Pixma Pro-100 printing very dark

[kmyers]

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!

[dlgiacobini]

 it's mainly the gray or black, it's printing a lot of dark blue instead of any gray

[jrhoffman75]

I can’t help with that software. 

[mkmark33]

 Hi jrhoffman75

I followed your advise having had the same issue as some with darker prints compared to the image viewed on screen. I had the bonjour version of the printer driver installed which i have now replaced with the IJ one you mentiond. My screen is calibrated with an xbrite colormunki dispay and the test image prints out perfectly. Is there any further steps I need to take as you asked Len1010 to report back!!

Any help appreciated.

Mark

[jrhoffman75]

Hi Mark. What problem are you still having? If the test image is printing out correctly and you like the way it looks then just be sure the monitor display is as close as possible to looking like the print. (My monitor is set to 80 cd/m^2 with xRite. I edit in a dim room and there is no light shining on my monitor surface. )

[mkmark33]

 Hi jrhoffman75

The image exposure still looks brighter, even set at 80, but I suspect this is largely due to the 5K retina display on my iMac. I will play with the brightness further to try and match it, but I'm happy the colour reproduction is pretty good. Thanks for your help.

Regards

Mark

[SEichorn]

Ok, I have PS, a calibrated monitor. I have done the no match setting and STILL have under exposed prints. I am running a windows machine. I don't see the settings "Canon My Printer' So maybe i am just stupid but a detailed explaination on how to totally disable printer controls would be helpful. Thanks ! Steve

[jrhoffman75]

By "no match" do you mean Main->Color/Intensity->Set->Manual->None?

Can you post a screenshot of your Photoshop print settings?

[SEichorn]

 " By "no match" do you mean Main->Color/Intensity->Set->Manual->None? "

Yes, exactly. I also went to the 'canon utilities' and found the canon my printer, the setting there are the same as when you go to the print settings. My monitor is calibrated using a 'Spyder' 5, PS settings is RGB 1998 Photo is also taken RGB I don't want to have to print out a 'zillion' prints to finally get one decent one. Ink is expensive. Any ideas ? Thanks, Steve

[jrhoffman75]

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

Download this test image. Open it in your software. Do not make any adjustmenst. Print it. How does the image look?

[SEichorn]

I'd say about 2 stops underexposed, but a definite improvement. so, what is this telling me? I would say the colors are accurate, smooth graduations, skin tones are accurate. Say, if this print was my photo, i would adjust the exposure slider in CR to '10' contrast the same amount and the 'whites' around 5