with driver Gutenprint 5.1.3. Has anyone printed with this
combination of SC3000 , 10.5.6 and Gutenprint 5.1.3 ? If so, were results 
good or bad ? Any other drivers or solution that has been sucessful ? 
Thanks - matatl.


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

I have the feeling that because the printer is so old, and because Epson doesn't have any drivers for it, that you may never good the quality that you want out of this combination of OS and printer.


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