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Grey prints Green on Canon Pixma Pro-100 - HELP!

holmal
Apprentice

I have had a Canon Pixma Pro-100 for a couple months and have had no problems. All of sudden, anything grey is printing as green. I have been searching the web for help and have not been able to come up with anything. I typically print from adobe illustrator, but have tried in Preview and it's no different. 

Any thoughts/ideas/help would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks!!

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

ebiggs1
Legend
Legend

You can not set the printer to match the monitor.  You must set the monitor to match the printer.

 

First, you must not let the printer set anything.  Turn off every bit off control it has.  You can do this with the Canon My Printer under the Printer Settings tab.  Do you know how?  I will guess, yes, for now but if you don't get back to me.

 

Second, you need to have your photo editor (like Photoshop) handle all the print settings and color matching.  You know how to do this? I prefer Photoshop and I use AdobeRGB color space.

 

And lastly, it is essential you get some settings on your monitor that somewhat matches what the printer is printing.  Your printer may be doing exactly what you are telling it to do and you have no idea it is, because your monitor is so far off.  If you don't do this step, you can forget the other steps.  However, there are only a few things that you need to be concerned with. You don't need any fancy extra add-on to do this.  No additional software or gadgets, etc.  No monkeys, no spiders, nothing!

Most people set their monitors too bright.

 

You must get the gray-scale very close.  You need to get the brightness very close and you need the contrast very close.

 

After you do these things you can make adjustments to your prints by just looking at your screen.  Because you know the monitor and printer are on the same level.  One more point, you can NOT get a printer to print every color exactly the way you see it.  It isn't possible as all colors and adjustments effect all others.  My goal is to get the skin tones right.  That is what people notice most. Remember you are dealing with two different disciplines here.  One is colored light and the other is colored dyes.  They are not the same thing.

 

For instance, I know my Pro-100 tends to print slightly darker than what I see on the monitor (typical).  So, I automatically know to set it's prints 1/2 stop brighter in Photoshop, in my case.  It also prints with a slightly warn tone.  Most of the time, with portraits especially, this if OK but sometimes it is not.  In that case I adjust the "temp" setting slightly cooler in PS.

 

Make sure you have the correct ICC profiles and you are using Canon brand ink and paper until you get good with the printer.  Very, very important, otherwise you don't know if the printer is doing exactly what you are telling it to or not.

 

Important is, use the USB connection until everything is right.  You are just adding another issue when you try to set up the printing and the wireless all at the same time.  Just like using Canon branded products until it is a go.  Use a real printer USB cable.  Not just any old USB cable. Get everything right before you explore.

 

EB
EOS 1DX and 1D Mk IV and less lenses then before!

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57 REPLIES 57

pms
Contributor

resume button doesn't bring out the color test

jrhoffman75
Legend
Legend
Give Canon a call at 1-800-OK-CANON.
John Hoffman
Conway, NH

1D X Mark III, Many lenses, Pixma PRO-100, Pixma TR8620a, LR Classic

jrhoffman75
Legend
Legend
What software and operating system are you using?
John Hoffman
Conway, NH

1D X Mark III, Many lenses, Pixma PRO-100, Pixma TR8620a, LR Classic

Hey, thanks for getting back to me! It's a 2019 MacBook running Catalina and I usually print from Lightroom CC Classic but same problem from Photoshop as I recall. I use Red River Papers with the proper profiles And like the other people the gray-as-green-tinted problem started up out of nowhere. I saw someone mention it being fixed by choosing "Photo Paper Plus Semi-Gloss" but it seems weird that that would be the only paper that solved the problem. (And not to complicate this further, but I often find that whatever option I choose in that "Quality & Media" window doesn't "stick"--will revert back to another Canon option as soon as I leave the Print Settings dialogue.

"I usually print from Lightroom CC Classic but same problem from Photoshop..."

 

I see this problem a lot of the time when doing B&W.  Mine tends to have a very slight magenta cast. I also exclusively use PS to print with. Sometimes you can't believe what you are seeing on your monitor. In PS you can adjust indivual colors if need be.  I don't know it the Pro-100 will ever or can ever do true B&W prints but you can get close. For it to do B&W it needs all the cartridges even the color cartridges.  There is no possibile way to get 256 shades of grey with one or two B&W ink cartridges. In your case it appeares green is mor eheavy that it should be. Try adjusting it in PS.  You are letting PS mangae the printer.  Never let the printer manage printing.

 

Just some suggestions. Hope it helps you.

EB
EOS 1DX and 1D Mk IV and less lenses then before!

I was about to go back through the thread to find the instructions for running a nozzle check and perhaps a head cleaning, but it sounds more like a software issue considering that everyone seems to have a problem with the exact same color cast, no? Thanks again!

Nozzle check looked fine, FYI.

Hi Karl.

 

I ran a test print using Red River SemiGloss Fiber. ICC profile from RR; recomended media type Canon Photo Paper Pro Luster.

 

Test image was a B&W test print from Northlight Images.

 

Printer driver is latest download from Canon site - 16.40.1.0 version.

 

Screenshots of settings in LR and printer driver.

 

Monosnap 2020-03-21 06-16-32.jpg

 

Print 2020-03-21 06-17-25.jpg

 

No color cast. Excellent B&W print.

 

You say it started up out of nowhere - where there any system changes to your computer?

 

John Hoffman
Conway, NH

1D X Mark III, Many lenses, Pixma PRO-100, Pixma TR8620a, LR Classic

Hey JR, 

 

Thanks again for going to that trouble. Sorry for the delay, I don't know how to set the Canon site to notify me of new replies. I actually just checked and I have definitely printed (successfully) grayscale images from my Current MacBook, same OS, same printer, etc. I've now tried printing on both Red River UltraPro Satin and Red River Palo Duro Satin but same problem with the green tint. I can counteract it somewhat by leaning heavily to the right on the "Tint" slider, but even with a +20 or so tint adjustment I still get green in the shadows! 


I don't think this has anything to do with it, but for some reason my Quality & Media option (within LR CC print dialogue) seems to want to revert to "Photo Paper Pro Platinum" no matter how many times I change it to "Photo Paper Plus Semi-Gloss" as Red River suggests. 

 

One last note, also probably not the issue (since I haven't always had this issue), but I see you have options under submenu "Printer Features" in the Print dialogue. I don't seem to have that submenu and thus don't choose a paper profile with that. I'm only choosing a profile along the right-hand side of the "Print" menu on the main LR screen. Again, probably unrelated.

 

Thanks so much for continuing to try to help me. Since this is a problem that goes back to 2012 for some people I can't imagine it's a driver issue, but, well, I can't imagine what it is. Going to try a couple more prints of other grayscale images onto other RR papers and see what happens, but from my experience so far, my guess is they'll all come out green.

 

Thanks again,

Karl

jrhoffman75
Legend
Legend
1. I’m looking at a Pro-100 B&W print with no color cast.

2. The Pro-100 has Black, Gray and Light Gray inks.

3. When printing monochrome it is very important to avoid papers with optical brightening agents (OBAs). They react to the light source and produce different color casts depending on the light type.
John Hoffman
Conway, NH

1D X Mark III, Many lenses, Pixma PRO-100, Pixma TR8620a, LR Classic
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