I'm absolutely thrilled that I've been able to replace my old Pixma ip6600D dye-ink printer with a new Pro-10. However, I was dismayed that the new printer settings do not have a simple "Vivid" check box like the older printer.
Without it, color-managed prints come out "naturally saturated" on any of the wonderful ICC-profiled papers I've tried even when I want them artificially popping with saturation. Here's an analogy for us old guys: despite the monitor displaying Velvia-like saturation, the print comes out with relatively subdued Kodachrome-like saturation.
BTW, this difference shows up in the excellent "Print Preview" function. Is any of this a failing of the Pro-10 or for that matter any other pigment-ink printer? Nope! It's simply the way pigment inks perform versus dye inks.
So, lacking a "Vivid" check box, what's the fix? On another forum a member suggested going back into the image editor and pumping the color saturation way up by 30 points! (BTW, when you do this, you'll want to save the modified file with new file name to protect the original)
I tried it. What I saw on the screen scared me! I couldn't believe the garish image would print well. Yet, it did beautifully. In fact, depending on your photo editing software, you might even want to go as high as 40 color saturation points to get the saturation "pop" you're looking for.
If you, too, have been missing the "Vivid" check box, give this fix a try. I think you'll be glad you did.
(Pssst! Hey, Canon software guys . . . Really! Where's the "Vivid" function? Put it back in, please!)
