PRO-100 True B&W Prints

[blumb]

Hello,

I just received my PRO-100 printer and I am trying to print a "true" black and white print. The two test prints I have created have a color cast to them and I cannot get rid of it.

I received a test print from Canon of the same image printed using the Canon PRO-1. It is a truly stunning print. The PRO-1 is currently out of my price range, hopefully that will change in the future, but for now I have the PRO-100. I understand the differences between DYE and Pigment but the issue isn't there. The issue seems to be that I just cannot turn off color from being introduced onto the final print.

The image was multiple color raw files combined into an HDR image, then converted to B&W. I have tried using LR4 to print the image with color correction set to none on the printer driver, and have also tried using the "Black and white" button within the Canon PRO-100 print dialog.

Questions are:

Is the PRO-100 Capable of utilizing just the black, grey, and light grey inks to produce a "Black and White" Print?

If it is, how is this accomplished?

My older Pixma Pro9000 printed just using the black cartridge; it at least printed a black and white print without any color cast.

Thank you.

[blumb]

That is about the same as I found a slight green tint, it is very slight but I can see it. This happens when I check the "Black and White Photo Print" box.

I did a quick and dirty test myself. The images I printed the other day on the Galerie Smooth Pearl were scanned as tiff's on my companies Konica copier/scanner. I know it is not a high resolution scanner but I wanted to try a quick experiment.

I imported both 600 dpi scans of the "B&W" prints into Photoshop.

I increased the saturation of the scanned images to see if the cast stood out. Sure enough, the print with the checked box shows a lot more green. They both have green tint but the "checked box" print is more pronounced. They also have a bluish (cool) cast as well, most likely due to the OBA's in the Galerie Smooth Pearl.

But it sounds the same, if you want to convert a color photo to black and white quickly you can "check the box"

If you want to print a grayscale image from PS or LR, let the applications manage the color and leave the B&W print box UNCHECkED.

I'll do the same with framing but I'll wait for some worthy paper to print on first. 🙂

[gse53]

Thank you so much blumb. Very helpful. Unchecking that box solved my color cast problem. Canon should have been clearer on the usage of the check box. BTW, I tried printing a color print as a B&W, with the box checked,  and the driver did a decent job. You just do not have tonal control in the conversion.

[Gemini061270]

Also having same problem, tried both ways with and with out b&w box checked , icc none PhotoShop handles color and icc profile for paper being used and get magenta cast. I wasted 10 sheets of Ilford gold mono silk . Well I tried something and it seemed to make big difference. I opened my b&w print in ps, that I converted using Nik silver. I opened hue/saturation, clicked on eye dropper , clicked on picture and it detected red as being embedded in the photo still. I minused it to -100 along with magenta even though to the eye it was not visible either one. Went ahead and printed icc none, ps manages and icc for the paper. Big difference.

[blumb]

Hi Gemini061270,

I have noticed the same issue with NIK Silver FX. There are a few supplied actions within Silver FX that have a small amount of toning color added. I found out in a similar way, I processed an image on my laptop (display not color corrected) and didn't "see" the toning until printed. Then when I connected my regular monitor I found the toning. I reprocessed the image by manually adjusting each step within SilverFX and then printed the image with the result I was looking for.

I have saved several of the processing steps as favorites within SilverFX and now use them as starting points with other images.

Cheers 🙂

[PeterD]

I have a B&W conversion done with Nik Silver FX which is giving me simillar printing problems.

In this case certain small areas of the image print with a yellow highlight which appears mainly after the print made on Caonon Pro Platinum paper has cured for a few days.

This problem persists with this file even after a greyscale conversion is completed and then the resulting Dot Gain colour space is convrted back to Adobe RGB 1998 for printing using the 16 bit driver.

When B&W converted with Adobe CS5 using an adjustment layer B&W conversion the problem practically disappers even without the Grey Scale conversion step.

I've noticed the same problem with some other Nik Silver FX conversions but to a lesser extent.

I mean to have a Photoshop expert to have a look at the troublesome areas of the file to see if he can throw more light on the problem.

[blumb]

Hi gse53.

You are welcome. I'm glad it worked for you as well.

I still wish and hope that Canon is paying attention to the board and will fix, what I see as a software error.

A neutral B&W print should remain that way, is color was wanted then I would apply some color to the image during processing. I would a nice RIP software would work with the Pixma Line and if it gave control of the available inks.

Cheers. 🙂

[Cyclopic]

I made two prints from the same B+W image in PS.

1st:: PS printer manages colour, Pro 100 B+W boxs checked, colour "auto" = greenish tint

2nd: PS managed colour, Pro 100 B+W unchecked, Colour management "manual", driver matching "none" = identical result, greenish tint

I despair!

[ebiggs1]

"'i'm going to test PS options this weekend to see if there is a difference with LR4"

The two will print the same photo differently on my system. Using CS6 and LR5. 

[ebiggs1]

Anyways am I letting Photoshop control the printing or letting the Canon software do it? I'm a little confused about the settings on the Photoshop side of things...

The two photos I posted above, of the little boy, are done with all the settings at "default". They are as they come from the printer.

You may want to experiment on which setting is best fro you. Also it may need to be changed when you change papers.

Don't give up on the defaults. Try everything.

As to B&W printing, it looks like the paper choice has a good deal to do with the results. And it looks like sRGB and Adobe RGB has a great deal to do with the printing, too. Try everything as what works for some may not work for you or vice versa.

[raagtop]

Same issue here! A white box instead of the photo in the plug-in box. I use PS5 and Lightroom 5 to convert my images to greyscale, dodging & burning as necessary. Why doesn't my Canon software see the image?