Hi
I really hope someone is able to help me, please. I would like to know if I am doing something wrong here, or if some photos will never print well on certain papers.
I bought the Canon Pro-300 printer 4 months ago and until recently had only made gloss prints (using Photo Paper Plus Glossy II, then Pro Platinum). Every print looked stunning, so I decided to buy a pack of Canon Premium Fine Art Smooth paper (FA-SM2) and experiment with a different paper type.
I have now printed the same A4 photo (of a girl posing in her teal colour school prom dress) on both the Glossy II and the Fine Art Smooth papers, and whilst it looks amazing on the Glossy, the mid to dark colours and shadows look very grainy on the Fine Art Smooth. A lot of the picture is the silk dress, and on the Fine Art Smooth paper all but the lightest parts of the dress look grainy, as though it has a terrible disease. On the Glossy paper, the dress is perfectly smooth throughout, even when the print is enlarged to A3. The dress looks smooth on the digital file I am printing from, when zoomed in.
I have tried lots of things, including applying a Gaussian blur of 10 to the dress, switching between Perceptual and Relative Colorimetric, selecting a different media type (e.g. choosing the settings for Matte photo paper, but still using Fine Art Smooth paper), but nothing makes enough of a difference. If anything, using the settings for Matte paper gives a slightly smoother and better print.
I have made a print of the same photo using my old Canon iX6500 and the default profile for Matte photo paper (there is no profile for Fine Art Smooth). The mid shadows are better on the iX6500 than on the Pro-300, but the deeper shadows are better on the Pro-300. The colours are better on the Pro-300.
The fact that the shadows look grainy on both printers makes me think that some photos will never print well on Fine Art Smooth paper. Is this correct?
But maybe there is a setting I should change? Or might there be something wrong with my Pro-300?
Thank you so much to anyone who can help me. I don’t know what else to try.
I use a Windows 10 64-bit PC and Canon’s Professional Print & Layout software. The Pro-300 firmware is the latest version. The attached photos are pictures of a print made on Fine Art Pro paper, using the Fine Art Pro ICC that came installed, and using the Pro-300
Hi John [jrhoffman75]
Thank you for reading my post and for your reply. I really appreciate it.
To answer your questions:
1. Yes, I am printing on the correct side of the paper
2. A nozzle check shows a perfect pattern
3. Soft proofing doesn't show up any problems (e.g. the dress fabric is smooth, as it should be)
I have attached a cropped section of the original digital file that I am printing from (2 versions: one with gaussian blur on the dress and one without (though it makes no difference to the prints I am getting)). The cropped section is on an A4 sheet. I tried to upload the whole file but it said it was too big at 10 MB. I wonder if someone would be able to print it (please?) on a Canon Pro printer with Fine Art Smooth paper and see if they get the same grainy result that I am getting? I would be really grateful. I have never installed an ICC profile so am not sure how to do that at the moment...
Very many thanks again for any help or advice you are able to give me.
Will
