Pixma 9000 Printing Problem

[ethan_yang]

<p>hi guys, i have a canon pixma 9000 pro mark 2 and lightroom 4 and have been following the instructions exactly (except im still printing standard instead of high quality) from the following link:<br>

<a href="

<p>my colors are always different and seem to be less bright and contain less contrast and saturation. i tried canon's easyprint, its a little closer but the trouble doesnt justify the slight improvement. i use a laptop under fluorescent light. i was told by a canon rep to do the gamut warning and i did see some gray, which suggests that there are areas that would not be printed correctly (that my printer doesnt contain the color on the monitor..?) i have been reading a lot, tried perceptual vs relative and basically a lot of setting permutations. i havent found a solution online and i was told color calibration would not solve my problem... what do i do from here?<br>

im using canon pro paper ii.<br>

thanks!</p>

[scott_ferris]

You can't hope to get a monitor to print match without one, calibrating your screen with a puck and software, and two,

optimizing your print viewing condition to your screen profile. Most people have their screens far too bright and their print

viewing space far too dark, if your screen is brighter than a sheet of photo paper your prints will always look dark.

[ethan_yang]

<p>Ok, I just calibrated my screen using Eye-one match 3 and now am using the LR color management using the new monitor ICC. I turned off printer color management. The prints contain much less luminance. I am no longer sure if the color is off.. they still seem so. What to do next..?</p>

[steven_.]

<p>Ethan<br>

You also have to profile your ink/paper/printer combination or what you see on the monitor you will not get in print. This requires use of a device such as Colormunki which seems to be the least expensive device that will actually work.</p>

[ethan_yang]

<p>that would be too much.. i already did my monitor..<br>

and in addition, where do you even have the option to profile ur printer... the printer right now is not managing the colors and the only color management is from the lightroom and its using the monitor icc.</p>

[steven_.]

<p>Ethan<br>

You create the paper/ink/printer profile with software provided with the profiling device. You then supply a name for the profile and use it in place of the monitor.icc profile you are now using. In the printer software you shut off the printer's color management so that photoshop can manage the color. This is the only way that what you see on the monitor is what you get in the print. Google Colormunki! If color management is important to you then you will have to make an investment in the hardware to do so.</p>

[steven_.]

<p>Ethan<br>

Forgot to mention that if you use well-known papers and oem ink many paper manufacturers will supply you with a profile you can use. I presently use Red River Paper (redriverpaper.com) and they will provide you with downloadable profiles.</p>

[ethan_yang]

<p>right, that is exactly what a keeble and schukett person told me. i use canon pro ii paper so its already there. he also told me 1) to change my white pt to 5000k or 50d and luminance to 100. he said laptop monitors are bad anyway 2) the samsung hdtv 23 in monitor will be even worse.. he said try the 5000k and the 100 luminance 3) and otherwise im basically out of options.<br>

do you agree with those pts?</p>

[RaymondC]

<p>Cannot speak about those options but .. I have tried the Colormunki with my older Epson since the 2003 era. It doesn't work that well with Epson papers. The provided profiles weren't that fab either. Have calibrated monitor and a pro lab that uses ICC is a good match.<br /> <br /> I bumped into a color specialist who used to run her own business at my camera club, I dunno what she did, I didn't give her a full calibration printed target, she managed to edit the profile for me that was done elsewhere poorly using the postal/mailout system (so elsewhere that is I guess technically better than the colormunki). That profile is fab.</p>

<p>Maybe you want to consider having a in-home visiting color specialist to get it working for you before they leave the premise?</p>

<p>PS. I have calibrated my laptop screen that is certainly not IPS. I have a IPS screen with my desktop PC. The PC is fabulous. Even calibrated the laptop is just not up to the task. What you could do is contact one of the pro labs where you are ... over here in New Zealand, a pro lab sent me a printed target and we can download the JPG file off their webpage. We open in LR or PS and we place their print next to our monitor to check how close our monitor accuracy is ....... So you can pinpoint, is it the monitor or the printer (at this stage). Alternatively print a medium toned afternoon city or nature photograph on 5x7 or such at a pro lab that uses a ICC process. Compare that to file on screen. </p>

[scott_ferris]

You need to light your print viewing area with the same luminance value as your screen is outputing and those bulbs must

be high a CRI type to get accurate colours.

 

Think about it, your screen is projecting its own light, your print is reflecting the light that falls onto it, unless you control

the colour, power, and range of that light your prints cannot be a consistent match to your screen.