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Pixma Pro-100 printing very dark

kmyers
Contributor

Hi All, 

I just purchased my Pro-100 and installed last night. I upgraded from an HP that was strictly CMYK (only 4 ink). I installed according to the instructions, but my prints seem to be coming out noticably darker than they should be. The lime greens are printing a darker kelly green. The bright blues are printing a darker royal blue. The bright reds are printing a very dark red. The pinks are printing a dark shade of pink. Skin tones are much, much darker than they should be. 

 

I am printing from Adobe programs (Illustrator, Photoshop, and Pro - all CS6). Am I missing a setting somewhere? On my previous printer, I would choose "preserve CMYK primaries" and it printed perfectly. Now, I can't seem to get my prints a normal shade. I'm not attempting to "match my monitor", just simply trying to get the colors closer to their true color. I've unchecked preserve CMYK primaries and checked to have the printer decide the colors, but neither of those options seem to be helping. 

 

I called Canon support, but they were unable to help me. He had me put my settings all back to default and test print. When that didn't work he stated "well printers vary per brand so theres really nothing we can do to fix it". I can't imagine that this great of a printer prints that far off on colors. 

 

Any help is very greatly appreciated!

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

ebiggs1
Legend
Legend

"... theres really nothing we can do to fix it"."

 

Well, of course this isn't true.  I have three of these printers in this line.  The 9000, 9500 II amd the Pro-100.

They all printed differently but after a little tinkering with the settings, they all did very well.  They are great printers.

 

First off you must not let the printer set anything.  Turn off every bit off control it has.  You can do this with the Canon My Printer under the Printer Settings tab.  Do you know how?  I will guess, yes, for now but if you don't get back to me.

 

Second, you need to have PS handle all settings and color matching.  You know how to do this?

 

And lastly, it is essential you get some settings on your monitor that somewhat matches what the printer is printing.  Your printer may be doing exactly what you are telling it to do and you have no idea it is.  Because your monitor is off.  If you don't do this step, you can forget the other steps.  However, there are only a few things that you need to be concerned with.  You don't need any fancy extra add-ons to do this.

But you must get the grey-scale very close.  You need to get the brightness very close and you need the contrast very close.

 

After you do these things you can make adjustments to your prints by just looking at your screen.  Because you know the monitor and printer are on the same level.  One more point, you can NOT get a printer to print every color exactly the way you saw it.  It isn't possibile as all colors and adjustment effect all others.  My goal is to get the skin tones right.  That is what people notice.

 

For instance, I know my newest Pro-100 tends to print darker than what I see on the monitor.  So, I automatically know to set it's prints one stop brighter in PS.  It also prints with a slightly warn tone.  Most of the time, with protraits especially, this if OK but sometimes it is not.  In that case I adjust the "temp" setting slightly cooler in PS.

 

Make sure you have the correct ICC profiles and you are using Canon brand ink and paper untill you get good with the printer.  Very, very important!

 

EB
EOS 1DX and 1D Mk IV and less lenses then before!

View solution in original post

112 REPLIES 112

Been reading this but I am not a Mac uses so I have little to help.  But for sure, are you certain your monitor is not set too bright or the contrast is way off?  If you exaggerate the brightness in PS or Illustrator does it brighten the print?

 

Question, what are you testing with 13 x 19?

EB
EOS 1DX and 1D Mk IV and less lenses then before!

What I was getting at, the printer may be doing exactly what you are telling it to.  Most of the people that I have helped with a Pro-100 or even the earlier versions were for 'print too dark'.  The overwhelming cause is the monitor set too bright.

EB
EOS 1DX and 1D Mk IV and less lenses then before!

I have been struggling with this paperweight for 2 years. Called Canon Tech Support, have monitored this thread, searched the web, reached out to other users etc, etc...It just doesn't print correctly. Everything is dark and muddy. And I'm not even trying to match colors to my monitor. I'm using a Pantone book (Color Bridge Uncoated) and entering in the RGB swatch values of the colors I want via Photoshop. Nothing is even close. I even bought some Red River art paper and installed their custom profile in a last-ditch attempt to make this thing work. (Red River has great customer service, btw.)

 

Anyone live in the Kansas City area and want to buy a printer on the cheap? I am *done*.

 

 

jrhoffman75
Legend
Legend
Settings look OK. Give Canon a call at 1-800-OK-CANON.
John Hoffman
Conway, NH

1D X Mark III, Many lenses, Pixma PRO-100, Pixma TR8620a, LR Classic

jrhoffman75
Legend
Legend
Do your monitor colors look correct?

Download the test image from this site and see how it looks on the monitor.

http://www.outbackphoto.com/printinginsights/pi049/essay.html

Open the file in Photos and print it without making any adjustments. How does the print look?

You are on a Mac. When you go to Printers and Scanners does the Pro-100 say Bonjour?
John Hoffman
Conway, NH

1D X Mark III, Many lenses, Pixma PRO-100, Pixma TR8620a, LR Classic

jrhoffman75
Legend
Legend
What software are you printing from.
John Hoffman
Conway, NH

1D X Mark III, Many lenses, Pixma PRO-100, Pixma TR8620a, LR Classic

avery print 

 it's mainly the gray or black, it's printing a lot of dark blue instead of any gray

I can’t help with that software. 

John Hoffman
Conway, NH

1D X Mark III, Many lenses, Pixma PRO-100, Pixma TR8620a, LR Classic

jrhoffman75
Legend
Legend
Select Printer Settings.

Select Main

Select Color/Adjustment

Select Select Set

Select Matching

Select None.

I’m on the road going from memory so I am not 100% sure of naming but this should get you there

What software are you printing from? If it’s Photoshop or Lightroom you can use Canon Print Studio Pro; it will set it correctly for you.
John Hoffman
Conway, NH

1D X Mark III, Many lenses, Pixma PRO-100, Pixma TR8620a, LR Classic
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