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!

[Toby_K]

ebiggs --

I design and print greeting cards.  Very simple items.  I previously had a Epson ET 2550 printer.  Pretty low end, but it printed fine.  However, it doesn't handle card stock very well, and became quite old!!  So, I purchased a new Cannon Pixma Pro-200 so that I could print both my greeting cards, as well as my sons photos.  It is printing too dark.  Darker than the Epson and darker than what I see on screen.  Previously the Epson and the screen matched pretty well.  Nearly the same.

Now I'm struggling to get the Canon to print the "right" colors.  I don't want to change my color pallets in Illustrator, as I have hundreds of cards designed with specific skin tones and they are now printing too dark.  

I'm hoping you can help.  

I thought I'd start with your first two suggestions:  tell the printer it doesn't control color and tell illustrator it does.  

Could you share instructions for:

1.  Turning off every bit off control the printer has?

2.  Settings in Adobe Illustrator to handle all print settings and color matching.  

Toby

[Toby_K]

jr --

I'm hoping you can help.  Pro-200 is printing too dark.  

I design and print greeting cards.  Very simple items.  I previously had a Epson ET 2550 printer.  Pretty low end, but it printed fine.  However, it doesn't handle card stock very well, and became quite old!!  So, I purchased a new Cannon Pixma Pro-200 so that I could print both my greeting cards, as well as my sons photos.  It is printing too dark.  Darker than the Epson and darker than what I see on screen.  Previously the Epson and the screen matched pretty well.  Nearly the same.

Now I'm struggling to get the Canon to print the "right" colors.  I don't want to change my color pallets in Illustrator, as I have hundreds of cards designed with specific skin tones and they are now printing too dark.  

I'm hoping you can help.  

I thought I'd start with your first two suggestions:  tell the printer it doesn't control color and tell illustrator it does.  

Could you share instructions for:

1.  Turning off every bit off control the printer has?

2.  Settings in Adobe Illustrator to handle all print settings and color matching.  

Toby

[jrhoffman75]

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@Toby_K wrote:

jr --

I'm hoping you can help.  Pro-200 is printing too dark.  

I design and print greeting cards.  Very simple items.  I previously had a Epson ET 2550 printer.  Pretty low end, but it printed fine.  However, it doesn't handle card stock very well, and became quite old!!  So, I purchased a new Cannon Pixma Pro-200 so that I could print both my greeting cards, as well as my sons photos.  It is printing too dark.  Darker than the Epson and darker than what I see on screen.  Previously the Epson and the screen matched pretty well.  Nearly the same.

Now I'm struggling to get the Canon to print the "right" colors.  I don't want to change my color pallets in Illustrator, as I have hundreds of cards designed with specific skin tones and they are now printing too dark.  

I'm hoping you can help.  

I thought I'd start with your first two suggestions:  tell the printer it doesn't control color and tell illustrator it does.  

Could you share instructions for:

1.  Turning off every bit off control the printer has?

2.  Settings in Adobe Illustrator to handle all print settings and color matching.  

Toby

---

I will try, but I don't have a Pro-200 and don't use Illustrator.

What operating system - Windows or macOS.

Does the printer work acceptably if you try and print a photo?

Print this test image using your software: https://1drv.ms/u/s!ApNpngg2Z6dbhIYEVaNQBuYp2nUaWg?e=8kKd3d

Don't make any adjustments to the image, just print it.

[Toby_K]

[jrhoffman75]

---

@Toby_K wrote:

---

OK.

A possible error is the printer profile that is selected.

I believe you should be selecting the ICC profile for the paper you are printing on.

You also need these settings if you haven't set them:

What paper are you using?

[ebiggs1]

I don't have a Pro-200 and I don't use Illustrator, either.

"...a Epson ET 2550 printer.  Pretty low end, but it printed fine." "It is printing too dark."

One big thing I have noticed about almost everybody is, they have two settings wrong on their monitors. One the contrast is too high and the brightness is too high. When the Canon photo printer, which is not a low end printer, prints it is doing exactly what you told it to. Except it didn't do what you saw on the monitor. Two different things!

There are three main most things you need correct on your monitor. The contrast, brightness and the grayscale needs to be very close to spot on. You do need to be using the correct ICC profile too. Check out the last picture in John's reply above. It's important.

I can't help with Illustrator but the screen shot looks a lot like PS.

Keep in mind that cameras and printers almost always do exactly what you tell them to do.

[Toby_K]

My screen and old printer were very close.  What I saw on the screen printed.  The new printer prints very dark.  Even when I tell the color management to brighten the print.  I don't want to adjust my screen, as I have hundreds of cards bult with specific color pallets that would take thousands of hours to change.  I need to the new printer to print as the old one did (which just so happens to print close to my screen colors).  I'm sending the same data to each printer.  I don't do anything to the old printer, just hit print.  But, clearly I need to adjust some setting to get this new printer to print correctly.  The new printer prints the same way with Word documents (much darker than the older printer and much darker than what's on my screen.)  

[Toby_K]

I have set the color management to manual/none.  

I've tried multiple ICC settings.  They all print too dark.  The sRGB... setting is the lightest I found.  

[Toby_K]

Its my old Epson that is "low end".  Just a run of the mill printer I purchased many years ago.  

[Toby_K]

prints from the web site.  

old on the left, new printer on the right.  

new printer is more precise/crisper, which is good.  But its just printing too dark.  😞  The photo doesn't really show how much difference there really is.  

Toby