Hi!
Once you've calibrated everything and you're familiar with calibration, forget about calibration, because then you can apply logic--a logic of sorts.I need help from the experts of digital printing!!!
I assume you're using Photoshop (which would make it easier). (I like the Adobe RBG color space at a monitor temperature of 6500 degrees myself, but that's a personal preference.)
In Photoshop there's a terrific info box that will show what your present present colors (under the cursor) in both RGB and CYMK. Your printer works with RGB, but the simultaneous and parallel CYMK information is easier to work with.
For instance, if you total each CYMK percentage and you reach 300, you'll be printing black. Generally, even 200 is often quite dark. (Heavily saturated images are most unfortunate.)
Anyway, if you don't have one, buy a Pantone swatch book. There are any number of variations of Pantone books, but you might get (or borrow) one which has both the CYMK and its RGB equivalents. There are differences, but not that many.
So if in your swatch book you see what would be the industry standard printing of the color cyan 20, yellow 30, magenta 10, and black 10, and your printer does something totally different, you know you're in trouble. Then you can fool around with calibration again, whether for your monitor or for your printer.
I'm presently using an Epson 3000 myself (a few years old), and one point to note is that Epson printers enjoy a factor of 240 dpi. You'll get better results if your image is at 240 dpi or 360 dpi than you would, say, at 300 dpi. (When I was using HP inkjets, 300 seemed okay.)
To summarize my idiosyncratic point of view, work in RGB color space but note the CYMK values. Match some sample color values to a Pantone swatch book. Print. The end result should be equivalent.
Most inkjets do their own conversion from any RGB to CYMK during printing. If one tries to convert an RGB image direct to CYMK, it will "confuse" the printer. On the other hand, for professional print production, a designer/artist is expected to have all images converted to CYMK.
If it's any consolation, color matching drives most everyone nuts, but once you reach consistency between what you see and what you print, SAVE THOSE SETTINGS. Ideally, you'd never have to do so again.
Good luck!
--Chet
