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!

[jrhoffman75]

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. 

[SEichorn]

What I wound up doing last night was I cranked down the brightness on my monitor quite a bit. I just never had to do this with my Epson 1400, at least not that drastic. Thanks so much for your help. Steve

[jrhoffman75]

Just to confirm - when you opened the Outback test image you didn’t make any adjustments before you printed it? And your paper and media settings were confirmed?

[SEichorn]

The only thing i did was to resize it. The colors were accurate, just a tad too dark. I have to 'treak' the monitor settings i guess. 

[jrhoffman75]

The objective is that the Outback image prints correctly and you adjust the monitor so that it looks like the Outback image. Then when you edit and adjust your own images on the computer the prinyed output should look like the monitor.

If the Outback image is too dark for your tastes it depends by how much. You can dial in a printer brightness adjustment till you get the Outback image to your liking and then adjust monitor to look ike the Outback image.

You can adjust printer settings in the driver and save as a preset; then call up the preset when you go to print. Its hard dealing in words to see exactly what the output looks like; I've always gotten feedback that the Outback image looks great and the problem is elsewhere. 

[SEichorn]

Yes, the outback image does look correct. The problem lies in my monitor I've come to believe. I have an Epson printer, but need to get ink, but will let you know the results with that one. thanks for your help. Ink = $$$

 lol

[jrhoffman75]

Understand. If Outback is printing correct then printer is OK. Adjust monitor to look like Outback. Then adjust your image it look how you want. Then, when you print it it should look OK. I adjust my monitor to 80 cd/mm^2. Eyes quickly adjust. Plus I edit in a dim room. 

[mkmark33]

I'm running an iMac 5K retina display and every time i printed an image through lightroom or Print Studio Pro the colour was good, but the image came out darker on the Pro100. I calibrated the monitor with a x-rite colormunki display and printed out the printer calibration image you refered to and the printed Image looked great.

I compared the printed calibration image with the same image on screen and confirmed the screen was way to bright. I then dropped the brightness of the display until it matched the brightness of the printed image and now they both look great, with perfect colours and equally as bright.

Dont underestimate how much you have to drop the displays brightness. Mine is now down to 1.6 squares. Tip for Mac users, when you adjust the brightness using the F1 & F2 keys, the brightness is adjusted in full squares, (full stops). Holding the Shift and Option key whilst adjusting the brightness (F1 & F2 keys) will allow you to adjust the brightness with a finer control in steps of about 1/3 square (1/3 stops)..

Hope this helps the Mac users out there.

[oneroundone]

Can you help with these settings?
I opened the Canon My Printer and went to the Printer Setting tab, but not seeing anything to stop the printer from setting anything.
Thanks Much for your help!

[jrhoffman75]

Select Printer Settings.

Select Main

Select Color/Adjustment

Select Select Set

Select Matching

Select None.

I’m on the road going from memory so I am not 100% sure of naming but this should get you there

What software are you printing from? If it’s Photoshop or Lightroom you can use Canon Print Studio Pro; it will set it correctly for you.