Dark prints when printing from my Imac using Leopard

What worked for me was to pre-set the Epson Stylus Photo (in my case SP R1800) as the DEFAULT PRINTER before (very important BEFORE) launching Photoshop.
Following is a quick summary of key steps. It is assumed that you are familiar with a CS3 workflow. It is not a step-by-step guide for users new to this. All this is really adding is the tip I read in another forum (thanks to whomever it was) to set your photo printer as the default before launching Photoshop.

Before I did this, I had all sorts of problems that I had to fix with letting the Printer Manage, and making Levels or Brightness compensations in Adjustment Layers.

MacBook Pro (early 08, 2.6GHz, 4GB; Leopard; Cinema Display (calibrated and as dark as possible); CS3. Epson Ultra Premium Luster, and Epson Double-sided Matte.
Workflow: Calibrate the display; Install and update all the Epson Drivers; Select SP as Default Printer in Print and Fax System Prefs; Convert or assign Adobe RGB as Working Space and Image Profile; Choose SP in Page setup and the right paper size. In Color Settings Dialog under CS3 File Menu, choose North American PrePress; in the Print Dialog in CS3, Allow Photoshop to manage color (popup), and choose the Printer+Paper profile combo under the popup.
Then when you do Print, make sure all your paper settings are correct and Color management is set to off.
Now I can also nail prints out of Pages and Preview (but need to set color management to ColorSync in the Print Dialog).
No guarantee this will work for you. But it did for me, providing I was doing EVERYTHING ELSE by the book. You may want to cut up larger sheets of expensive paper to use as test prints first. Just make sure they will pass through the printer (don't cut too small, and make sure they are rectilinear). Choose a standard paper size that is slightly smaller than what you have cut. The check "scale to fit media. Should work

I was also having problems with my Epson scanner on my iMac. I read that the best way to solve Epson's problems is to (1) uninstall all Epson software from your HD, and (2) download the appropriate drivers from Epson and install them.

Note: The Epson R1800 has two drivers: the most recent is an update. So, you must first download and install the Printer Driver v6.12. When that's done, then download and install Printer Driver Update v1.02.

I did that and I still got dark prints. Then I got an inspiration. In the Print dialogue box, I changed my Printer Profile to the paper I was using, Epson Premium Luster Photo Paper, instead of using sRGB and/or Adobe RGB. Specifically, I used SPR1800 PrmLstr PhotoRPM.icc. The next test print was virtually spot on to what was displayed on the screen. I am now a VERY happy camper.

Please pass this info onto anyone else who can use it.

Tim Calderwood