Canon Pro-1000, Lightroom 16-bit printing question

[rick_k]

In order to use Canon's 16-bit print driver from Lightroom do I have to print through Print Studio Pro plugin via the menu options of File -> Plugin Extras -> Canon Print Studio Pro or will I be able to print directly from Lightroom using the Print button in the lower right and it will use the 16-bit drivers?

Thanks,

Rick

[Mark D Segal]

I was printing directly from LR without using Print Studio Pro, and if I remember correctly using 16-bit. Sorry I don't have the printer on hand to confirm that detail, but I can get a definitive take on this within a few days from now. Print Studio Pro is a handy GUI for assembling all the key settings in one place and has a few other interesting features, but not an essential tool.

[Sbarroso]

Printing in real 16 bits directly from LR or PS would be a nice and useful feature. Smoth BW gradients like those found in skies profit from it (8bits shows banding). As I' ve described in other posts, with the pixma pro 1 is necessary BOTH the XPS driver and the canon plug in Print Studio Pro to print in actual 16bits. It seems that Adobe does not fully suport XPS, so it sends actual 8 bits data to the Canon XPS driver  (the non XPS driver is only 8 bits).

Looking forward for the test results.

[GrahamBy]

My experience with the Pro-100 and W10 is that printing direct from LR5.7 is a pita... you can't change paper size from the print panel, you have to go to the printer config. However having done that, the changes still do not show up in the LR print panel, so you can't set the margins etc (well sometimes, due to some random set of circumstances).

So changing paper size means: go to print mode, click printer, change paper size in the printer driver, close. *Exit* print mode, then re-enter to force it to load the new paper size from the printer driver. Set margins, and be sure you've emptied the printer queue (or you will print the wrong size), then hit print.

Changing to ABW mode also needs to be done through the printer config...

Using PPS, all that is done from the same place... I assume the same is true for PPS2.

[Ellis Vener]

Thanks Mark, Santiago and Graham,

Might a good test  to see if one's printing  data path is either 8 or 16 bit data,  whether printing directly from Lightroom or Photoshop or another program, or if using a supported Canon printer, through  the Canon Print Studio Pro plug-in for Lr and Ps,  will be similar to A. Rodney's check for banding with displays? in Photoshop  create an empty document in 16-bit ProPhoto RGB and fill it with a monotone gradiant and then print through the applications or plug-in you are using? 

If this is a good procedure and works on a pure neutral grays scale, could that method  then be used with colors to see, so you visually learn,  exactly where colors start going out of gamut with a specific printer, and and media combination?

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

In order to use Canon's 16-bit print driver from Lightroom do I have to print through Print Studio Pro plugin via the menu options of File -> Plugin Extras -> Canon Print Studio Pro or will I be able to print directly from Lightroom using the Print button in the lower right and it will use the 16-bit drivers?

Hi Rick,

AFAIK the use of the XPS printer driver is mandatory (under Windows) to get 16-bit /channel output. On a Mac OS I don't know if it works, maybe things changed with the 'El Capitan' version, but I recall that 16-b/ch was not possible earlier.

The difference is very hard to see in print though, so I'm happy with 8-b/ch but then I can add some dithering after profile conversion and output sharpening with Qimage Ultimate that simulates a 9-b/ch pipeline and is effective in concealing minor posterization issues.

Cheers,
Bart

[Sbarroso]

Ellis,

The self-made gradient in a 16 bits file should be a good procedure to check for banding when printing. The best would be a gradient around grays brighter than mid-gray, not from white to black nor too dark grays (unless you whant to print very large). With a 16 bit image the profile is irrelevant.

I could see banding with my Canon pixma pro-1 (**using LR**) with this picture (the actual file was a processed raw, not this 8 bits jpg, of course):
https://flic.kr/p/rnMFte

To check out of gamut colors, the method (preferentially ProPhoto color space) could give you an indication, but visually it's going to be hard to determine the end points (I guess).

Santiago


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Ellis Vener]

Ellis,

The self-made gradient in a 16 bits file should be a good procedure to check for banding when printing. The best would be a gradient around grays brighter than mid-gray, not from white to black nor too dark grays (unless you whant to print very large). With a 16 bit image the profile is irrelevant.

I'll try that tonight on 8.5x11 gloss stock and report back. Thanks for the advice

[Mark D Segal]

I was printing directly from LR without using Print Studio Pro, and if I remember correctly using 16-bit. Sorry I don't have the printer on hand to confirm that detail, but I can get a definitive take on this within a few days from now. Print Studio Pro is a handy GUI for assembling all the key settings in one place and has a few other interesting features, but not an essential tool.

Further to my previous comment quoted above I now have the detailed confirmation I was looking for. On Mac OSX, the Lightroom (LR) Print module has a provision for selecting 16-bit output. Check that box and the Canon driver for Mac will respect it. On Windows, LR has no 16-bit check-box, hence 16-bit printing is done from LR by selecting the Pro-1000 XPS printer (i.e. XPS driver).

[rick_k]

Thanks everyone for the info.

I tried printing with the XPS driver and that worked fine but I noticed that in light areas there isn't much Chroma Optimizer put down so there is a lot of gloss differential when printing on the Canson Baryta. I don't see a way in Lightroom or in the XPS driver to instruct it to lay down the CO over the entire picture like there is in Print Studio Pro. By light I'm talking RGB values in the 90 to 92% range in the lightroom histogram.

[Mark D Segal]

I am informed that the chroma optimizer is deployed as default.

[cybis]

I could see banding with my Canon pixma pro-1 (**using LR**) with this picture (the actual file was a processed raw, not this 8 bits jpg, of course):
https://flic.kr/p/rnMFte

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

When I tested this on an Epson 9900 (not a Canon), I came to the conclusion that it was impossible to observe any lack of smoothness in any printed 16-bit gradient that was first converted to 8-bit with dithering, and that the dithering was completely hidden by the printer's intrinsic dithering pattern.

I wonder if you could test this with your printer: First convert that 16-bit image to the printer profile then down-sample to 8-bit with dithering, then print with color management turned off. Compare the result with the same image converted to the printer profile but kept in 16-bit, also printed with color management turned off. It could be that all these printers are only 8-bit capable devices and that the driver's 16-bit option only applies to the color profile conversion done by the printer driver if any.