topic Re: I cannot ever get my colors even close -PRO-200 in Professional Photo Printers

I cannot ever get my colors even close -PRO-200

abrnchoodart — Sat, 08 Feb 2025 15:46:19 GMT

Hello,

I have had a Pro-200 for a number of years. I simply cannot get accurate color in my prints. Ever. Now they are wildly inaccurate. I have done all of the recommended cleaning and everything appears normal in those prints, but as soon as I go to make fine art prints using Canon paper, no go.

Note, I am using Photoshop and create print images there. I have made them in RGB and CMYK. They are all terrible. I have the most recent driver and the most recent OS on my Mac Desktop. I never can find my printer listed in Photoshop. I have also used the selection of Use Photoshop to Manage Color AND Use Printer to Manage Color. No difference.

I reinstalled the printer driver today. When I pull up my printers and scanners window, it says that I have Canon PRO-200 series 2 installed, model Canon Pro 200 series AirPrint, Driver version 40.

If anyone could offer advice, I would be so thankful. This has been a very expensive printing experience with minimal success.

Re: I cannot ever get my colors even close -PRO-200

rsilber — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 00:44:36 GMT

The AirPrint driver is not your friend. Delete that, and reinstall with the full driver. You may need to visit the Canon site and download the driver there based on your printer model. This should help resolve what you are experiencing.

Re: I cannot ever get my colors even close -PRO-200

jrhoffman75 — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 11:39:15 GMT

@abrnchoodart wrote:

Hello,

I have had a Pro-200 for a number of years. I simply cannot get accurate color in my prints. Ever. Now they are wildly inaccurate. I have done all of the recommended cleaning and everything appears normal in those prints, but as soon as I go to make fine art prints using Canon paper, no go.

Note, I am using Photoshop and create print images there. I have made them in RGB and CMYK. They are all terrible. I have the most recent driver and the most recent OS on my Mac Desktop. I never can find my printer listed in Photoshop. I have also used the selection of Use Photoshop to Manage Color AND Use Printer to Manage Color. No difference.

I reinstalled the printer driver today. When I pull up my printers and scanners window, it says that I have Canon PRO-200 series 2 installed, model Canon Pro 200 series AirPrint, Driver version 40.

If anyone could offer advice, I would be so thankful. This has been a very expensive printing experience with minimal success.

You seem to have multiple problems.

1. the AirPrint driver is very limited and won't let you get the Canon ICC profiles for your printer. Reinstall the printer and wait till the Canon IJ Series print driver appears; it could take several minutes.

2. Even the AirPrint version of the printer should show up when you go to select a printer in Photoshop. You say your printer doesn't show up but then you say you are choosing how to manage color when printing. That is confusing.

Re: I cannot ever get my colors even close -PRO-200

abrnchoodart — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 13:03:52 GMT

Thank you. I will look for the full driver. I thought that was what i had installed.

Re: I cannot ever get my colors even close -PRO-200

abrnchoodart — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 13:09:09 GMT

Sorry. That was not written well. I am not a tech person and make mistakes.

When I go to print in PS, at printer set up, I DO see my printer. Under Color Handling, If I leave it on Printer Manages Colors, and click on print, even after adjusting Print Settings, it prints terribly. If I click on Photoshop Manages Colors, My Printer Profile is not there. It was not there when I installed a driver again this past summer, when I was having difficulties. And it is still not there, after installing a new printer driver yesterday, which apparently is the Air Print Driver. And it prints terribly.

Re: I cannot ever get my colors even close -PRO-200

abrnchoodart — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 13:28:55 GMT

Could you tell me which driver is the 'full driver' and which is the one for 'Air Print'? I'm sorry; I see a lot of drivers but none specify Air Print.

Re: I cannot ever get my colors even close -PRO-200

jrhoffman75 — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 13:35:07 GMT

Select add printer in Printers & Scanners. Wait several minutes. You should see Canon IJ Series printer appear. Select that one. Then delete the AirPrint version.

Re: I cannot ever get my colors even close -PRO-200

abrnchoodart — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 14:01:44 GMT

Unfortunately that printer does not show up. The only printer that appears is Canon PRO 200 series.

Re: I cannot ever get my colors even close -PRO-200

jrhoffman75 — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 14:19:10 GMT

Post a phone picture or screenshot of what you are getting.

Re: I cannot ever get my colors even close -PRO-200

Stephen — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 14:20:37 GMT

Hello!

Try using this: https://canon.us/PRO200Setup

It's the software that you'd usually run when you first set up the printer.

It should automatically uninstall/re-install whatever it needs to make the printer work as it should. If it doesn't, let us know.

Re: I cannot ever get my colors even close -PRO-200

abrnchoodart — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 14:47:00 GMT

Re: I cannot ever get my colors even close -PRO-200

abrnchoodart — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 14:48:37 GMT

I just installed this software (I installed it yesterday as well). This screenshot shows the printer that appears. I believe this has the Air Print Function. Not sure if I should add it again or not.

Re: I cannot ever get my colors even close -PRO-200

jrhoffman75 — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 15:18:39 GMT

It is the AirPrint version. For some reason the Canon driver isn’t showing up. Is your printer connected via USB? Did you try Stephen's site?

Re: I cannot ever get my colors even close -PRO-200

abrnchoodart — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 15:49:29 GMT

It's a wireless connection. And yes, I did try Stephen's site. I installed the software. The screenshot is what appears.

Re: I cannot ever get my colors even close -PRO-200

jrhoffman75 — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 16:25:04 GMT

This is what I have. You should call Canon support at 1-800-OK-CANON. Register your product if you haven't done that already.

Re: I cannot ever get my colors even close -PRO-200

jrhoffman75 — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 18:51:24 GMT

This is the driver you downloaded? And you double clicked it to install it? Then you went to add the printer?

Re: I cannot ever get my colors even close -PRO-200

abrnchoodart — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 22:26:22 GMT

I did download that, along with others ( I tried multiple drivers bc I wasn’t sure which one to use). That one did not seem to show up after installing it, but I can try again.

I have had some luck with my laptop and making a sort of okay print today, so something worked. I have no idea what. But when I print from my desktop the prints still don’t look right. But maybe I need to just keep installing, deleting, and installing.

Re: I cannot ever get my colors even close -PRO-200

Chumchingee — Mon, 10 Feb 2025 01:07:57 GMT

Check your ICC Profiles. Chances are that is where the problem is. I have noticed that other companies have registered profiles such as Red River Papers. Such as HP Photopapers Glossy and one for Matte.

I also notice the Canon Papers do not register with ICC Profiles from other papers. There is a simple test using an old photographer's tool called the MacBeth Chart which is a number of different colors including various skin tones.

Personally I am learning to use an alternate program that fixes jpgs automatically for dpi, camera mistakes in focus and in adjusting the image for poor resolution, all of which various jpgs have a lot in common with.

I have been playing with Canon Pro-200 because they put it on sale this year in the fall. Personally I like the Hi-gloss Hi Res papers that Canon puts out. I have used various printers with the free Macbeth color chart and most of it is coming out fairly accurate. But I have used a lot of various cameras over the years. I started using a Nikon F I bought in South Korea. Then I followed up with a Polaroid 180 which had very fast black and white and 75 ASA color. That did give me an accurate idea of what I was dealing with under most lighting conditions. A parallel 64 Kodak slide film was fairly close to the 75 color polaroid.

Canon has some features on the Pro-200 with their saturation prints that no on else has.

I suggest you set it up as a wired usb printer. That might make a difference. Or not.

I also discovered my brother HL-L8360 Color Laser puts out some decent files for indexing. But basically I use the photo setting on that machine with plain ordinary hi-brightness paper. This ancient machine is not as greedy as the more modern printers as far as getting some cheap prints with good color.

Re: I cannot ever get my colors even close -PRO-200

abrnchoodart — Mon, 10 Feb 2025 15:06:33 GMT

Agree, I I have never seen Canon papers listed in Photoshop ICC Profiles. Currently it defaults to SRGB IEC61966-2.1. I don't want to go through each ICC Profile to find the one that has the right colors. When you do the macbeth chart, how does that work?

I can't wire in the printer. It has to be in another room.

I'm currently using Canon papers just to stay within brand.

Re: I cannot ever get my colors even close -PRO-200

abrnchoodart — Mon, 10 Feb 2025 15:08:04 GMT

I just reinstalled this driver this morning. Strangely it comes up as an AirPrint driver. Can't seem to get rid of it.