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Pixma Pro-100 printing very dark

kmyers
Contributor

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!

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

ebiggs1
Legend
Legend

"... 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!

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112 REPLIES 112

 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

I have a canon 7110c and It's printing everything way too dark. I also have a brother's that prints perfectly so I know it's not my computer or monitor. I checked everywhere and can't find where to "not let the printer control anything" in settings. I don't know what it is controling. Please help I need this fixed for my labels for my business. 

Thank you

Dana

I have a canon 7110c and It's printing everything way too dark. I also have a brother's that prints perfectly so I know it's not my computer or monitor. I checked everywhere and can't find where to "not let the printer control anything" in settings. I don't know what it is controling. Please help I need this fixed for my labels for my business. 

Thank you

Dana

I have a canon 7110c and It's printing everything way too dark. I also have a brother's that prints perfectly so I know it's not my computer or monitor. I checked everywhere and can't find where to "not let the printer control anything" in settings. I don't know what it is controling. Please help I need this fixed for my labels for my business. 

Thank you

Dana

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

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

 

Can you post a screenshot of your Photoshop print settings?

John Hoffman
Conway, NH

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

 " 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

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?

John Hoffman
Conway, NH

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

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

If the Outback test image is coming out dark it sounds like something is wrong with the printer. If it’s a new printer can you return it? If not give Canon a call at 1-800-OK-CANON. 

John Hoffman
Conway, NH

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