Canon Printer Profile Question

[travismcgee]

<p>Hello,</p>

<p>I have a Canon Pixma MG6220 All-in-One printer that I use for printing an occasional photograph. It's not a fancy photo printer, but it actually does a pretty good job, or so I think. It's also the first printer I've ever owned that allows me to select printer profiles, and that's my question: Which one should I select?</p>

<p>I think I understand the basic concepts - you match the printer profile to the paper. To that end, I turned off color management in the printer driver (I checked the "Color/Intensity Manual Adjustment" box) so that only Lightroom will manage color. I then found the Profile setting under Color Management in Lightroom, but there are nine choices in the drop down box with names that mean nothing to me. How do I know which one to use? I was trying to print on high gloss HP Premium Plus photo paper this morning and didn't have a clue which profile to start with.</p>

<p>I've looked at both the Canon website and the HP website and didn't find any information. I was hoping for a chart that says "For this printer and this paper, use this profile. Download it here if you don't have it," but no such luck.</p>

<p>Can you point me in the right direction to find the right profile, not only for this paper but other photo papers I might purchase?</p>

<p>Many thanks,<br />Dave</p>

<p> </p>

[colin_mattson1]

<p>The chart is indeed on Canon's site somewhere, but it would be completely unnecessary if Canon didn't use such ridiculously stupid profile names.</p>

<p>Canon only provides profiles for their own papers, and only a handful of them at that. For <em>accurate</em> results, you'd need a third-party profile for any third-party papers you'd like to use. For <em>acceptable</em> results, you can usually skate by using Canon's profile for the Canon paper that's most similar.</p>

<p>In a nutshell:<br>

MP is <strong>M</strong>atte <strong>P</strong>hoto Paper<br>

PR is high-quality gloss/satin (Photo Paper <strong>PR</strong>o)<br>

SP is basic-quality gloss/satin (Photo Paper Plu<strong>S</strong>)<br>

The number in the profiles correlates with the print quality; lower numbers are higher quality settings. </p>

[john_houghton]

<p>Details of Canon profiles can be found in this (rather old) document:<br>

<a href="http://www.photokaechler.com/files/Canon_Profile_Guide.pdf">http://www.photokaechler.com/files/Canon_Profile_Guide.pdf</a></p>

[travismcgee]

<p>Thanks, guys. The problem is that the profiles shown in Lightroom don't include the some codes Colin mentioned. Instead, I see:</p>

<p>Canon IJ Color Printer Profile 2005<br />Canon MG6200 series Fine Art Photo Rag 2<br />Canon MG6200 series GL2/SG2<br />Canon MG6200 series GL3/SG3<br />Canon MG6200 series MP2<br />Canon MG6200 series Other Fine Art Paper 2<br />Canon MG6200 series PT 1<br />Canon MG6200 series PT 2<br />Canon MG6200 series PT 3</p>

<p>Any ideas what all that means?<br>

Thanks again.</p>

 

[tim_mcmahon]

<p>Hi Dave<br>

Fine Art Photo Rag speaks for itself<br>

From memory:<br>

GL profiles are for Canon's "Glossy Photo Paper"<br>

SG profiles for Canon's "Photo Paper Plus Semi-Gloss"<br>

PT profiles are for Canon"s 'Platinum" series papers.<br>

Lower numbers are for higher quality. I never understood why you'd want to use the higher numbered ones.</p>

<p>Cheers</p>

<p>Tim</p>

<p>Tim</p>

[travismcgee]

<p>Thanks very much, Tim. That helps a lot!</p>