Magenta Cast on Pro-100 Prints

[recdaco]

Hi,

I've had a magneta cast in my prints on my Canon Pro-100 (OEM ink) with Canon Semi-gloss paper on Mac OS Catalina. Here's the list of debug steps I've tried:

- Re-installed the latest drivers and added the printer via the Canon IJ Network tool (not Airprint)

- Done a nozzle check (all clear)

- Recalibrated my monitor (D65/~75nits)

- Printing from Lightroom, I've set the profile to "Canon Pro-100 <SG> 1/2 Photo Paper Plus Semi-Gloss" (This forces the "Colorsync" option under "Color Managment.") Still magenta.

- I've changed the Profile to "Managed by Printer" in Lightroom and selected the same profile under Color Management/Colorsync in the Print dialog. Still magenta. 

- With the profile as "managed by printer" in Lightroom, I changed the Color Matching to "Canon Color Matching" and set everything to 0 under "Color Options". Still magenta.

If I do "managed by printer" and muck with the cyan/magenta/yellow options in "color options" I can get something much closer. However, this feels like a major hack such that I'm breaking all the reasons to do monitor and paper calibration. I also worry that the moment I try a new paper type, I'll need to re-adjust all the settings again and essentially do my own calibration. 

Has anyone else seen something like this before? I've tried reading as many threads as I could find, but would really love to get to the bottom of what's going on here.

Thanks for the help and suggestions!

[Darius]

Hi recdao.

You've been very thorough in the troubleshooting.  If the nozzle check is coming out good, and the ICC Profiles are set properly, then next check the program and the print options to see if they feature a "Vivid Photo" option.  If it has such an option, it will exaggerate magentas to give a warmer tone; disable that setting.

You can try exporting the file to a single layer, then printing from Easy PhotoPrint EX or My Image Garden (available free of charge HERE) to double-check whether this is an issue caused by Adobe print settings\Vivid Photo, or something else.

If this answered your question, please click the Accept as Solution button, so others might find the answer.

[jrhoffman75]

Welcome to the forum recdaco.

You appear to be doing everything correctly.

Since you are on a Mac have you tried using Photos or Preview to print the image?

If you switch the monitor profile in system preferences back to the default Apple profile does the image change noticably?

Download the following test image and print it. Don't make any adjustments, regardless of how it looks on screen.

http://www.outbackphoto.com/printinginsights/pi049/essay.html

Let us know the results.

[recdaco]

Thanks, John and Darius.

I think I found my culprit, although I'm afraid it's one that's going to lead me down another rabbit hole. I noticed the other morning when the sun was streaming through the window and my recessed lights weren't on that the print matched the display! Turning on the lights in the room looked to give it the magenta cast. I'm guessing the room lights are somewhere between 2700-3000K warming the print in ways I wasn't happy with.

So this leads to a new problem/question: how would I sucessfully soft proof these lighting conditions? I initially was thinking I could just calibrate the monitor to the same color as the ambient lights, but it doesn't seem to want to go that low. Is there another way I could soft proof this?

Thanks again for the help!

[jrhoffman75]

Here is an interesting discussion on lighting temperatures. I can't directly post since the site sells things, but go to franklinarts-dot-com

One thing I have found is that papers with optical brightening agents (OBAs) can show a color cast depending on the type of lighting as well. A 5000K bulb gave a color cast where as taking the print out to daylight didn't show a color cast. 

[recdaco]

Thanks, John. Took a little while, but I found the article you're talking about. Really interesting.

I guess I was asking in the other direction. It seems like soft proofing profiles must be made at a certain ambient temperature conditions (I'd guess daylight, so 6500K?). Is there a way to convert those profiles to accurately predict other lighting conditions (like 2700K)? Or, is there a way to calibrate our monitors to match different lighting conditions so we can predict how the print will be viewed?

Thanks again.

[jrhoffman75]

You best answer would come from contacting a custom printer profile creator, but I don't think it would work that way.

The purpose of a printer profiles is to ensure that a digital file in the computer properly reflects the RGB values when printed. If the printer doesn't lay down the ink in the proper RGB value when the calibration print is made the calibration software adds an adjustment when the profile is created.

The purpose of soft proofing is to attempt to show how the actual paper will produce the colors being sent to it. Then, if the print will look different than the display adjustments can be made. 

If your viewing light is going to be 2700K then I think you need to set your display calibration to 2700K.