Color Matching Problem - Prints Too Red

[Johnny_Boy]

(I run on a MAC with NEC PA24 wide gamut monitor. Print directly from Photoshop using the Canon print driver plugin to Canon ipf8300)

Generally my prints match what I see on the screen close enough that I am happy with them and I move along. But I have ran into a couple images that just do not come out right. Usually they have way too much red tint to it and I have to balance the hack out of it to make it look like what I want. So far it only happened on two images, and both of them turned quiet red after being printed.

Any idea what is happening here? What should I look for or investigate to figure out what is happening?

[Clearair]

I use a Mac Pro, Eizo, Snow Leopard, iPf6100, PS5 and I use the same plugin.

Do your colour manage and get custom profiles for your work flow and have you re calibrated the printer at set up or if you have had it a while run this factory default using profiling paper??

I only experienced the infamous Red Canon if the above are not performed.

Regards

[bill t.]

In both my old 9880 and my current 8300 I have noticed a tendency for scenes with a lot of warm and dark colors to "feel" excessively red when printed on relatively low gamut media like matte canvases.  I think it's mostly because those media have gamuts that are a little challenged in the blue and green areas, but very aggressive in the red and yellow ranges.  Others may have different theories but I really don't think it's an issue with any specific printer.  It seems to be gamut related, and with the examples I have encountered is much less of a problem on wide gamut media than on low gamut media.

Actually, the photo I used for an example recently is a classic case in point.  It only started printing reasonably well when I first made custom matte canvas profiles for the 9880, but I still had to desaturate the reds and then pump the blues up until they were almost out of gamut.  When I made even better profiles for the 8300 I was able resaturate the reds a bit.  And now on glossy canvas and baryta the image prints nicely like what I see on screen, without special compensation, and what a joy that is.

But as mentioned, this only seems to apply to a few photos in particular categories resembling the example.  Sometimes you just have to deal with it.

[Johnny_Boy]

Do your colour manage and get custom profiles for your work flow and have you re calibrated the printer at set up or if you have had it a while run this factory default using profiling paper??

I only experienced the infamous Red Canon if the above are not performed.

Regards

I am using factory profiles for both papers that I am having issue (Canon RC Gloss and BC Elegance Velvet). I have not yet re-calibrated my printer since I installed it about 8 months ago using the factory paper. Do I need to redo that?

[Clearair]

I re calibrate the printer twice a year or if needed, using a colour proofing paper about which the Canon guide gives examples.
Not the papers I print on.
What about your colour management like monitor calibration and matching colour space etc??

It is my experience that some photos do indeed need to be manually sorted and are just a pain, and some media does have gamut issues. But
generally you should be able to get the colour balance you want with only the odd job needing more attention. If the paper or canvas prints are rubbish move on to another better product.

I only suggest avenues for you to try, have you studied the LL tutorials or read up on the subject. I ask as I don't know your level of printing
experience and it is a big animal to take on.

[GMB]

I have exactly the same issue, but only recently. Something suddenly is way off.

[Johnny_Boy]

(I am new to color management area about 1 year, but I read a lot here and I purchased the LL C2PS video and watched it several times. I re-calibrate my monitor about once a month. Generally it has very minor drift at that interval with NECs)

I re-calibrated the printer and realigned the print head last night, AFAICT, there was no discernible changes.

BTW, the Photoshop proofing is quite off for this image. It does not get darker or redder, but the print comes out quite a bit darker and redder.  With this particular image I was printing on BC Lyve and Elegance Velvet. Same problem on both. (on another image, I had the problem on Canon RC Gloss)

At first, I was heavily removing the overall red tint to get the image look right, but I could not quite get it to look right.

So last night, I decided to lighten the image overall first by creating the adjustment layer with Levels and adjusting the Black slider under Output Levels from 0 to 25. That seems to get it closer to what it should do. (I still had to do minor saturation bump and slight reduction in red/magenta)

It could be that if the image prints much darker than normal, for whatever reason either the profile or the printer seems to compensate the red saturation more than other colors, making the overall image look super red.

Try to lighten up the image first (as part of the print output compensation, not the original image) and see if that solves the problem first. It seems to get me 90% way to what I need.

(Attached below is the image that I was having trouble printing)
  

[namartinnz]

I have been having a similar problem with printing on my Z3100 - excessive red tones than what my calibrated monitor showed. What I did discover, when using Qimage, viewing the photo with the monitor profile turned off in Qimage, if the image was in rgb space, a preview of the image would show the excess red. Strangely enough if the file was Adobe rgb and previewed, the image wouldn't show the red, but still print the excess red. This has helped with my printing but I'm still wasting a lot of time with proof printing all the time.

This is with color managed profiles and calibrations. The issue is the same with my own generated profiles or the Z3100's own canned ones.

Neal

[Johnny_Boy]

I have been having a similar problem with printing on my Z3100 - excessive red tones than what my calibrated monitor showed.

Neal, are you seeing this problem on EVERY prints or only on certain prints? I only have issues with certain images, hence the weirdness.

[namartinnz]

It's only on matt papers like Breathing Color Chromata. My photo luster paper prints fine. Weird thing is, doing the previewing in Qimage it shows the excess red too, but the print is good. Also the issues are on prints with red in them - all other colours look great.

[GMB]

I did some tests last night.  For that I had purchased Ilford premium gloss paper.  Used the apropriate profile and print is spot on.  Printed the same on two different Canson papers (photo gloss and Baryta 310) using the latest profiles and paper selection recommendations from their website--red completely off and much too dominant  Printed a photo with almost no red on the Canson paper--no problem.

So it seems to be a profile/paper type choice problem, rather than a printer problem.

[macuser88]

It seems like you are doing everything right (calibration, colour management etc), but how are you viewing/evaluating the prints also?

A print-viewing booth provide the best controlled viewing atmosphere. Most ICC Printer Profiles are built for daylight. The print viewing booths include lighting presets for stores, offices, exhibition halls, etc.

I found an article from the Canon DLC blog that might help you solve your problem.

5 Tips for Evaluating Prints