topic Re: Pixma Pro 100 printing dark and muddy in Professional Photo Printers

Pixma Pro 100 printing dark and muddy

keetha — Tue, 17 Feb 2015 20:34:41 GMT

Hi,

I have seen several threads about this and tried to read those over and learn from them first but I'll admit to being so lost.

I've had the printer since August and previously had a PC with Windows 8. Since December, I've been using a Mac. With both computers, though, I always got dark and muddy prints, especially with blues and greens. I have installed drivers and looked for any software updates and the Canon website says I'm up to date. But when I go to print something, in the drop down box there are two options for paper - plain and photo. With my PC, there were a dozen or more options (matte paper, glossy paper, art paper, etc.).

I have installed ICC profiles from Red River Paper, as I did with the PC.

On a previous thread, I saw to go to Canon My Printer and then to settings. I'm guessing that's software? I don't seem to have that on my computer. I looked online and it came up on various software download sites but not the Canon web site. I am leery about installing from one of those web sites so I didn't.

After reading another thread, I went in to PhotoShop and selected a different color space (Adobe 1998).

I apologize for being so lost but apparently I am in need of super-simplified instructions. I cannot seem to figure this out. It's so frustrating and discouraging. I appreciate any help!

Thank you!

Re: Pixma Pro 100 printing dark and muddy

jrhoffman75 — Wed, 18 Feb 2015 04:27:35 GMT

On a Mac there are two printer choices - Bonjour and IJ. The IJ option takes longer to show up. Go to Add Printer, click the "+" option and wait for UJ to show. Select that one.

Re: Pixma Pro 100 printing dark and muddy

ebiggs1 — Wed, 18 Feb 2015 15:23:11 GMT

First, 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 your photo editor (like Photoshop) handle all the settings and color matching. You know how to do this? I prefer Photoshop.

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 so far 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-ins to do this. No additional software or gadgets, no spiders or monkeys, etc.

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

Most folks set there brightness way too high by default. This presents a big problem when judging prints. You need to judge your prints in good light, preferably daylight. Again they may be correct and you don't know it.

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 possible as all colors and adjustments effect all others. My goal is to get the skin tones right. That is what people notice most. Remember you are dealing with two different disciplines here. One is colored light and the other is colored dyes. They are not the same thing.

For instance, I know my Pro-100 tends to print darker than what I see on the monitor (typical for most users). So, I automatically know to set it's prints 1/2 to one stop brighter in Photoshop, in my case. It also prints with a slightly warn tone. Most of the time, with portraits especially, this if OK but sometimes it is not. In that case I adjust the "temp" setting slightly cooler in PS.

All the Canon photo printers I have ever seen have this warm/magenta cast. Canon engineers must prefer this look. It can not be changed. You need to "fix" it in post. You will also likely see a color tint even in your B&W prints. This is normal.

Make sure you have the correct ICC profiles and you are using Canon brand ink and paper until 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. This is a must!

Important to, use the USB connection until everything is right. You are just adding another issue when you try to set up the printing and the wireless all at the same time. Just like using Canon branded products until it is a go. Use a real printer USB cable. Not just any old USB cable.

Re: Pixma Pro 100 printing dark and muddy

ebiggs1 — Wed, 18 Feb 2015 15:38:26 GMT

What I explained in the above post needs to be done without exception. Don't skip any step. However, are you using a Mac now or a PC? IMHO, PC's are easier to set up than Mac's.

All the software you need came with the printer. Did you install it?

No printer that you can put in your house or office can use AdobeRGB. This needs to be changed to sRGB before you print anything. I do recommend you shoot jpg's in AdobeRGB for the larger color space but this can cause some issues when you print. But for the best results you really need to be shooting in RAW. In RAW there is no such thing as color space, no RGB of any kind.

I understand you have and use Photoshop? It and Canon My Printer is all you need <----came with the printer. It is mandatory you are using Canon ink and Canon paper with the correct ICC profile. Right now, you can use Red River later when all is right.

Let me know how it goes.

Re: Pixma Pro 100 printing dark and muddy

keetha — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 15:17:02 GMT

I am using a Mac now. I'm using Canon ink and Canon paper as well.

The Mac does not have a CD drive so I can't install Canon My Printer that way. Do you know if it's anywhere on the Canon web site?

I followed the instructions for installing ICC profiles.

All I can find about the printer on this computer (Mac) are the most basic of settings. That's why I keep thinking some drivers aren't installed but I installed what the Canon site recommended.

This is software on the Canon web site -- is this Canon My Printer?

Print Studio Pro Ver. 1.4.0 (OS X 10.5/10.6/10.7/10.8/10.9/10.10)

01/09/15

File Name: mpsp-mac-1_4_0-ea9_2.dmg

(Optional)This plug-in software facilitates professional photo printing. Plug-in offers all print related setting from a single user interface. With Print Studio Pro, you can print photos in various styles, including bordered, borderless, index, mono...

Again, I apologize for being so simple-simon. I appreciate your help.

Best,

Keetha

Re: Pixma Pro 100 printing dark and muddy

keetha — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 15:28:34 GMT

The IJ printer choice never showed up. What do I do about this?

Re: Pixma Pro 100 printing dark and muddy

ebiggs1 — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 15:33:33 GMT

I am not a Mac user but the lack of a CD drive is one reason I say Mas is harder. If you have Photoshop that is all the printing software you need. Of course you need the Pro-100 print driver but no additional software is required from if you have PS.

In the print driver you should turn off any control the printer has.

Re: Pixma Pro 100 printing dark and muddy

ebiggs1 — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 15:39:04 GMT

You musy do the monitor set up first of all. If you are geting even "muddy" pritns that the printer is working.

Re: Pixma Pro 100 printing dark and muddy

keetha — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 15:41:44 GMT

I have that set in Photoshop, that Photoshop manages the color.

Re: Pixma Pro 100 printing dark and muddy

ebiggs1 — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 15:44:04 GMT

"The IJ printer choice never showed up. What do I do about this?"

Hopefully John Hoffman will see this. He uses a Mac and can tell you more.

Re: Pixma Pro 100 printing dark and muddy

ebiggs1 — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 15:58:45 GMT

OK make sure your monitor is right.

Re: Pixma Pro 100 printing dark and muddy

ianm2k4 — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 16:56:31 GMT

From the page ..

http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/products/printers_multifunction/professional_photo_inkjet_printers/pixma_pro_100#DriversAndSoftware

The bare minimum you need to install is;

1. CUPS printer driver (though it looks like you have that installed since you have the printer in the settings page)

2. Canon IJ Network Tool - this is the one that will get you the IJ printer choice. You will have to connect to the printer using a USB cable to set it up, after this you should be able to use wireless (or ethernet if you enable that choice).

The driver should have installed about 12 ICC profiles mainly for Canon papers. (I have the Pro-10 so I cannot compare)

Other sofware on that page is

Print Studio Pro - this is Canon's print manager. It installs plugins for Photoshop and Lightroom also.

Easy PhotoPrint EX - sofware for creating calendars and albums etc

My Image Garden - software to manage photos

Quick Menu - this I think installs a menu bar on the screen to access the other programs quicker

Color Management Pro - software that in conjunction with more hardware (on cost) allows you to setup your own ICC profiles

Pro-100 ICC profiles for Fine Art - more ICC profiles for fine art papers from Canson, Hahnemule, Illford amonst others...

I havent installed any of the ones above as I use Lightroom and Photoshop only to do photo manipulation and management.

Re: Pixma Pro 100 printing dark and muddy

jrhoffman75 — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 17:34:44 GMT

My primary photo computer is a PC with Lightroom, but my wife uses iPhoto on a MacBook, so I have had to learn how to setup the printer on a MB. I agree with comments I have seen on the web about the difficulities with Mac printing.

You can download the IJ Network tool from here:

http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/support/consumer/printers_multifunction/pixma_pro_series/pixma_pro_100#DriversAndSoftware

Since you are using Photoshop i suggest you give Print Studio Pro plugin a try. It doesn't do anything and experienxed user can do directly in PS, but it makes it simpler. You find it under the Automate option in PS.

The other thing I suggest is downloading this test image:

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

I have used this with many folks I has assisted. Open the image in your photo software and print it without making any adjustments to the image - don't worry how it looks on your monitor.

It is properly exposed and color balanced. If you aren't getting a great image when you print then your printer needs some attention.

It has easily recognizeable images - strawberries, skin tones, fall trees, etc. so you can easily see if they are being reproduced correctly.

Once you have been through this repost and we can see where to go from there.

Like ebiggs1 says - its a great printer and many folks get top quality images from it. If you are having issues I am sure we can work through it.

Re: Pixma Pro 100 printing dark and muddy

wrobinson — Thu, 26 Mar 2015 20:07:34 GMT

I am a dental hygienist who has been tasked by her boss (a dentist) for finding a solution to our new printer printing out our new patient photo pages too dark. I am confused by where to start. Reading through this feed, I see that many of you are working through different photo editing programs, this is something that we cannot do. As a cosmetic dentist he needs to be able to see the image as closely as it appears on camera without changing any shading so we can come up with a customized treatment plan for each patient. So with our old printer, we just plugged in our memory card, put the pics into a powerpoint template and pressed print. Everything worked fine; that is, until it broke. Now we have this printer printing out shots that look horrible. Skin tones look dull and teeth seem to have a bluish/grey tint to them. It took me forever just to figure out the basics of the camera, and now I have been tasked with troubleshooting the printer. I have no idea where to start. Can anyone help out there? Good day to you!

Re: Pixma Pro 100 printing dark and muddy

HelenaLeeStudio — Wed, 01 Jul 2015 12:38:09 GMT

Hi, I have a Pixma MG6450 and have recently bought a Pixma Pro-100. I joined this forum as I was getting dark muddy prints from the Pro-100. I am printing the same image from both printers and after following all of the great suggestions below, I'm glad to say the colours are now just about equal, but the Pixma Pro-100 lacks the definition that the MG6450 has.

Admittedly I'm using an unconventional paper, a 225gsm recycled card. Do you think this is the problem or is it something I am still doing wrong in the printer set-up? I have a Mac, so some of the settings that you suggest are not coming up (like to turn the Color matching off).

Thank you in advance!

Re: Pixma Pro 100 printing dark and muddy

ebiggs1 — Wed, 01 Jul 2015 13:44:30 GMT

Yes it could be.

You must use the correct ICC profile for each paper. The Pro-100 requires this for best results. Also using Canon brand inks is a must. The better a printer is, the more sensitive it is to its settings. I also prefer USB over wireless.

Re: Pixma Pro 100 printing dark and muddy

HelenaLeeStudio — Wed, 01 Jul 2015 17:20:20 GMT

Thanks for your quick reply!

Do I need to install a specific driver to match my paper? I use Canon inks all the way. For the MG6450, it seems happy to accept it as plain paper.

Also, I'd been setting the printer profile in the Print dialog box as 'Adobe RGB'. Should I be changing the ICC profile here or when I choose my paper type in print settings?

Re: Pixma Pro 100 printing dark and muddy

ebiggs1 — Thu, 02 Jul 2015 12:48:22 GMT

The Printer Profile and the ICC Profile are two different settings. Is there a ICC for the paper you are using? Some paper companies don't issue them so you would have to make your own.

AdobeRGB is the color space. It is the setting I use. It is a wide gamut color space and is wider than the printer can produce but is more vibrant in the color space it can.

Re: Pixma Pro 100 printing dark and muddy

HelenaLeeStudio — Thu, 02 Jul 2015 13:00:20 GMT

Unfortunately there is no ICC for the paper as it is recycled card stock. How do I make my own profile?

I seem to be getting there by choosing the printer profile as 'Canon IJ Color Printer Profile 2005' and choosing 'Inkjet Hagaki' paper. Compared to the MG6450, there still doesn't seem to be as much depth to the photos, but at least the colours are not as dark and muddy.

Re: Pixma Pro 100 printing dark and muddy

ebiggs1 — Thu, 02 Jul 2015 13:46:51 GMT

Making your own profile does require you to have some special equipment. Finding one that works will be easier.

You might try Red River paper company to see if they have a suitable paper. They have the correct profiles for all their papers as do other high quality paper companies.

I don't use a Mac so the instructions I gave you may not be exactly as I have shown.