topic Re: Pixma Pro 100 color issues for a newbie in Professional Photo Printers

Pixma Pro 100 color issues for a newbie

downtuned88 — Tue, 05 Mar 2019 17:07:30 GMT

Hello everyone, thanks for letting me join the community! I am an amateur photographer who recently bought the Pixma Pro 100 printer, and love it, but I have experienced a few issues with the color output. When I print out a photo I have taken with colors in the green, red, orange and yellow spectrum, the picture seems to look very flat and overly yellow/orange (seem to lack the contrast that the screen shows). Blues, blacks, and grays seem to be great, but I am looking for the best way to print exactly how I see it in Lightroom or Photoshop. Maybe I haven't messed around with the settings enough to see how to perform this (change the sRGB settings, softproofing, or a way to simulate on screen how it will look when printed, not sure the technical term for that). I was told that Print Studio Pro was a great way to print at the highest quality, but also told that the Lightroom print options are better than PSP, so im a bit confused on what to do.

My paper settings are correct, as well as everything in the printer properties themselves, and I believe I need to take it a step further and understand what I am doing in either Lightroom or another software.

Also, when I did try to install Print Studio Pro, it gave me an error saying "a verision of photoshop supported by PSP is not installed. a sup[ported verision of Adobe Photoshop, Elements, or Lightroom is required to install the plug-in for PSP." Not sure how to fix that either; does this come down to having the plugin and main printer files in the same folder?

Re: Pixma Pro 100 color issues for a newbie

jrhoffman75 — Wed, 06 Mar 2019 00:46:01 GMT

Welcome to the Fourm.

1. what operating system

2. what version of Photoshop

3. PSP is good for setting all the correct "switches" when you go to print. More useful for PS than LR, becasue LR is very straight forward.

Download the test image in the link and print it. As the site says, do not make any adjustments, regardless of how the image looks on screen. Simply open the image and print it.

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

Once you've done that come back, report how the image looks, and answer 1 & 2.

Re: Pixma Pro 100 color issues for a newbie

downtuned88 — Wed, 06 Mar 2019 21:58:20 GMT

Thanks JR, and I was looking through the forums and you seem to have all the good answers!

OS: windows 10

Photoshop Version 20.0.3

Lightroom Version 8.2.

I will download the image when i get home and give it a test run, do I need to download the .TIF version? If I right click and save the image, I do not believe I am getting a large enough picture, but I guess I can work with that too; just not sure if it has to be jpeg or if the .TIF will be fine to test.

I may need help figuring out how to get PSP installed; I keep getting the error message saying the version of Photoshop I have is not supported by PSP, or something along those lines. I also noticed that I do not believe PSP folder was not installed in the same place as my other Canon folders/drivers.

Re: Pixma Pro 100 color issues for a newbie

jrhoffman75 — Wed, 06 Mar 2019 22:37:06 GMT

Download the TIFF.

Re: Pixma Pro 100 color issues for a newbie

downtuned88 — Thu, 07 Mar 2019 01:20:21 GMT

Ok, so I downloaded and printed the .TIFF, as well as read the article, and a few issues were identified; some of them confirmed my suspicions. on the bottom left, the red is orange to me, the blue is purple, and the regular green is a hunter dark green, and so on so forth. also, there is banding (?) on the middle green and blue strips. for the RGB blocks, the blue and green in the middle top squares kinda blend together and arent really discernable between a few of them. the asian girl is yellow, as well as the olive colored baby. the red rocks are very faint orange instead of vibrant, the yellow trees are more of a flat yellow, and the strawberries are very faint almost orange and flat, not vibrant like the .TIFF file and my monitor. the blending of black, gray, white looks good; all of the darker colors seem to do well, and there is no rings or banding with the sunset, so at least that seems to work ok. But yes, when I print fall colors (red, orange, green) everything seems flat, and this seems to confirm my suspicions. Do you have a suggestion on what can be done about this?

Re: Pixma Pro 100 color issues for a newbie

jrhoffman75 — Thu, 07 Mar 2019 02:37:43 GMT

I'm involved in something this evening, so can’t give a long response till tomorrow. Can you at least run a nozzle check and verify that printer is working okay?

Re: Pixma Pro 100 color issues for a newbie

jrhoffman75 — Thu, 07 Mar 2019 03:44:23 GMT

Installing PSP

https://community.usa.canon.com/t5/Professional-Photo-Printers/Studio-Pro-plug-in-not-working-with-Adobe-s-latest-CC-updates/td-p/257845

Re: Pixma Pro 100 color issues for a newbie

downtuned88 — Thu, 07 Mar 2019 17:45:50 GMT

Yes sir, I ran the check and everything seemed to be working just fine. Do you think PSP and its color selections/options will allow me correct the issues I am having?

Re: Pixma Pro 100 color issues for a newbie

jrhoffman75 — Thu, 07 Mar 2019 20:25:13 GMT

Print Studio Pro will ensure all your settings are correct, but won’t do anything you can’t do without PSP.

Let’s try with Lightroom. In the Print module at the bottom select Printer Manages Color abd on right side select Printer Settings and in the printer driver select the Canon paper you are using. Then print the test image.

Here are the settings (I chose A3+ and Photo Paper Pro Luster):

Re: Pixma Pro 100 color issues for a newbie

downtuned88 — Fri, 08 Mar 2019 03:48:16 GMT

Ok so I got home and tried to make sure my plug-in was installed in the correct location. I followed the link you posted a few responses ago, and the location does not seem to be the same as mine. Here are my adobe paths (I have 1 in program files and another in program files 86):

So I do not actually see a photoshop folder, but the Lightroom Classic CC is there, so I click it, and is this where the PSP should be installed in?:

as stated, i also have this adobe folder in program files 86, but it does not appear to have the folders I need to be working with for PSP install, but let me know if I am wrong:

when using the PSP installer, and I get to the portion where I have to choose photoshop (or lightroom), the next button will be grayed out for all options, so I just want to make sure I browse to the correct folder, and maybe that is my problem with the plug in not being available for me?

and finally, here were/are my print settings. All look to be close to the same as yours, but i have the borderless printing and color/intensity manual adjustment clicked, please let me know if those need to be removed. I have wasted soooo much ink and paper testing this out to try and get it right, and I will continue to do so, however I thought I would just ask first.

I did not see an option in lightroom for "printer manages color." I chose the paper settings I did because it is the exact paper I am actually using (Semi Gloss, A3).

Maybe TMI, but I wanted to make sure you had all the info. Please let me know if this helps in determining how I can get PSP installed, and/or if I just need to switch up a few options in my current Lightroom or printer settings. Thank you!!

Re: Pixma Pro 100 color issues for a newbie

jrhoffman75 — Fri, 08 Mar 2019 11:33:16 GMT

I'll work this in stages.

Since you are in Lightroom and are comfortable choosing ICC profiles I'll post what you need to check.

In the printer driver click through and verify that:

Main->Manual->Set->Matching->None. That turns off color management in the printer and lets LR control.

Borderless shouldn't matter, but I never print borderless.

If you aren't getting a good print of the test image with that setup, and with a good nozzle check, then I can't explain what is going on and you should give Canon a call at 1-800-OK-CANON.

I'll go ver the folders in the next post.

Re: Pixma Pro 100 color issues for a newbie

jrhoffman75 — Fri, 08 Mar 2019 11:47:45 GMT

Verify that you have the latest version of PSP (2.2.3)

In Ligjtroom the plugin is in the Modules folder.

For Photoshop, when you get to the page you have showing select Browse. The file location is shown in this screen shot:

It's in the Plugin folder.

Are you able to select PSP in Lightroom? File->Plun-in Extras

I see from one of your folders that you've been to Iceland. We've been twice. Great place.

Re: Pixma Pro 100 color issues for a newbie

downtuned88 — Fri, 08 Mar 2019 19:49:57 GMT

John, you are a genious! I was able to get PSP working now on both Lightroom and Photoshop. Thank you so much! You deserve an award for all your help! Now I will watch some youtube videos on how to set up my color profiles and tweaking to get my photos to print out correctly. Thanks again!

Yes, my wife and I went to Iceland 2 years ago, and it's really what got me into taking pictures. So amazing over there; can't wait to go back!

Re: Pixma Pro 100 color issues for a newbie

downtuned88 — Sat, 09 Mar 2019 02:37:51 GMT

Do you know if there is a section in PSP to allow me to upload my watermark on the print (like in lightroom)?

Re: Pixma Pro 100 color issues for a newbie

jrhoffman75 — Sat, 09 Mar 2019 12:02:52 GMT

No , it doesn’t.

Since you you know how to work inside the printer driver to control color management and select ICC profiles in Lightroom I see no advantage to using Print Studio Pro. Plus, you lose the output printing module of Lightroom.

My advice would be install the XPS printer driver and print from Lightroom using the XPS printer.

Re: Pixma Pro 100 color issues for a newbie

downtuned88 — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 00:16:11 GMT

I do have the XPS printer installed, I just wasn't sure what benefit the XPS printer has over the regular printer. Since you have been so helpful, I might as well ask, should I be using the XPS printer instead of the regular option?

Also, aside from using PSP's "pattern print" features to hone in on the correct colors, I do not necessarily know how to control the color management and profiles in Lightroom. Is there a way for me to go into the printer properties to set the color correction?

Re: Pixma Pro 100 color issues for a newbie

jrhoffman75 — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 15:05:37 GMT

Good morning.

When I first got my printer I ran a little test using the Outbackphoto test image. Four prints - Lightroom, Print Studio Pro, LR+XPS version, PSP + XPS verison. I didn't really notice any difference at 13x19. I fianlized on using the XPS version printer and printing from Lightroom. XPS driver transfer data in 16-bit; maybe there are subtle transition differences in colors that aren't dramatically obvious, but since I don't have anydownside with using the XPS driver I use it - it can't hurt.

I think you are doing this based on earlier posts, but here is a screenshot showing how to control color management via Lightroom:

On the right hand side of LR you choose your paper ICC profile in the dropdown. On the lefthand side of LR when you click Page Setup and the printer driver opens you select the media (paper) type and click through color adjustment and set matching to None.

You can also print the test pattern that you see in PSP via the driver. Any desried color adjustmenst can be made and you can save agroup of settings that you can recall at any time.:

I'm not saying not to use PSP but I am showing that you don't need PSP. PSP just makes it easier to manipulate driver settings.

Re: Pixma Pro 100 color issues for a newbie

downtuned88 — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 23:05:15 GMT

Once again, thank you! I had no idea you could adjust the color variations in Lightroom's print module. It does seem that is not really a reason to even use PSP now that I know this. Thank you for taking the time to teach me this John.

-Taylor