setting up iP4700 to print from photoshop

[ian_watt3]

<p>Using a 2010 iMac with CS4 photoshop and Ilford Canon and Permajet paper<br>

After spending a day on this I'm still only three quarters of the way there. As far as I can tell there are 3 areas of settings to deal with.<br>

1. Disable the printer driver. Apparently this is automatic so considered done.<br>

2. Selecting the correct settings for the printer. I can bring this up from iPhoto. Select print and up comes the.. Print menu, you then select the printer in this case Canon iP4700 series. The next menu down is presets where there are numerous choices of paper. Below that is the tricky one, iPhoto is the click on which opens a menu with layout, color matching, paper handling etc etc. I really need help with the options on this lot. On color matching do I want colorsync or canon color matching? Also color options and quality and media.<br>

3. Once that is done I go to photoshop open a file then go file print and have the print menu. The right hand menu starts with color management then photoshop manages color then the printer profile (which I have loaded) then the rendering intent.<br>

Am I on the right track. The results I am getting at the moment are close to the lab prints I have had done but not close enough.<br>

I know the printer can do better than this its just a question of setting it up....easier said than done..<br>

Everything else is set up properly and I can get excellent results from the pro lab on Canon and Epson printers but need the facility to test print at home. </p>

[acedigital]

<p>People will tell you you need to calibrate the monitor - google this on the site for detailed info.<br>

An also see if there are ICC profiles for the paper type you are using, this can be entered into Photoshop.</p>

[ian_watt3]

<p>Thanks for the response, however...<br>

Monitor is fully calibrated and ICC profiles are not the issue here. Just the settings in the various menus.</p>

[Ed_Ingold]

<p>Who told you do do it this way?</p>

<p>Photoshop can and should use the print driver directly. There's no reason to disable the print driver, nor use iPhoto as an intermediary, nor print to a file from Photoshop.</p>

<p>Setup the printer (print driver), in Photoshop, so that no color corrections are done in the printer itself. This includes ColorSync or whatever. Instead, you want to enable ICM color control (profiles) which will be handled by Photoshop. The paper types listed in the print driver are generic, and are basically a shortcut for other settings, like print quality (dpi), speed and glossy vs matte. Make the selection which most closely matches the paper you will be using.</p>

<p>In Photoshop print setup, you want to select "Let Photoshop handle the color", and underneath select which print profile you wish to use. Print profiles are specific for a brand of paper and model of printer, and can often be downloaded for free from the paper manufacturer's website.</p>

[ian_watt3]

<p>Thanks for that Edward, I picked up bit and pieces from around as you do. Trouble is you don't know right from wrong hence my post. I follow what you are telling me and guess I can do all that from inside photoshop.</p>

[Ed_Ingold]

<p>In a nutshell, yes, you do everything from within Photoshop.</p>

<p>I threw out a lot of little pieces of the puzzle, like how to set the printer and something about profiles. There are a lot of books that broach this subject, but all leave a little to be desired. One of the best books is "Adobe Photoshop ... for Photographers" by Martin Evening. One of the concepts in that book I found most enlightening.</p>

<p>Think of color management as a star. In the center of the star is the image file, standardized according to various conventions. The principal convention is the application of a color space, which defines which color each word (number) in the file represents. Photoshop reads the file and presents the theoretical color according to the embedded color space.</p>

<p>Between Photoshop and the monitor, there is a monitor profile, which modifies each color so that it is represented correctly on the screen. Likewise, between Photoshop and the printer there is a print profile, independent of the color space and monitor profile, which modifies each "number" sent from Photoshop so that it is represented correctly in the print. Similar data streams exist for scanners and digital cameras.</p>

<p>In the reverse direction, corrections made in Photoshop when viewed on a calibrated (profiled) monitor produce a standardized image file, which can be viewed or printed the same on any calibrated, color-managed computer.</p>

<p>This "star" concept helped tie things together for me, as I hope it helps you. In part, it should explain why you don't use a monitor profile as a color space (or vice versa) or as a print profile, even though they seem to work (because the data structure is the same).</p>

[john_simon5]

<p>I have an iP4300 and OS X and have had trouble getting good prints from Photoshop CS4. I can get good prints from iPhoto if I use ColourSync to manage colour and make sure I select the appropriate paper profile (selecting 'automatic' usually works for me - Ian you want to use ColourSync not Canon to get decent prints here). On the other hand, I am not convinced that I can actually disable the print driver and print straight through using OS X 10.6.4 and 'Photoshop manages colour' in Photoshop because the driver options for colour management are not enabled. Certainly the prints I get out are usually unlike what I see on my monitor.<br>

Thus, while I understand what I need to do to get good prints in theory, I don't seem to be able to achieve it in practice with Photoshop CS4 on a Mac using a Canon printer.</p>

<p>Ian, if you do get good results, can you post your final recipe so I can implement it on my system. (It has never been sufficiently important for me to work it out as I just print happy snap from home and do it from iPhoto.)</p>

[ian_watt3]

<p>I have got as good as I think I can get. Within 10% of the pro labs output and 5% of their color. I found the instructions for settings in the canon manual. On the printing with ICC profiles page. In the print menu Select quality and media and select the paper loaded, select high quality, color matching select colorsync. color options select none. In photoshop select manage color and select paper type. I think the key to success with this is the correct selection of paper type which could involve a bit of luck as I am using Ilford paper rather than Canon which would probably make life easier.<br>

It took me several hours to get there. </p>

[pascaldigitall_hoebeke]

<p>Hi,<br>

What i look for is the "Quality & Media" type wich show up well into Safari or Texteditor etc. but NOT into Photoshop, not in CS3 not in CS4!<br>

Look for yourself and do the test in Safari or Texteditor and you will see that there is an extra option that allows you to choose "Quality & Media"</p>

<p>Pitty there is no option here to send screenshots.</p>

<p>Sencerily, Pascal</p>