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!

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castleb · ‎01-13-2015

No worries. This is very helpful. Thank you!

amhdesign · ‎05-26-2016

I am having the very same issue.

Throughout this thread I'm seeing information on how to turn off settings for a PC - but on my iMac (late 2015 retina display) I am not finding any way to "switch off" all the printer settings. I (want to) use this printer with photos I've edited in Photoshiop as well as graphics I create in Illustrator and cannot seem to get the settings right once and for all. I have over the past year, been able to (accidentally!) switch things on and off to get something to print correctly, then I have to start all over the next time, and right now I'm stumped and I don't have time to tinker, so I'm desperate! Help, please!!

jrhoffman75 · ‎05-26-2016

Have you tried printing using Print Studio Pro? It will select all the right "switches" for printing from Photoshop or Lightroom.

If you are versed in printing from Photoshop just select Photoshop Manages Color and the printer driver wil turn off color management.

Also, be sure you are not using the Bonjour version of the printer.

John Hoffman
Conway, NH

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

amhdesign · ‎05-26-2016

I did use it before I upgraded to Creative Cloud suite - and now I can't use it. Do you know if there's an update of that yet?

jrhoffman75 · ‎05-26-2016

Go to Canon support website and download latest version. I think it's 2.0.3.

John Hoffman
Conway, NH

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

amhdesign · ‎05-26-2016

Found the download, thank you. Will update if it works - do you know if you can use it in Illustrator as well? I've only used it for PS

jrhoffman75 · ‎05-26-2016

I don't think so.

John Hoffman
Conway, NH

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

amhdesign · ‎05-26-2016

Ok. So are is there a specific print dialog (like on the PC) that I could find where to turn off the print settings set up by the printer on my mac, so that I can use with Illustrator?

amhdesign · ‎05-26-2016

Why not the Bonjour version? Just curious?

Toby_K · ‎11-28-2021

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

Canon Community

Pixma Pro-100 printing very dark