topic Re: Pixma Pro 100 darker than HP Deskjet F4280 in Professional Photo Printers

Pixma Pro 100 darker than HP Deskjet F4280

hoymand — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 02:35:06 GMT

I have a number of digital photos which I am using for notecards.

The short version of my problem is that when I print on a Pixma Pro 100 it's darker than on an HP Deskjet F4280.

It's close, just a tad darker.

I have gone thru documentation and calibration (a number of times), but it feels like I'm missing something.

Have done printing the test pattern and it looks ok.

While I could send along images, that would take some picture taking and I thought I'd start with a text description.

Using Win 10 with Word 2016. Letting color management do the default.

Have also tried with PS CS2, with similar results.

What am I missing?

TIA --Dirk

PS, check out https://hhdabblers.com under Paint for examples of the images.

jrhoffman75 — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 12:28:26 GMT

Welcome to the forum.

Since all devices have tolerances I guess it's not surprising that the two printers aren't producing identical results.

The Canon printer driver has a slider allows you to adjust brightness. When you find a value you Ike you can save it as a preset.

hoymand — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 17:44:09 GMT

Looks like adjusting the Brightness: Light is our best option.

I've got a photo below of the various tests. Look closely to see what the settings are.

I am trying to not have many places to make adjustments from painting to digital image to print.

Mostly we have done note cards, but we do have in mind larger prints too.

How I get the art images goes something like this:

1) Painting: done with acrylics, often with a non-paint background. Typically there's a photo to paint from taken locally.

2) Digitize: take photo with a Nikon D3400 @ 24MP. Same used for original photo in nature.

I setup a low end photo studio, with stands and 4 x 5500K lights (1600 LVM, 16W, LED) that are simple work lights.

I am typically adjusting the D3400 at +1 or +1.3 on the lightness.

Do have the color meter stuff from x-rite and even brought in the calibrated test image. Which didn't make much diff.

3) Edit: using the raw image, I look at in Skylar Luminar, crop and make minor adjusts. Export in .psd

In Photoshop (CS2, have had for a while :-), I rip on the background w/ the magic eraser.

Export in .png and .jpeg for web etc.

Have a Lenovo Yoga 3 laptop and Dell S2415H monitor. These are matching colors well enough.

4) Layout: Mostly using Word for notecards, at least until I get happiness on printing. Do have Illustrator CS2

or may find something else I like better. Have done like posters for scientific conferences, so know other tools for layout.

Add some text and our logo to the back, along with exact sizing / placement of the .png

5) Print: Using Canon Pixel Pro-10 off of Win 10, though we do have macs in the house.

So, it looks like setting the Brightness: Light on the Canon driver is as good as it gets.

I don't see more levels here for the brightness. Trying to NOT have to fiddle with that on the photo

so that it prints right. Nope 🙂

Ok John, now what do you think? BTW, thanks for your quick response and I was happy to see you jump in 🙂

jrhoffman75 — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 18:03:54 GMT

The "Light" looks good on my screen.

You can fine tune more if you want to on different items by uisng the slider.