Canon Pro9000 and profile

[tony field]

I have a new Canon 9000 printer.  This is attached to a Window's XP system running PhotoShop CS3.  After profiling with the Greta  Macbeth i1, or if I use the provided ICC profiles, or if I run the generic driver, the resulting prints are over-saturated and contrasty.  Nor does it matter if the printer or photoshop manages the ICC profile.  I had no problems with my old Canon s9000 nor my Epson 4800.  This is not a case of "multiple profile loading".

Addi tonally, if I use gray scale printer output, there are a few rows of "banding" (for lack of a better term) at the leading edge of the print.  These are about 1/8 inch wide and are are spread maybe 1/2 inch apart.  This is not dependent upon paper size or brand - and takes place at the same location at the top of the page.

Yes, there is the 45mm warning from the driver about borders - and these few rows could be the type of "problem" expected.  If that is the case, it is rather a difficult problem to cope with since the primary use of this printer will be for B&W work (much nicer blacks with dye rather than pigment printers)

Any ideas if these are normal problems and what is the corrective process.

tony

[Jonathan Wienke]

You'll have to post your driver settings and your Photoshop color settings for anyone to be able to help. The most likely cause is that the driver is doing some kind of automated image adjustment (and you'll have to turn that off before you can make a valid profile for the printer). With Epson printers, there is a "no color adjustment" driver setting you have to turn on; make sure you've activated the equivalent driver setting for your printer. It's also possible some driver setting changed between printing the profile target and printing the image, or else you didn't let the target dry long enough before measuring it.

[haefnerphoto]

I use the printer with great success, although, I am working in OS10.3.9.  Here's the settings I use in CS2: Let Photoshop Determine Colors, Printer Profile is usually Canon Pro9000 PR1 (works well with glossy and semigloss papers), rendering intent is Perceptual and the Black Point Compensation is checked.  In the Canon driver under Quality and Media the media type is Photo Paper Pro (again for glossier papers) and print mode is set to detailed setting, print quality is set to fine.  Under Color Options, color correction is set to None and then fine tweeks can be applied to your color balance, contrast, etc.  Brightness is set to normal.  My experience is that B/W output (unless you're printing in greyscale) is problematic.  Truely neutral prints are impossible to achieve and the metamerism is terrible.  In greyscale the prints are neutral but I'm not sure I'm getting the best tonal gradations possible.  Also, the printer (which is usually incredibly fast) is quite slow.  For color output the printer works very well and since I'm working in advertising and use the printer to print portfolios, as well as, proofs for my clients to mark up for retouching, longevity is not an issue.  The small cartridges are a problem and I'm seriously considering a Canon 5100 (although I'm a bit concerned about the gloss differential).  I haven't experienced any of the problems you've encountered but perhaps using these settings will help.  Jim

[tony field]

You'll have to post your driver settings and your Photoshop color settings for anyone to be able to help.

The OS is Windows XP, 2gig mem, tons of disk
Monitor is calibrated with i1 or monaco
Windows ICC colour loader is used (essentially for the screen).


The original images I work with are either sRGB or Adobe RGB.  The "overcontrast" effect is very similar for either mode.

The working space is either sRGB or Adobe RGB.  Similar results in either mode.

Seven print color management options tried are:

(1)
color handling: printer manages colors
rendering intent: perceptual
canon printer preferences color/intensity: Manual
canon manual color adjustments:  color correction: ICM
canon print quality: custom (fine, diffusion)

(2)
color handling: printer manages colors
rendering intent: perceptual
canon printer preferences color/intensity: Auto
canon print quality: custom (fine, diffusion)

(3)
color handling: printer manages colors
rendering intent: perceptual
canon printer preferences color/intensity: ICM
input profile: Standard or Adobe (as per input image)
canon print quality: custom (fine, diffusion)

(4)
color handling: printer manages colors
rendering intent: perceptual
canon printer preferences color/intensity: Manual
canon manual color adjustments:  driver matching
color mode: standard
canon print quality: custom (fine, diffusion)

(5)
color handling: printer manages colors
rendering intent: perceptual
canon printer preferences color/intensity: Manual
canon manual color adjustments:  color correction: ICM
canon print quality: custom (fine, diffusion)

(6)
color handling: printer manages colors
rendering intent: perceptual
canon printer preferences color/intensity: auto
canon manual color adjustments:  color correction: ICM
canon print quality: custom (fine, diffusion)

(7)
color handling: Photoshop manages colors
printer profile: generated by Greta Macbeth i1 or Canon ICC profiles
rendering intent: perceptual
canon printer preferences color/intensity: manual
canon manual color adjustments:  none
canon print quality: custom (fine, diffusion)

In other words, all "reasonable" combinations were tried.

All combinations yield essentially the same results - oversaturated contrasty images that do not remotely match the screen display.

Similar setups for printing with ICC profiles to the Epson 4800 (or the Canon s9000 now donated to a worthy young photographer) yielded excellent images - screen and print match very well.

I also installed the Canon software / driver onto a laptop running WinXP home.  Similar results are noted.

Grayscale printing is poorly supported by their "you need a 45mm border at the top and bottom of the print" warning message  - seems like a mechanical transport issue that Canon does not want to address when running in the super-fine clean dots of the grayscale mode.  In fact, the grayscale option is one reason to select this printer because of the very good rendtion of bw image.  This is documented in the Pro9000 On-Screen manual.

Any ideas?

[tony field]

I use the printer with great success, although, I am working in OS10.3.9....

Thanks for the setup - yes, I tried essentially that with poor results.  The only difference is the operating system - maybe there is a problem in Win XP?