Canon Pixma 9000 printing problem

[moschika]

so i'm trying to print out some photos and my printer isn't doing a very good job considering it's a printer that i would think should do better. i'm not exactly sure what's happening, so i hope someone can offer some advice.

it appears that the printer doesn't seem to print a smooth color gradient or shift. i've attached the corner of 2 pics. the first one is what's on the original file and the other is what's coming out of the printer. I'm printing out of LR if that makes a difference. but you should be able to see the difference in the 2 images of what I mean. you can see how smooth the colors change from one to the other in the original and not so much with the final print.

i've done the cleaning and alignment stuff, but that doesn't seem to make any difference. anyone know what's going on?

thanks.

[BlueRob]

Paper has to do much with the quality....try a different one to see if that helps.

[moschika]

Paper has to do much with the quality....try a different one to see if that helps.

i've tried several different kinds of canon paper - Plus Glossy II, Photo Rag, Matte - they all do the same thing.

[Medley]

Are you using any color management? Profiled monitor, icc profiles, etc.

[readingr]

Several questions:

1. what are the photo's from, where did the original come from?
2. Have you got the latest drivers from Canon for the printer?
3. have you set up the printer to print best quality for the paper being used?
4. Are you letting the printer manage the quality?
5. How have you setup lightroom?
6. what OS are you using?
7. What state are the ink cartridges in any running low?

All these factors need careful consideration and setup.

Roger R.

[moschika]

Several questions:

1. what are the photo's from, where did the original come from?
the original is from a professionally scanned slide into TIFF format. i've had no problems getting prints made by a lab using that file. this also happens with others that were scanned at the same time.
this question did get to try printing a couple photos from RAW with similar color gradients and they seem to print fine. So what is it about the scanned files that's not printing right?
2. Have you got the latest drivers from Canon for the printer?
yep
3. have you set up the printer to print best quality for the paper being used?
I'm printing thru LR and not seeing a whole lot of options to change quality - ie i get no window to select a specific paper
4. Are you letting the printer manage the quality?
i'm not sure what you mean. where can I check that?
5. How have you setup lightroom?
i've turned off most, if not all, "auto adjustments". is there something I should also look up?
6. what OS are you using?
Mac OS X
7. What state are the ink cartridges in any running low?
they are all more then half full

All these factors need careful consideration and setup.

Roger R.

any suggestions appreciated.

thanks.

[readingr]

any suggestions appreciated.

thanks.

Okay,

If its just the TIFF files, then it could be to do with the Colour map that they were scanned with and the colour map used to print with.

For example, I have had some results where the colour map in the photo was Adobe and when printed using RGB caused a similar colour, so if the TIFF was scanned using sRGB, or Adobe then you need to set the printer up so that it prints in the same colour map so that the colours are translated properly.

Another is to make sure that the ICM is set to windows on the printer driver otherwise the printer could select the wrong colour.

I will try and find some setup stuff for canon printers I found some time ago, and was on the canon imagine web site.

Hope that helps for now.

Roger R.

[readingr]

I eventually found the link but you need an account to access the information.

http://www.cig.canon-europe.com/nbe/...ters/page.html

Roger R.

[SmartWombat]

I didn't have to login.
But I am a CPS member.
Maybe I have a cookie that lets me in...

[SmartWombat]

Printer ICC profile selection window in MacOS ColourSync

The file names of the MacOS ICC profiles for Canon inkjet printers are BJColourPrinter2000.icc and CanonIJPrinter2005.icc.

You can confirm that these ICC profiles are the ones used in ColourSync, MacOS' colour management system. In Finder, you can find it under Go > Utilities > ColourSync Utility, click Devices > Select Printer, then click the triangle at left. In the window that opens, you can see Default mark next to BJColourPrinter2000.icc or CanonIJPrinter2005.icc.

[SmartWombat]

How to print using the colour management feature of the OS

To use OS-internal colour management systems, such as Windows' ICM and MacOS' ColourSync, set the printer driver to print using the printer's ICC profile.
Notes:

# Even if you have set the printer driver to use your operating system's colour management feature, you will still need to set the paper type and print quality in the basic settings of the printer driver.
# In Adobe Photoshop CS, open File Menu > Print Preview > Display Other Options > Select Colour Management, then in Print Colour Space, set Profile to Printer-side Colour Management.

[moschika]

so i'm using a Spyder to calibrate my monitor. what does that do to the MacOS Colorsync management system?

edit: so i've been playing around with settings and such and have found that if I set the Profile in the "Color Management" field in the Print module in LR to "Managed by Printer" i get the best results. perhaps I was making it too difficult for me? I went through and tried several other profiles like sRGB, Adobe 98, even the Spyder2Express, i got fairly poor results.

also makes me wonder if I should keep using the Spyder since I see no reason to keep using it. unless it's actually doing something different. the prints that do come off the printer in the "Managed by Printer" mode, do closely match what's on my screen.

[Anbesol]

The spyder profile is to translate color data specifically to your moniter, it would make for a very poor print driver. Managed by printer is what I stick to as well, but my Canon (iP4300) only reads sRGB colorspace, so I have to convert all my Adobe to sRGB. There is a difference between ICC profile and colorspace.

I've found that my results matched best when I set the Rendering intent to 'Perceptual' as opposed to relative colorimetric. The papers that I've found to give the best and most consistant quality is Ilfords Smooth Pearl, which sometimes oversaturates warm tones but very sharp and very flattering to skin tones, its a textured gloss. Canon's Semi-gloss has a brilliant white balance and a softer textured gloss, very sharp. Canons standard matte also has a very bright white finish, even brighter, but does not do any favors to portraits. Its also incredibly cheap and disposable (50 sheet of letter size for $10!).