Canon Pro-10 black and shadows matte vs. glossy

[kgalle]

Hello, I am new to my Canon Pro-10 printer and can't find driver or image adjustments that will give smooth gradation of blacks. I am using InkOwl ink and TurboPrint on Linux with default settings in general. I also tried the Windows driver and from MacOS, with no real difference.

I started with an admittedly cheap glossy paper, "pen&gear glossy." The images seemed fine except for the blacks which had a mottled appearance. See upper right corner of image. I tried adjusting various settings one at a time and none had any effect on this issue. (Image 1)  I decided this was an issue with the paper and switched to some matte inkjet paper that I had from my years-ago attempts using an Epson photo printer, which was from MIS Associates.

With this matte paper, the results are better. If I print to this paper using the glossy paper setting in the driver, I get a reasonable print, though the blacks are not as black as they could be. (Image 2) If I switch to the matte paper setting however, I get a darker print overall, but also one where all the details in the shadows are completely lost and it prints as total black. (Image 3)  For comparison I scanned a grey card and marked on the prints where this grey seemed to match. (Image 4)  Images were scanned without any color correction.Image 1Image 2Image 3Image 4

I plan on ordering paper that matches the choices in the driver, so I'm not guessing on what paper most closing matches the paper I am using. But the switch between matte and glossy seems to have the greatest effect.

Any thoughts on why the shadows on the glossy paper came out so badly?

Any advice on how to correct the image either before printing, or in the printer driver, so I end up with a range of shadows with matte paper?

[jrhoffman75 · Accepted solution]

Hello.

Looks like you are using third party inks, non-Canon paper and a third party printer driver. Far too many variables.

[kgalle]

Fair point, I'll work on reducing the variable count.

[ebiggs1]

I agree with John and the best I can offer is "good luck"!

Great B&W printing is difficult enough without adding variables.