Color Management

[KarlKrueger]

I have a MX922 printer which prints nice photos but when you compare them with my calibrated monitor the colors are a bit off. Green in particular has some yellow in it making it brownish. Is there any way do color correction with this printer, like using an ICC profile, or is that limited to better printers like thePixma Pro series?

[jrhoffman75]

First you need to decide if its the monitor or the printer.  Read this article and print the test image and then report back on the results.

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

Are you using canon photo paper; which one?

[KarlKrueger]

Thank you for the tips John.

I downloaded and printed that image and printed it out. First off I used Epson glossy photo paper but get qualitativley the same results using HP Premioum Plus photo paper. The colors come out exactly the same on both papers.

On the printed test image everything looks great. I see no defects as they describe. Its hard to see the 4 black square and 253 white square but I can barely make them out. 2 and 254 I really cannot distinguish.

Doing the same obsesvations on my monitor is the same thing. BTW I have a Samsung S22C300 monitor. Everything looks great on the monitor (which I calibrated earlier this week with a Spyder Pro 5). Comparing the monitor with the print there is a slight more brightness in the monitor's colors. Green shows the most deviation in the print being a bit duller.

Doing this test made me design my own test since color reproducibility is what I'm really after. I went to Home Depot and picked a bunch of paint chip samples with gradations of different colors. I laid them all out, took a couple pictures (with and without flash since it was a bit cloudy still), and then analyzed them on my monitor and the corresponding prints.

First the colors on the monitor were shifted but I could fairly well correct it by moving the temperature of the photo from 5450 to 13250 so they became warmer. Doing that most colors matched to my liking on the monitor as far as duplicating the standards which I compared side by side.

The prints of these photos again showed the usual shift to a warmer trend. Darker reds matched the best on the prints.

[jrhoffman75]

Wow, if you are getting the full range of brightness from 4 to 253 that's great. I would suggest that you try some Canon paper since the ICC profiles will be exact. I am guessing that the Epson paper doesn't have a profile for the Canon printer, and most likely the HP paper doesn't either. 

If if you have a supply of the third party papers a comparison with Canon Platimum Pro would let you know if it's worth having a custom profile made or if they are good as is. At the least you'll have three samples to choose which you like best. 

I use Canon papers along with Red River. RR has profiles for Canon printers and you can get a sample pack of a number of papers. 

If if you like the prints but the monitor is brighter you can turn the monitor down a little. Ideally your work area is such that minimal to no light is falling on the monitor surface. I have my monitor set at 80 cd/m^2. 

[KarlKrueger]

John,

I'll give the Canon papers a try. Somehow I doubt that will correct what I'm after since the prints don't match the color. They come close but the greens have a bit brownish/yellowish cast to them. I was amazed myself how well the printer did with this test photo but there is a slight shift in colors, especially greens and yellows.

I'm wondering if its because I'm using a all in one printer. It only has 4 inks so how good can the color gamut be? I can't find anywhere to get an ICC profile for this printer.

Do you have any experience how a PixmaPro 100 would do in comparison with its 8 colors? I would think it would manage better, especially with lighter tones where I see the MX922 tend to be darker. And I have found where to get ICC profiles for the Pro-100.

I apprieciate the help.

Karl

[jrhoffman75]

Hi Karl.

Red River says they have profiles for their paper and the MX922; you could contact them to be sure.

http://www.redrivercatalog.com/profiles/canon-mg5420-printer-color-profiles.html

I get great correlation with the Pro-100. More inks probably help, but I would hold off on any conclusion until you try the Canon paper. I don't think you will find profiles for the Epson or HP papers since they are priner naufactures, jut like I've never seen profiles for Canon papers on Epson printer.

You could also fine tune the printer in the driver:

[KarlKrueger]

John,

I bought some 4x6 sheets of the Canon Plus Glossy II paper. The first picture I printed was a nature shot I have been using as my standard. Surprisingly the bright green came out more brownish than the HP or Epson papers! The detail looked better however giving me a sharper image where fine detail was present.

Then I printed out a picture of the graded paint color samples I got (took this picture in good sunlight). Some colors weren't too bad like purple, blue and red getting the right shade but the printer didn't get as dark as it should or with the lighter shades it was always darker. So the intermediate intensities matched fairly well. Where it deviated from the original colors was in the browns, yellows and most notably greens.

The MX922 does not have a way to manually adjust different colors like you show above for the Pixma Pro 100. This is exactly what I have been inquiring about. I don't think you have room to play with the MX922 especially since the Glossy II paper is one you can pick from the menu. I would not be surprised if the Pixma Pro-100 offers better color matching, particularly for the lighter tones since the extra inks favor lighter intensities.

So are we coming to the conclusion that the Pro100 offers better versatility for color matching? Otherwise I will be fighting a challenge to get authentic green tones in my pictures - something a wildlife photographer needs to have. The way I see it the MX922 is intended for general home/office use. We probably shouldn't expect it to perform at the same level as a photographic printer.

[jrhoffman75]

Hi Karl. My Pixma 472 has a color adjustment capability. Are you sure the 922 doesn't?

If you print the pattern test it lists the adjustment applied to each test image; you select the one that is most pleasing and dial in that adjustment.

The Pro-100 is a dedicated photo printer. As you stated the 922 is a general purpose printer; the reviews give it good marks for photos, but it won't approach any dedicated photo printer with 6+ inks.

The 922 has pigment black ink and dye color inks. I'm not sure about the 922, but many printers with that configuration use the pigment black for text and the three dye inks for color.

Canon periodically runs promotions for the Pro-100 where you can get the printer for $150 after rebate. An outstanding deal.

[KarlKrueger]

John,

With my 922 I can get a window looking like Printing Preferences window you have but I cannot get to anything to do color management. The 922 actually uses 4 dye ink tanks - the 4th being black. It has a large black cartridge for text. Its been a great printer and trouble free which is why buy Canon.

There is a current deal now where you can effectively get the Pro 100 for $150 and that is the way I'm leaning. That is virtually the price of the ink alone, something I will have to buy anyway regardless what printer I use. So I'm leaning now on going that route and hopefully upgrade the quality of photos I can produce. While $150 is more than the ink for the 922, the additional ink cartridges should mean less frequent replacements as additional cartridges are carrying a good part of the load.

Thank you for all your help.

[2patbounce]

HOW DID YOU GET THE PREFERENCES TO COME UP?