Canon Pro9500 - Fine Art Photo Rag Problem

[MBehrens]

I've been making prints with the Canon Papers on the this printer for some time now and recently decided to investigate some of the fine art papers. The results on the Canon Fine Art Paper "Photo Rag" is terrible. The prints are very gray and any skin tones go to red and everything is blotchy. I know how to turn off color management in the printer driver, the image looks fine on screen, I'm sure that I'm printing on the correct side of the paper (Canon description: a post-it note will stick better to the printing side - OK). I'm using the icc profile - 9500_FA_PR1_FAPR_D50. Print res = 300, sharpening = standard, Rendering intent = relative. Oh, and using LR3.3 on windows 7.

What might I be doing wrong?

[neile]

First easy thing to check: are you also setting the correct media type in the printer driver?

Neil

[ronmart]

a picture is worth a thousand words. Attach or send me screen shots of what you have for the printer driver and host application settings.

I keep screen shots of these for every print (yes, every) because it's so easy to overlook something.

I have a iPF6300 so I don't have the same exact printer, but I've got enough experience with that paper to be able to at least verify if you are doing everything properly. While rare, it's not unheard of for even built-in paper profiles to not be very good sometimes. I don't think that is the case here though because that's a pretty popular paper.

Ron

[MBehrens]

Ah ha, Media type is exactly the issue, Thanks!
Reds are still a little saturated but I can work with that. Attached the screen shots of my driver settings. Pretty confident with everything except the Print Quality settings, should I just use "High" or make custom settings to match the ICC profile. And then if custom, Halftoning - use Auto or Diffusion? I've tried both and don't see that much difference.

[ronmart]

What is the host application you are printing from (i.e., Lightroom, Photoshop, other) and the dialogs for it as well?

It's the combo of both the host application and driver that determines the final results.

I also don't see where you are specifying your paper profile. Let's see all of the the Matching and Color Adjustment tabs.

[neile]

If you are printing using profiles supplied by Canon they have the name of the quality setting you're supposed to use right in the display and/or file name of the profile. I wouldn't over think it, and would just match what they say to use.

When making your own custom profile I'd again keep it simple and go with highest and be done with it.

Glad the paper type was the issue, 'tis an easy thing to mix up but also an easy thing to fix!

Neil

[neile]

I should add that my comment regarding the quality being in the profile name is true of the 8300 and 5100 profiles, so I assume it carries down to the 9500.

Neil

[MBehrens]

Yeah, as I understand it the number 1 in 9500_FA_PR1_FAPR_D50 indicates the quality level to set.

Using Lightroom 3.3 (LR3.4 has an issue with tethered shooting on my 7D, so I reverted to 3.3) Print Job settings attached.

Color adjustments are all at driver defaults - see attached.

Thanks.

[ronmart]

I'm using the iPF6300 so I don't have the same print options you do, so I'm not sure what to set the halftoning to. I'd probably just set it to Auto unless you have reliable info that says to do otherwise.

Everything else is looking okay, but you can also try experimenting and printing another with Perceptual just to see if you like how it handles your reds better than Relative Colormetric (RC). For Epson's I do RC all the time, but for Canon I find myself preferring Perceptual (and especially Perceptual (People & Dark Places) when it its offered).

If all else fails see if you can find someone who has generated a custom profile for this paper to see if the issue is the profile itself (not unheard of). I like the ColorMunki Photo for doing basic paper profiles, but better ones can be done with more expensive hardware and software. If you have a friend with a ColorMunki Photo, you can borrow theirs and give it a try on your printer to see if it solves the problem.

NOTE: I'm assuming your display is properly calibrated so what you see on screen is close to what you see in print.