iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015) macOS Mojave & Canon Pro-100

[jsnoah]

Hello all. I am about at my wits end. I love my computer and I love my printer but my inability to send some to the printer and have the output match what I see on screen is killing me! Colors way off. Any hints on calibration to get me to a place where I don't have to blast off 10 sheets of photo paper in CPS to get what I need/want to see?  Thank you so much!

[ArthurJ]

Hi jsnoah,

It is recommended that you contact live technical support . There is NO charge for this call. Real time feedback of a live technical support call would be very beneficial in this case.

Please dial 1-800-OK-CANON (1-800-652-2666), Monday - Friday 10:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m. ET (excluding holidays). A Canon technical support representative will be able to resolve this issue faster.

[Owlan]

For your own knowledge about how to quickly take control & overcome your issues I suggest you look at a couple of videos by Jose Rodriguez on You Tube (Google him+pro 100). He is a respected authority on printing & matching your monitor to your printer's output. He is very clear about monitor calibration to produce consistent colour results without losing money & paper. I can recommend his detailed instructions & advice. I've learnt it all from him mainly & am getting the best output from my printer. He also has lots of helpful tips & hints for Canon printer owners.

Also make sure you're not using macOS's Airprint driver which is not appropriate for full colour printing. You need to download the specific driver from Canon's website. Remove the airprint version from System Preferences on your Mac.

I have exactly the same model iMac you have, same OS, but a Canon Pro 1000 & his approach is very accessible, & as you go through the processes he describes, makes logical sense in plain english. He works from Windows but the process is almost identical on a Mac. The main difference here is the Mac printer drivers. Just remember that when he says to turn off colour management the Mac OS driver does it automatically when you see that Colorsync is greyed out in the printer driver itself. There is no specific OFF option. I mention this because many have been confused by this step in the process. Windows users can do this manually. Once you "get it" it's all quite straightforward. Good luck & enjoy the journey. AK

For consistent results, he covers:

• printing a standard image before anything

• monitor calibration via x-rite display software (I really recommend & use an i1 Display Pro calibrator)

• printer driver settings

• icc profiles from third party paper manufacturers

• printer maintenance

[Owlan]

For your own knowledge about how to quickly take control & overcome your issues I suggest you look at a couple of videos by Jose Rodriguez on You Tube (Google him+pro 100). He is a respected authority on printing & matching your monitor to your printer's output. He is very clear about monitor calibration to produce consistent colour results without losing money & paper. I can recommend his detailed instructions & advice. I've learnt it all from him mainly & am getting the best output from my printer. He also has lots of helpful tips & hints for Canon printer owners.

Also make sure you're not using macOS's Airprint driver which is not appropriate for full colour printing. You need to download the specific driver from Canon's website. Remove the airprint version from System Preferences on your Mac.

I have exactly the same model iMac you have, same OS, but a Canon Pro 1000 & his approach is very accessible, & as you go through the processes he describes, makes logical sense in plain english. He works from Windows but the process is almost identical on a Mac. The main difference here is the Mac printer drivers. Just remember that when he says to turn off colour management the Mac OS driver does it automatically when you see that Colorsync is greyed out in the printer driver itself. There is no specific OFF option. I mention this because many have been confused by this step in the process. Windows users can do this manually. Once you "get it" it's all quite straightforward. Good luck & enjoy the journey. AK

For consistent results, he covers:

• printing a standard image before anything

• monitor calibration via x-rite display software (I really recommend & use an i1 Display Pro calibrator)

• printer driver settings

• icc profiles from third party paper manufacturers

• printer maintenance

[TCampbell]

Managing the workflow to get consistent color is tricky business.  

From the time you capture an image with the camera, then adjust it on your monitor, then print it... each step introduces the possibility for errors in color accuracy.

I use (and recomend) using a color calibration device.  I use an X-Rite "ColorMunki Photo", but the ColorMunki is no longer sold and is replaced with the X-Rite "i1 Studio".  This device can calibrate both monitors AND printers (and a few other things).  There are calibration devices that only do displays (not printers) which cost less... but if you're doing your own printing, you might want to spend the extra to be able to do printer profiles.

Generally speaking... if your print output looks nothing like what you see on the screen then there are a few things to check.

• Were you using the correct ICC profile for your paper/printer type?  
• Which color "intent" did you choose and was that the problem?
• Are you inspecting your results in a room where the lighting isn't day-light balanced?

There are other possibilities as well.

ICC Profiles:

Each different type of paper will behave differently w.r.t. how it absorbs the dyes and how it reflects light to produce colors.  Some papers have whiteners, etc. and these all affect the color-space.  

You'll need the correct ICC profile which is made for your printer/ink/paper combination.  If you change inks (run 3rd party ink) that will change the color space and require a different profile.  Some people mix inks... using some OEM and some 3rd party (and now you really need a custom ICC profile.)

The paper vendors typically supply ICC profiles for their papers that work with the most popular professional photo printers (such as your Canon PRO-100) but these assume you are running OEM ink.

Also make sure you don't double-apply the profile.  e.g. if you use photo software that lets you pick the ICC profile and paper type... then submit the print job.  This tends to go to your computer OS print-queue (Apple's print management) which might ALSO let you pick the ICC and paper type.  The ICC profile tells the printer to increase or decrease the application of ink.  If you tell the software to do this AND tell the OS to do this, you'll get a double-correction and that will result in poor color accuracy.  Make sure you only apply the ICC profile in one place.

Intents: 

"Intents" (or "Rendering Intents") is a way to tell the printer how you want it to handle out-of-gamut colors.  The "display gamut" is the set of all possible colors the display is capable of producing (accurately).  A "printer gamut" is the gamut of all possible colors the printer (with that printer/paper/ink combination) can produce accurately.  Then there's the gamut required by your print.  Often the display gamut is bigger than the printer gamut ... meaning it's possible that there are colors you see on the display that the printer simply cannot reproduce.  This is a reality of printing and always has been.  It's also one of the reasons why more expensive printers tend to hold more ink tanks (it gives them a wider color gamut).  

The "rendering intent" tells the printer what you want it to do when it encounters an out-of-gamut color.  

If you use Photoshop or Lightroom, you can select a choice, hover your mouse over it, and a description box will explain what that "intent" does.  

The two most common intents are called "perceptual" and "relative".  The names aren't exactly a dead give-away on what they do.

"perceptual" tends to be the most natural looking.  "relative" might tend to BE the most accurately but might not LOOK LIKE the most accurate.  Here's why:

When you select "relative", it tells the software to print all in-gamut colors accurately.  But this comes at the expense of out-of-gamut colors ... which would clip.  Those colors will get shifted to the nearest possible in-gamut color.  The problem is... your photograph might include subtle hues where some are in-gamut and others are out-of-gamut but on the display you can tell the difference.  On the printer, you might not be able to tell the difference and now the image "looks" off (even though technically the in-gamut colors are accurate).  You have the "perception" that the color is not accurate.

When you select "perceptual", the software inspects the gamut required by the print with the gamut available in the printer.  As it identifies out-of-gamut colors, it shifts them so they will print as in-gamut colors (which the "relative" intent also did) BUT... it ALSO shifts any similar in-gamut colors by enough so that the hues will LOOK different when you see the results.  

This means the image generally looks pretty good to your eye... even though many of the colors are not technically accurate (even some colors that could have been technically accurate.)

Many (possibly most) photo processing applications have the ability to do on-screen "proofing".  This causes the colors on the screen to be shifted to match the color-gamut of the printer (based on your ICC profile).  

If you turn on on-screen proofing and your print looks a lot like your display (with proofing enabled) then it means your printer is doing exactly what the computer predicted.  In other words... nothing is broken.

I will mention that I've seen bad ICC profiles... where the computer adjusts according to the profile and you get a print that looks poor.  But it technically matches the display (when proofing mode is active).  That means the computer TOLD the printer to produce those colors.  I then switch off the ICC profile and just let the printer do whatever it wants and I get better results.  That usually means you have a poor quality ICC profile and need a better profile.

Lighting:

Your display is internally lit.  It's color accuracy is not affected so much by the lighting in the room.  This is "additive" color -- meaning the colored lights in the monitor are added to create the result.  Your pinter paper, however, is just reflecting the lighting in the room back at you.  Paper and ink can't create light... they can only "subtract" the colors you aren't supposed to see.  Don't think of "blue" ink as "adding" blue... think of it as "subtracting" everything that is NOT blue.

This means if the light in the room has a yellow cast, it's going to change the perception of the color accuracy of your prints.

I have one particular desk lamp that has a daylight-balanced light bulb (you can find these at most art-supply stores because artists will use them.  Sewing stores also tend to carry them.)  

Calibration:

With lighting problems aside... if you're seeing significantly different color on your prints than you see on your display, then one (or both) are in need of calibration.

I used to try to manual color-calibrate my monitor... but never got good results (actually the results were much worse than I had expected once it was compared to what a decent color-calibtration device could give me.)  Now I only trust a color meter.

I mentioned that some color-meters mostly do displays-only but a few also do printers (but are more expensive).  You may or may not need to use a color calibration tool on the printer.

I have a PRO-10.  I find that if I do absolutely nothing to my printer, don't use any ICC profiles, and just print on glossy... I tend to get reasonably close (but not technically perfect) color.  It would be good enough for most people even though it's not technically perfect.  

You can also download the ICC profile from a paper manufacturer that is meant for that paper/printer-model combination.  The caveat is that a printer calibration profile isn't just about paper/printer... it's paper/printer/ink.  These profiles presume you are using OEM ink.  If you use 3rd party ink, the profiles wont be accurate and you'll probably need to build a custom profile.  

Canon PSP "Pattern Print" feature:

There is another alternative built into Canon Print Studio Pro (PSP).  

In Canon PSP (which can be installed as a plug-in to Lightroom or Photoshop), you can access the "Color Settings" tab (in the rihgt margin) and then near the bottom you'll see "Pattern Print".  Pick that.

Pattern Print brings up you image in an array of thumbnails.  They are arranged in a hexagon pattern.  The center thumbnail is the neutral image (no increase or decrease in cyan, yellow, or magenta).  But in each of the three axes... it is increasing or decreasing one of the colors.  

You run a test print using this pattern.  Then you inspect the results and choose the the best choice.  

Below each thumbnail tile, it will tell you what the CMY adjustment values were for that thumbnail.  You can then make your print in PSP, but plug in the color adjustments values based on the thumbnail that you liked best.