topic Re: Just got the Pro 10 colors are completely off in Professional Photo Printers

Just got the Pro 10 colors are completely off

JenL256 — Fri, 03 Oct 2014 19:35:33 GMT

I previously owned the Canon Pro 9500 II, loved it, colors matched my screen perfect. Prints from my photo lab also match monitor and Pro 9500 prints.

The print head died on me, so I decided to upgrade to the Pro 10 and now I'm completely frustrated. Tried printing some photos and the colors are different and much darker. Using the same paper and settings as before.

The bigger problem, I use my printer for graphics works too and the colors are not even close. A few of the designs look passable, but others are completey different. Colors look fine on my monitor and other devices and printed on the Pro 9500 II as I see them on the screen. But, on the Pro 10, they're way off. Aqua now looks blue, neon green is printing a dark kelly green, red looks darker, etc. I'm using Epson Prestation Paper (only coated thin paper I've found) on the 9500, I would use the setting for Matte Paper standard quality with excellent results. Tried Matte Paper and also plain paper settings on the pro 10 and can't get them to look right.

I know the colors were fine before, never had a customer complain, but now nothing matches. I've upgraded printers before and there's always subtle differences in the print quality but this isn't even close.

Any suggestions? FYI, I'm using Paint Shop Pro X6 to print.

Re: Just got the Pro 10 colors are completely off

jrhoffman75 — Sat, 04 Oct 2014 14:36:52 GMT

Download the test image from here: http://outbackprint.outbackphoto.com/printinginsights/pi049/essay.html

Don't make any exposure/color adjustments, just open the image and print.

Since there are many "truth" colors and images in the image you can judge if there is something wrong with the printer.

Re: Just got the Pro 10 colors are completely off

JenL256 — Sat, 04 Oct 2014 16:09:28 GMT

I've printed that test photo. The greens in the 2 color charts look light on my screen (like a lime green), but on the print they come out dark (like kelly green). The blues look blue on screen, but print more purple. The strawberries on screen are a nice bright red, but print a very dull red.

For example color is lime (r=0, g=255, b=0)

I printed the image on the left with the 9500 II, color on the screen looks like a light green and also prints that way. The image on the right was printed on the Pro 10, same file, same settings and prints much darker. Sorry for the bad pic, it actually looks even darker in person, but it's definitely not printing as a light green color.

Re: Just got the Pro 10 colors are completely off

jrhoffman75 — Sat, 04 Oct 2014 16:42:52 GMT

All I can suggest is be sure you have the latest driver and then call Canon.

Re: Just got the Pro 10 colors are completely off

JenL256 — Sat, 04 Oct 2014 18:04:19 GMT

Yes, latest driver was installed already. Not the answer I wanted to hear, Canon tech support isn't open on the weekend. I got orders that need to be finished this weekend and no printer 😞

Thanks for trying to help.

Re: Just got the Pro 10 colors are completely off

Jason — Sat, 04 Oct 2014 18:14:44 GMT

Hi JenL256!

We do have email support available on the weekend. Just click here to drop us a line - Email Canon.

Hope this helps!

Re: Just got the Pro 10 colors are completely off

jrhoffman75 — Sat, 04 Oct 2014 18:17:35 GMT

You can try using Print Studio Pro and the "ring around" function to at least try to get the work done this weekend.

Manuals are ere if you don't have them: https://www.cubbyusercontent.com/pl/Canon+Pro-100+Manuals/_9e886cddfbc04caa9248d99e17228c5b

Re: Just got the Pro 10 colors are completely off

JenL256 — Sat, 04 Oct 2014 18:24:59 GMT

I emailed Canon yesterday, got a useless answer. Responded and still waiting for an answer to the message I sent last night.

Re: Just got the Pro 10 colors are completely off

JenL256 — Sat, 04 Oct 2014 18:31:25 GMT

Thanks John, tried the ring proofs yesterday, it didn't help. I got a few colors close, but then it completely messed up another part of the image. All I've accomplished is wasting a lot of paper and time and still haven't been able to get any work done.

I've been using Canon printers for close to 20 years and have never had so much difficulty with a printer.

Re: Just got the Pro 10 colors are completely off

jrhoffman75 — Sat, 04 Oct 2014 18:37:51 GMT

Maybe you can glean something from this:

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/54452917

Sorry i couldn't help.

Re: Just got the Pro 10 colors are completely off

JenL256 — Sat, 04 Oct 2014 18:59:49 GMT

I've seen that already too. Everything keeps going back to monitor calabration. But, everything was printing fine before I changed the printer.

I can accept some variation, but the colors look correct on every monitor (and my old printer), but not the Pro 10. When I'm printing a color called "lime" I don't expect it to look kelly green in print. It looks fine onscreen, but regardless of that, it shouldn't print as a dark green. Likewise when I print aqua, I don't expect it to look like a medium to dark blue.

Re: Just got the Pro 10 colors are completely off

kmyers — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 19:32:02 GMT

JenL256,

Were you able to find a solution for this? I'm having the EXACT SAME problem now that I've upgraded to the Pro-100. The color variations you are describing are the exact same issues I'm having... lime coming out kelly green... bright reds coming out dull. Nothing has changed except upgrading to the Pro-100. Every printer I've had before was MUCH closer in colors and these aren't even remotely close. Very dull and dark. I also tried calling support and they weren't any help 😞 they only had me set it back to default and when that didn't work told me "colors will vary between printers".

Any help you can provide that may have worked for you would be greatly appreciated!!

Re: Just got the Pro 10 colors are completely off

ebiggs1 — Tue, 04 Nov 2014 15:48:50 GMT

I have three of these printers in this line. The 9000, 9500 II amd the Pro-100. Not a Pro-10, however.

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 photo editor 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 Photoshop, in my case. 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, otherwise you don't know if the printer is doing exactly what you are telling it to or not.

Re: Just got the Pro 10 colors are completely off

ashleydawn42 — Thu, 04 Dec 2014 23:41:02 GMT

My aqua blues are navy too and if I change my paper setting to lighten it up my greens are yellow and my purples are pink.

Did anyone find a solution to this?

Re: Just got the Pro 10 colors are completely off

kmyers — Fri, 05 Dec 2014 00:07:15 GMT

What helped me was turning off any color control the printer had and then making sure the color profile was correct from the program I printed from. Just changing the color profile was a MAJOR improvement, but there's a setting somewhere in there (can't remember off the top of my head) where it allows the printer to adjust the color. Be sure that's turned off.

Re: Just got the Pro 10 colors are completely off

ashleydawn42 — Fri, 05 Dec 2014 00:18:28 GMT

Thanks! Still looking for the adjust option. I think I turned off the canon option but wasn't sure which option to pick so I went with "iMac" and a semi gloss profile but it didn't help much.

Re: Just got the Pro 10 colors are completely off

ebiggs1 — Fri, 05 Dec 2014 01:29:47 GMT

I have no experience with Paint Shop Pro but it is probably the problem. If you already did what I told you to do, it is the only thing left. If, however, you did not do exactly what I explained you are going to have issues. And if you didn't I can't help you and you are going to have poor prints.

An investment in Photoshop Elements is my next option. It will print very similar to the full blown Photoshop.

You must turn off printer color management and can do so with the Canon software.

Re-read my post and make sure you have done completed everything. Good luck.

Re: Just got the Pro 10 colors are completely off

ashleydawn42 — Fri, 05 Dec 2014 15:50:33 GMT

All of my colors are fine except blue. Baby blue turns into dark navy

Re: Just got the Pro 10 colors are completely off

ebiggs1 — Fri, 05 Dec 2014 16:11:47 GMT

I hate to keep reffering to this but did you do all I asked you? You didn't actually confirm that.

You have all Canon ink and paper and profiles? Set color to 'none' in the printer? The monitor settings? Everything?

If one of these is missing or not done, you are not going to be successful.

If you have done all I asked, the problem is in your editor.

Re: Just got the Pro 10 colors are completely off

ashleydawn42 — Fri, 05 Dec 2014 16:20:36 GMT

I don't have canon paper because canon does not make adhesive paper. I'm having to print from silhouette studio because that's what's needed for my machine I'm using with the print.

My $50 printer had better color than this one but it had grain and noise so I wanted to upgrade. I assumed for the amount of money it cost and the dpi it would be a good printer and that I wouldn't have to change so much. It's so frustrating. Light baby blues should not come out dark navy.