topic Workflow & color management advice please in Professional Photo Printers

Workflow & color management advice please

jiro — Sun, 25 Apr 2021 10:26:26 GMT

Hi all

Using the Pixma Pro 100s. Having issues with inaccurate colors and so need to ask a few questions rather than waste my entire fresh box of Hahnemuhle Baryta paper trying to work it out

So far I have been printing from from Canon Print Studio Pro in Photoshop, setting the paper profile in Photoshop before opening Print studio pro, then selecting no color management in PSP. this as far as I can see is the recommended method, but prints coming out with a blue cast.

I don't have an Eizo setup, working from a 2017 iMac

Can someone advise the proper/best method / settings to achieve accurate colors?

Is it better to print straight from Photoshop Ie. bypassing Print studio pro?

Do I need to use colorsync ?

many thanks

Re: Workflow & color management advice please

jrhoffman75 — Sun, 25 Apr 2021 11:11:31 GMT

Welcome to the forum.

First, since you are on a Mac confirm that you are using the IJ Series version of the printer, and not AirPrint.

Since you are going to use PSP to print it doesn't matter what setting you apply in the Ps print window.

In PSP you need to select the appropriate Canon media type, as recommended by Hahnemuehle.

Next you need to select ICC Profile printing and then select the appropriate Hahnemuehle ICC profile.

Re: Workflow & color management advice please

jiro — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 11:45:48 GMT

Hi John thanks for your reply

As far as I know I'm using IJ?? How can I tell. pretty sure I'm not using air print

What your image shows is pretty much the settings I was using, however after another test print it's looking much better.

Just still a slightly yellow cast. maybe this is the best I will get with a non calibrated setup?

I will attempt to correct this on the colour settings panel in PSP

Re: Workflow & color management advice please

xrischan — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 12:37:42 GMT

Hi there.

We have just completed colour managemtn on a fleet of pro Graff 4000/2000

I would say the best options from PS are to have "printer manages colours" on and Rendering intent to Relative Colourmetric.

If you turn colour managment completely off then you need to ensure the driver is set to manage the colours.

If your printer driver has ICM as a colour option then use that. Relative colourmetric.

See if any of this helps.

Re: Workflow & color management advice please

jrhoffman75 — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 12:48:39 GMT

@jiro wrote:
Hi John thanks for your reply

As far as I know I'm using IJ?? How can I tell. pretty sure I'm not using air print

What your image shows is pretty much the settings I was using, however after another test print it's looking much better.

Just still a slightly yellow cast. maybe this is the best I will get with a non calibrated setup?

I will attempt to correct this on the colour settings panel in PSP

Hi Jiro.

The printer name would have AirPrint in it if it was installed. If your printer says Canon IJ Series you are on the correct driver.

I suggest you download and print the test image from this website:

Printing Insights #49 (outbackphoto.com)

Open the image in Ps but do not make any adjustments to it, simply open and then print using the correct settings in PSP.

The test image is a calibrated file that should produce an excellent print.

That will tell you if you have an issue with your printer or your viewing setup.

Re: Workflow & color management advice please

jiro — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 16:12:26 GMT

Thanks for this

If I'm using Print Studio Pro (in photoshop) then setting "printer manages colours" doesn't apply because that's only if you're printing straight from PS? ie. bypassing Print studio pro

Or are you saying it's best to do this?

Also where would I select the ICM option, in PS or PSP?

Thanks

Re: Workflow & color management advice please

jrhoffman75 — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 16:26:03 GMT

@jiro wrote:
Thanks for this

If I'm using Print Studio Pro (in photoshop) then setting "printer manages colours" doesn't apply because that's only if you're printing straight from PS? ie. bypassing Print studio pro

Or are you saying it's best to do this?

Also where would I select the ICM option, in PS or PSP?

Thanks

If you are going to print via PSP then you do not need to set anything in Ps print dialogue. Everything is set and controlled in PSP.

Re: Workflow & color management advice please

jiro — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 16:46:05 GMT

I have printed the test image and it generally looks good, but I'd a say a little stodgy and a little too dark. I'm aware that prints will of course often appear darker as you can't compare a print to a backlit image on a computer screen

This is the main problem I'm having though - the prints come out too dark and stodgy. again as above they will never look as bright and punchy as on the screen, but this is where it seems like something is going wrong

I'm not sure how clear this will be but some examples below, print file jpg and a flatbed scan of the prints... bear in mind that the scan of course artifically enhances the brightness of the prints as it shines a light directly onto the surface... viewed in front of a large window with an adequate amount of light, both prints look a fair amount darker than intended

I could get around this maybe by adding brightness to the file in the color settings tab in PSP - but I'd rather work out what if anything I am doing wrong

thanks again

Re: Workflow & color management advice please

jiro — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 16:45:05 GMT

posting again - larger size

Re: Workflow & color management advice please

jrhoffman75 — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 11:23:14 GMT

If you printed the test image without making any adjustments (i.e ignoring what you see on the screen) and you feel it needs to be adjusted you can apply adjustments in PSP and save them as a custom setting that you can apply each time you print.

Re: Workflow & color management advice please

xrischan — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 09:36:11 GMT

The ICM colour setup is in the printer driver window in printing preferences.

Re: Workflow & color management advice please

xrischan — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 11:02:15 GMT

Na, Na
We shouldn't be making adjustments by eye.
Your room lighting will affect the resulting print. Try taking it outside and see how it looks.
As far as I can see Print Shop Pro is there to avoid conflicts with PS and driver colour management.
I don't use it. As I have my drivers all set up to use the ICM made when profiling.
Try a print through PS with Printer Manages colours selected.
Under print settings you should have colour settings
And somewhere in there you should have ICC Profile Matching.
I have my rendering intent set to relative colour metric in both the driver and the PS print dialog.
Try that and see how you go.

Re: Workflow & color management advice please

xrischan — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 11:08:19 GMT

Re: Workflow & color management advice please

xrischan — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 11:09:36 GMT

Infact, here is a link to the manual, just in-case you havent read it.

https://ij.manual.canon/ij/webmanual/PrinterDriver/M/PRO-100S%20series/1.0/EN/PPG/dg-c_color_correction04.html

Re: Workflow & color management advice please

jiro — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 11:11:56 GMT

much appreciated will give this a try later

Re: Workflow & color management advice please

jrhoffman75 — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 11:38:29 GMT

"Your room lighting will affect the resulting print. Try taking it outside and see how it looks."

That's great if one is going to display their prints outside. Otherwise you need to adjust settings to give the desired print output in the intended viewing conditions.

OP says that the OutbackPhoto test image is printing dark in his opinion. I see two possibilities: 1. OP prefers brighter images or 2. Printer is printing darker due to calibration tolerances. In either event that is why the printer driver or PSP provide the capability to adjust brightness and tone.

Re: Workflow & color management advice please

xrischan — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 12:10:45 GMT

HI. Yes, i see the point of that . ICM management will however grantee the correct colours and brightness are achieved despite current room lighting and screen brightness. Will also guarantee transparency across printers. After working through my fleet i have found its best to get the printer settled then work back through the chain to the screen. I now have all printers printing what i see on screen.

Re: Workflow & color management advice please

jrhoffman75 — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 12:22:28 GMT

Here is the PDF manual for Print Studio Pro.

https://ij.manual.canon/ij/webmanual/PrintStudioPro/M/1.2/EN/PSP/Top.html

See the info on the Pattern Print capability.

Re: Workflow & color management advice please

jrhoffman75 — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 12:30:29 GMT

@xrischan wrote:
HI. Yes, i see the point of that . ICM management will however grantee the correct colours and brightness are achieved despite current room lighting and screen brightness. Will also guarantee transparency across printers. After working through my fleet i have found its best to get the printer settled then work back through the chain to the screen. I now have all printers printing what i see on screen.

I agree on a color managed workflow. I have a calibrated monitor on a Windows PC. OP is using a Mac; I have read that they are pretty good out of the box.

As you no doubt have discovered, the greatest problem with printing is having the monitor too bright. That is the good thing about using the OutbackPhoto (or other standardized test image). Get the print looking good and then adjust monitor to reflect how the print looks.

I calibrate my monitor to D50, 80 cd/m^2.

Re: Workflow & color management advice please

xrischan — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 15:22:21 GMT

I have just found this page for your paper;

<link removed per forum guidelines>

I dont know if the Pixma software bundle comes with Profile Editior software, but at least you can download an ICM made for your paper and your printer from their own website