Canon Community

kmyers · ‎10-30-2014

Hi All,

I just purchased my Pro-100 and installed last night. I upgraded from an HP that was strictly CMYK (only 4 ink). I installed according to the instructions, but my prints seem to be coming out noticably darker than they should be. The lime greens are printing a darker kelly green. The bright blues are printing a darker royal blue. The bright reds are printing a very dark red. The pinks are printing a dark shade of pink. Skin tones are much, much darker than they should be.

I am printing from Adobe programs (Illustrator, Photoshop, and Pro - all CS6). Am I missing a setting somewhere? On my previous printer, I would choose "preserve CMYK primaries" and it printed perfectly. Now, I can't seem to get my prints a normal shade. I'm not attempting to "match my monitor", just simply trying to get the colors closer to their true color. I've unchecked preserve CMYK primaries and checked to have the printer decide the colors, but neither of those options seem to be helping.

I called Canon support, but they were unable to help me. He had me put my settings all back to default and test print. When that didn't work he stated "well printers vary per brand so theres really nothing we can do to fix it". I can't imagine that this great of a printer prints that far off on colors.

Any help is very greatly appreciated!

ebiggs1 · ‎11-04-2014

"... theres really nothing we can do to fix it"."

Well, of course this isn't true. I have three of these printers in this line. The 9000, 9500 II amd the Pro-100.

They all printed differently but after a little tinkering with the settings, they all did very well. They are great printers.

First off 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 PS handle all settings and color matching. You know how to do this?

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 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-ons to do this.

But you must get the grey-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 saw it. It isn't possibile as all colors and adjustment effect all others. My goal is to get the skin tones right. That is what people notice.

For instance, I know my newest Pro-100 tends to print darker than what I see on the monitor. So, I automatically know to set it's prints one stop brighter in PS. It also prints with a slightly warn tone. Most of the time, with protraits 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 untill you get good with the printer. Very, very important!

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

View solution in original post

jrhoffman75 · ‎12-06-2017

First, download the folllowing t test image and print it on Canon paper using the proper paper settings. Don't make any adjustments to the image regardless of how the image looks on the screen. Let me know how the print looks.

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

You said you downloaded the lastest driver, correct?

In System Preferences->Printers and Scanners do you see an installed IJ series printer or a Bonjour printer for the Pro-100?

John Hoffman
Conway, NH

1D X Mark III, M200, Many lenses, Pixma PRO-100, Pixma TR8620a, Lr Classic

ebiggs1 · ‎12-07-2017

"Any idea how to implement this on a Mac?"

I don't have any idea how to do it on a Mac so please follow John's instructions. I am on Windows.

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

SEichorn · ‎07-16-2018

I'm OK now. Thanks for the tip !

es396 · ‎11-28-2016

I am having the same issues and trying to follow the steps you provided but I do not know how to make sure the printer is not setting anything for me.

I am trying to print as acurate as possible pantone colors for class finals.

Thank you for any help you can send my way.

jrhoffman75 · ‎11-28-2016

I don't know anything about pantone colors. See this for perhaps some help.

http://www.pantone.com/calibrated-printers

Doesn't look like the Pro-100 is suitable.

John Hoffman
Conway, NH

1D X Mark III, M200, Many lenses, Pixma PRO-100, Pixma TR8620a, Lr Classic

natty328 · ‎03-21-2017

I know this is a slightly older thread but I am having problems with my new Pixma Pro-100 and I found most of you on this thread to be very knowledgable. I use Photoshop and Illustrator for design (not photography). I was using a laser printer before for my designs but my customer base has a growing need for larger prints (11x14 and 13x19) AND the prints on the laser printer were too dark/bold. So a friend (who is a photographer) told me about this printer: vivid, bright , accurate colors, wide format printing, etc. I don't know what I am doing wrong, but my prints are coming out light (not dark) and almost greyed out. I printed out the Printer Evaluation Image and the same thing is happening. Blacks are coming out almost charcoal? I switched the printer to manual mode, color handling is set to Photoshop managing colors, Printer Profile is set to "Canon IJ Color Printer Profile 2005", I am working in the Adobe RGB (1998) workspace (8-bit). I was printing on Cougar Super Smooth Bright White cardstock. I have no idea what I am doing wrong. Any suggestions? TIA

jrhoffman75 · ‎03-21-2017

Is your paper surface glossy or smooth?

Instead of the IJ Profile select either Glossy Photo Paper or Matte Photo Paper.

Can you get some Canon Photo Paper?

print the OutbackPhoto test image using that paper and the proper Canon profile. If that looks good then we know the printer is OK and you just need to select the proper media type and profile.

Are re you on PC or Mac?

John Hoffman
Conway, NH

1D X Mark III, M200, Many lenses, Pixma PRO-100, Pixma TR8620a, Lr Classic

ebiggs1 · ‎03-22-2017

Without knowing a thing about you, I will guess this is where to start looking, ""Canon IJ Color Printer Profile 2005""

You can not set this and forget it. It has to be the profile right for the paper you are printing. Every paper has its own profile. You must know which to use.

Remember the Pro-100 is never going to make great, very, black looking blacks. It can't. It is not a true B&W printer. Now you can get it to look very good if you use the right paper and profile. Red River can help you with that selection. Call them.

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

ginawinn · ‎03-22-2017

What is the best dsiplay profile for a macbook pro with retina disply to have the most accurate color display for stationery printing in illustrator? I just got the Canon Pro-100 because it was recommended as the best home printer for stationery and my coloring is WAY off.... 😞

annabethe · ‎12-06-2017

Hi guys,

I'm having serious issues with my print settings, and the steps below do not make sense to me. I've spent weeks trying to tweak different settings, and am at my wits (and ready to return this big thing!).

Where does the Canon My Printer box come from? I am on a Mac, and this option is not avilable in the Printer Settings within the System Preferences box. Other downside of a Mac is I cannot install any CD's that may have come with the orignal packaging. I've downloaded multple drives from Canon's website without prevail.

In PS > Edit > Assign Profile, Adobe RGB is not available.

My screen always stays on the 40% - 50% brightness, so firmly believe that is not the issue.

Right now, all colors are printing very muted without much detail. 100% black is printing a dark grey. Colors have only appeared vibrant / printed corrently when printing on the high gloss Canon paper - which is great - but not the correct paper needed for my custom card projects (thicker stock).

Any insight helps!

Canon Community

Pixma Pro-100 printing very dark