Howdy y'all,
I recently picked up a G4280 to print out some materials for tabletop gaming (a mix between document-style pages with colored headers and tables, and more graphic-focused components such as maps and cards with detailed art). I'm loving the features and ink life so far, but I'm having an issue with print colors not matching what I see on my desktop monitor. I'm new to "real" printers, as my last printer was a $35 Pixma TS3322, so I'm not sure what I need to do to get color accurate prints. With the TS3322, it seemed I could just click print with everything set to Auto/Default and my prints would come out fairly accurate.
I've attached a photo below showing a scan of the printout with "default/auto" settings (the colors on this scan are fairly accurate to how the printout appears to the human eye). Below that, I have attached a screenshot of the image/file I am attempting to print.
The major issues I would like addressed are:
- The overall image is 'washed out'. The terrain dots at the center of the map are much lighter, with some completely disappearing. The dark colors are all heavily desaturated.
- The color tone for certain colors is completely off. The water area in the top right is the most obvious offender, with the warmer 'aquamarine' color replaced by a very different shade of teal. Some of the other colors look a little off, but not in a way that bothers me (besides the overall desaturation of the image).
I've tried messing around with the settings a little bit, like setting the media type to the correct setting (cardstock in this case) and manually adjusting the Color/Intensity settings and setting 'Matching' to ICM or Driver Matching (I was able to improve saturation by making the image 'darker', but couldn't get anywhere close to matching the colors).
I did do all of the fist-time setup steps for print head alignment, and these printouts are on "Astrobrights Premium Smooth Cardstock", 65lb, 96 bright. For what it's worth, I've also had major issues with desaturation and color matching on Canon glossy photo paper when attempting to print out photos.
I know there are elaborate and expensive ways to ensure my monitor display exactly matches my printer's output, but I feel like there must be a simpler solution in this case. I'm not asking for perfect accuracy, but I was hoping to at least match the quality of my TS3322.
In any case, thank you for reading all of that, and thank you for any input you may be able to provide!
@Onetime wrote:
Howdy y'all,
I recently picked up a G4280 to print out some materials for tabletop gaming (a mix between document-style pages with colored headers and tables, and more graphic-focused components such as maps and cards with detailed art). I'm loving the features and ink life so far, but I'm having an issue with print colors not matching what I see on my desktop monitor. I'm new to "real" printers, as my last printer was a $35 Pixma TS3322, so I'm not sure what I need to do to get color accurate prints. With the TS3322, it seemed I could just click print with everything set to Auto/Default and my prints would come out fairly accurate.
I've attached a photo below showing a scan of the printout with "default/auto" settings (the colors on this scan are fairly accurate to how the printout appears to the human eye). Below that, I have attached a screenshot of the image/file I am attempting to print.
The major issues I would like addressed are:
- The overall image is 'washed out'. The terrain dots at the center of the map are much lighter, with some completely disappearing. The dark colors are all heavily desaturated.
- The color tone for certain colors is completely off. The water area in the top right is the most obvious offender, with the warmer 'aquamarine' color replaced by a very different shade of teal. Some of the other colors look a little off, but not in a way that bothers me (besides the overall desaturation of the image).
I've tried messing around with the settings a little bit, like setting the media type to the correct setting (cardstock in this case) and manually adjusting the Color/Intensity settings and setting 'Matching' to ICM or Driver Matching (I was able to improve saturation by making the image 'darker', but couldn't get anywhere close to matching the colors).
I did do all of the fist-time setup steps for print head alignment, and these printouts are on "Astrobrights Premium Smooth Cardstock", 65lb, 96 bright. For what it's worth, I've also had major issues with desaturation and color matching on Canon glossy photo paper when attempting to print out photos.
I know there are elaborate and expensive ways to ensure my monitor display exactly matches my printer's output, but I feel like there must be a simpler solution in this case. I'm not asking for perfect accuracy, but I was hoping to at least match the quality of my TS3322.
In any case, thank you for reading all of that, and thank you for any input you may be able to provide!
Does your printer driver have the option that I circled in red? If so, you can print a sheet that varies the CYM ratio and pick the one that is closest.
Unfortunately, I do not have that option in my color adjustment settings, but thank you! While searching around the G4000 series manual, I do see that this feature must be available on other printers in the series.
