topic Re: Print Studio Pro not working with XPS printer driver in Professional Photo Printers

Print Studio Pro not working with XPS printer driver

PeterD — Sun, 03 Jan 2016 04:09:11 GMT

After changing to Windows 10 OS I'm finding the Print Studio Pro software will not print when the 16 bit XPS driver is selected. When the final print command is given the image data loading indicator loads and then the program feezes and doesn't allow the user to cancel printing or exit the program and a reset of the PC is required to exiit the program.

With the same software and image file the printing proceeds normally if the standard PRO100 printer driver (8 bit type) is selected.

It is possible to print a Windows test sheet using the XPS driver straight from the Windows printer driver test facility but printing fails when the image is loaded into Adobe CS5 and then opened in the Canon Print Studio Pro plug in for printing.

Currently I'm using the updated drivers (Canon Pro100 and Pro100 XPS) for Windows 10 and Print Studio Pro version 1.4.1 for Windows 10.

Print Studio Pro not working with XPS printer driver

PeterD — Sun, 03 Jan 2016 05:15:46 GMT

Further to my last post regarding freezing of Print Studio Pro when attempting to print using the XPS driver (16 bit) I can advise that I have also since installed the latest version (vers 2.0.0 for Windows 10) and find that the fault I'm experiencing remains unchanged from vers 1..4.1 (updated for Windows 10).

Both versions of this software enable 8 bit printing using the standard driver vers 1.05 (for Windows10) but freeze on the final print command if the XPS 16 bit driver (vers 5.85a) is used.

Re: Print Studio Pro not working with XPS printer driver

jrhoffman75 — Sun, 03 Jan 2016 13:25:52 GMT

This doesn't solve your problem Peter, but I have tested direct Lightroom printing with regular and XPS driver and Lightroom through PSP with regular and XPS driver.

I could see no difference in print quality. This is consistent with many threads on the Internet.

Re: Print Studio Pro not working with XPS printer driver

ebiggs1 — Sun, 03 Jan 2016 14:22:25 GMT

My Win 10 also locked up when I first tried the XPS driver but I re-downloaded it. Reinstalled it. It now works as it should.

I am using Photoshop 6 and Lightroom 6.3. I rarely use the Canon software but the XPS driver works with it also.

As to the question, it is better? In a word, yes, it is. But it isn't better for every print. I also use AdobeRGB. Is it better? In a word, yes, it is. Will you see it one every print? No, you won't. Prints are too different and subjective.

If the print has a lot of blue for instance, the graduation between shades is smoother. The AdobeRGB color space maybe larger than the range of the Pro-100 but the steps between shades in the colors it can produce is smoother. It is more gradual.

It is slight, I admit but there never-the-less.

Delete all your drivers. Completely! You must get rid of every trace of the old driver. If you don't it will still fail. Reinstall new d/ls. Do not turn on the printer until you are told to do so. BTW, Task Mgr, will/should shut down the XPS lock up instead of a computer restart.

Re: Print Studio Pro not working with XPS printer driver

PeterD — Sun, 03 Jan 2016 22:03:41 GMT

Thanks for that observation John.

Possibly the best article I've read on the subject of 16 bit verses 8 bit printing is this one by Mike Chany :

http://www.steves-digicams.com/knowledge-center/hype-or-hero-take-2-16-bit-printers.html

It would appear that the saturated cyan/green are the colours to look out for when comparing prints, even so the limitations imposed at the image capture end (camera sensor) of the whole process look likely to have already limted what is available in the image file for that part of the colour spectrum.

A print I made recently using the 8 bit driver and featuring mainly yellow to red colours with greys and light blues in the sky part of the image is indistinguishable from the older 16 bit image that I made before changing the OS to Windows 10.

Both prints where made with a colour space of Adobe RBG1998 (16 bit tiff) and I've yet to see what happens if the colour space is expanded to Adobe Pro Photo for printing.

The new 2.0.0 version of Studio Print Pro does have some nice addtional features including a soft proofing tick box option that clearly shows the difference between Perceptual and Relative Colorimetric rendering for example.

Re: Print Studio Pro not working with XPS printer driver

jrhoffman75 — Sun, 03 Jan 2016 22:20:30 GMT

Interesting article Peter.

I do almost all my editing and all my printing using Lightroom. With that workflow I agree with ebiggs1 that PSP adds very little to the game.

But, many posts on the forum deal with printing from Photoshop. Based on the informative PS printing guide posts by ebiggs1 PS looks more complicated. Adding in Mac OS increases that. PSP does a great job of ensuring all the correct "switches" are thrown.

But, like almost any plugin, it doesn't do anything an experienced user can't do.

It just saves reinventing the wheel. At least in my opinion.

Re: Print Studio Pro not working with XPS printer driver

ebiggs1 — Sun, 03 Jan 2016 22:35:13 GMT

Not being a Mac user, you guys have it all over me there. But I suppose growing old with PS helps. I will say Canon is making improvements in both DPP and PSP. Some are very good. They just can't seem to get over the top.

Re: Print Studio Pro not working with XPS printer driver

PeterD — Sun, 03 Jan 2016 22:50:01 GMT

Hi ebiggs1,

Great to hear from someone who has experienced the same problem as I currently have.

Thank you very much for your interest and suggestions to resolve the issue.

I did in fact uninstall the drivers using "control panel" as recommended in the Canon driver notes accompanying the software.

According to them the XPS driver can only be removed by this method if the standard driver is removed, ie. removal of the XPS driver by itself is not an option. I also checked under "device manager" that the Pro100 printer option had been removed.

I then reinstalled the latest drivers and do recall disconnecting and reconnecting the printer USB cable as part of this proceedure.

It is possible I made a mistake though and didn't follow exactly the same proceedure for the instalation of the XPS driver (also there were frequent interuptions to my internet connection during the day that I did the downloads) so I'll repeat the whole proceedure soon and report back to this forum.

Re: Print Studio Pro not working with XPS printer driver

jrhoffman75 — Sun, 03 Jan 2016 22:53:47 GMT

Hi Peter. When you initially install the Canon driver you need to have USB disconnected until installation tells you to connect. For XPS driver you just double click and let it install. No need to unplug USB.

Re: Print Studio Pro not working with XPS printer driver

PeterD — Mon, 04 Jan 2016 08:47:58 GMT

Sadly I've done the uninstall and reinstall to the best of my ability two more times following all the recommended proceedures regarding disconnecting the printer etc., all without success.

BTW I've also found that once the printer freezes just after the final print box is ticked in the PSP program it is not possible to cancel the printing of the document from the Windows Device Manager as it seems to be stuck in a spooling loop and only a shut down or restart of the OS seems to unfreeze the program.

Interestingly I can print an XPS driver test page from the Canon utility "My Printer" troubleshooter and it shows all 5 possible eroors that it can diagnose are clear of problems.

I'll contact my Canon national agent here in New Zealand when they return from the holiday break to see if they can unravel this problem. All the driver updates etc that I've loaded for Windows 10 are from the Canon NZ website so should not conflict with my printer.

Re: Print Studio Pro not working with XPS printer driver

PeterD — Mon, 04 Jan 2016 23:59:22 GMT

Hi again ebiggs1,

As you seem to have been having sucess with Windows 10 and the XPS driver I have to ask whether you are using CS6 in Windows 7 compatability mode or straight with Winows 10 (it is a feature of Windows 10 that you can run older programs with a previous wersion of Windows OS). I'm currently running CS5 and Adobe support for that version stopped ages ago.

Also I got a message window during the reinstallation of the Canon standard printer driver that informed my that the the software was removing a previous driver version. This seemed at odds with the fact that I'd already manually removed the previous driver using "control panel" and checked that the Canon Pro 100 printer was no longer showing in the Device Manager section of the OS.

The Canon software consultant here in New Zealand was encouraging me to contact Microsoft for their thoughts on the driver removal issue.

Microsoft's technical advice was to check that my motherboard drivers (and even the Bios) were compatable with Windows 10.

The plot thickens.

Re: Print Studio Pro not working with XPS printer driver

jrhoffman75 — Tue, 05 Jan 2016 04:08:51 GMT

I wouldn't be surprised if the previous driver removal step isn't built into the driver installation software. The step executes, removes the old driver if it's there, continues on if it isn't.

Re: Print Studio Pro not working with XPS printer driver

PeterD — Sun, 10 Jan 2016 10:25:56 GMT

Hi John,

I appreciate your interest but can only report at this stage that I've failed to get Windows 10 and the XPS driver for the Pro100 printerto work together and have I've accepted the possibility that it may never work.

I now make sure that I do not print files with a wider colour space than RGB1998 and so far I've have not had banding problems.

On the advice of Microsoft (because I have a custom built PC) I've updated one of the motherboard drivers but will not be flashing the Bios for Windows10 because of the possibility of real problems.

I also seem to be having problems now with my X Rite i1Dispay 2 monitor calibrator not actually recording the new profile properly as when I restart my PC it is advising that the profile it has just made is not installed.

Re: Print Studio Pro not working with XPS printer driver

jrhoffman75 — Sun, 10 Jan 2016 12:25:11 GMT

Hi Peter. I upgraded to W10 and downgraded back to W7 for that exact same reason. My X Rite monitor profile wouldn't load. I could do it manually but each time computer restarted I had to repeat process. And I never saw any advantage to W10.

My exact problem was that W10 wouldn't recognize my monitor as a generic plug and play monitor. It reported unknown monitor. I initially thought it was because It was an older LaCie.

I've seen others report same problem on Internet.

Re: Print Studio Pro not working with XPS printer driver

ebiggs1 — Sun, 10 Jan 2016 18:15:42 GMT

The XPS printer driver and PSP work as they should on my Dell Win10 machine so it will work. Sorry I can't offer further advice because I have no idea why it doesn't on yours.

Re: Print Studio Pro not working with XPS printer driver

PeterD — Sun, 10 Jan 2016 21:20:29 GMT

Hi ebiggs1,

I'm thinking that you may have answered the question about the combatibility of Windows 10 in your latest post, namely that because you have a PC made by a known manufacturer (Dell) the Windows 10 OS is fully compatable without further intervention.

When I spoke to a Microsoft technical advisor about my problems she immediately asked which commercial brand of PC I was using and advised that reverting to Windows 7 might be my prefered option if I was using a custom built machine.

I'm using custom built PC with a Gigabyte Z87-HD3 Ultra durable motherboard with Intel i7 processor and DDR3 RAM totaling 32Gb with a 240Gb SSD ie. a PC built around the requirements of Photoshop.

When questioned further she admitted that Win 10 as released was designed for known brands as far as the drivers and BIOS were concerned and that I might have to consider upgrading these if I wished to persist with Win10. These upgrades are available for my motherboard and so far I've loaded one new driver but as indicated in my last post I'm reluctant to flash a new BIOS without a lot more research.

Once again thank you for your interest.

Re: Print Studio Pro not working with XPS printer driver

PeterD — Sun, 10 Jan 2016 22:04:34 GMT

Hi John,

Wow thanks for that. The murk is clearing as regards the culprit here. As you will see in my reply to ebiggs1 according to Microsoft these problems are likely to arise with Win10 installation into custom PC's and it's evident from my experience so far that Microsoft are certainly aware of this.

A shame that they didn't post clear warnings alongside their very persistant invitations to upgrade.

Although it is possible that I needed a reinstall of Win 7 before changing but I did find that after installing Win10 the stability of Photoshop CS5 was improved.

I'll dig into this further over the coming weeks as my son is employed in the computer industry on the front line with customers and may be able to make suggestions from feedback at his workplace.

Peter