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Author Topic: Canon Pro9500 Mark II Color Managemen in OSX Lion  (Read 11289 times)

sightbliss

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Canon Pro9500 Mark II Color Managemen in OSX Lion
« on: December 27, 2012, 06:23:58 am »

Hi All,

I am having some hard time trying print on my Canon Pro9500 Mark II.

Basically i am trying to print from Photoshop CS5 few B&W pictures. Whatever profile i have tried selecting from Print menu ("Print" -> "Color Handling" -> "Photoshop manages color" + "Print Setting" -> "Color Matching"),  the print result does not match even close what i have on the screen. The print has very bad contrast and it looks overexposed.

Recently i have purchased an i1Display Pro because i thought that maybe my iMac has some issues with calibration. After i calibrated the screen i now have better  contrast  and color on screen but the print still sucks as much as before.

Mainly i suspected that the problem was related to the fact that on the printer i have there is no way (at least i could not find how) to disable "Printer's color management from the print setting". Based on this i started searching the web but up to this point i could not see any clear answer to what is going and how to fix this issue or if not fixing it entirely at least to have close match between screen and the print.
I have seen people suggesting to set the color management to "Generic RGB" but for this did not provide any improvement.


Can someone help ?
 
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kingscurate

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Re: Canon Pro9500 Mark II Color Managemen in OSX Lion
« Reply #1 on: December 27, 2012, 08:09:25 am »

Once the print dialogue comes up select printer settings go to main tab, look for color/intensity and click manual then select set. A new dialogue box opens goto matching and select none. Give that a try.
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sightbliss

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Re: Canon Pro9500 Mark II Color Managemen in OSX Lion
« Reply #2 on: December 27, 2012, 01:37:30 pm »

There is not such option as color/intensity. There is color matching option but as i said i cannot disable it.
I have attached 2 screenshots so you can see what option there is available and that i cannot disable Colorsync. Any clue?
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kingscurate

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Re: Canon Pro9500 Mark II Color Managemen in OSX Lion
« Reply #3 on: December 27, 2012, 02:14:03 pm »

on the first screen shot right above the second dialogue box says "print settings", that should, it does on win 7 and a pro 9000mk2, throw up the canon printer dialogue box which is diferent to the screenshots you have uploaded.
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kingscurate

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Re: Canon Pro9500 Mark II Color Managemen in OSX Lion
« Reply #4 on: December 27, 2012, 02:26:49 pm »

Or if on the 2nd screenshot, i would try color options.
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sightbliss

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Re: Canon Pro9500 Mark II Color Managemen in OSX Lion
« Reply #5 on: December 27, 2012, 07:12:44 pm »

The "Print Setting" is the small window that you have in the first screenshot (originally is the first big window but if i click "Print Setting" than i get the small window also.

About your second thought regarding "Color Options" i cannot set almost anything in there (in terms of disabling color management). See the next 3 attachments.

« Last Edit: December 27, 2012, 07:15:54 pm by sightbliss »
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Mac Mahon

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Re: Canon Pro9500 Mark II Color Managemen in OSX Lion
« Reply #6 on: December 29, 2012, 04:08:57 am »

Under Mac OSX, if you choose "Photoshop manages Colours" in the print dialogue, the OS automatically invokes Colorsync and automatically disables Color Management (unlike Windows where as I recall you can still set/overide that choice).  You don't need to do any more in that regard.

But you need to ensure that you apply the appropriate paper profile in the print dialog, and the correct media setting for the paper you're using, in the print driver.

If you are doing all this,and the monitor profile is good, then I'd have thought the only(?) possible explanations for very bad matching would appear to be a bad printer profile, and/or an ink malfunction in the printer.  Head clean?

(PS are you using Canon OEM inks? - if not you will need to build your own profile for the paper:  Canon's canned profiles are built using, and assume, their own inks, obviously)

Tim

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kingscurate

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Re: Canon Pro9500 Mark II Color Managemen in OSX Lion
« Reply #7 on: December 29, 2012, 05:41:15 am »

I know nothing of how a mac works, i assumed the windows may have been of help. Everything Mac Mahon makes sense.
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sightbliss

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Re: Canon Pro9500 Mark II Color Managemen in OSX Lion
« Reply #8 on: December 29, 2012, 09:19:01 pm »

Hi Tim,

Many thanks for your reply. I see your point however I use the canon profile for the exact paper i have feed the printer with. Also the ink is canon ink for this printer (it came with the printer).. If you are correct than not sure what is going on anymore...It is true however i did not use the printer for a while since i bought it but with all the tests i was doing i assume that this should not be a problem because i see no lines (vertical/horizontal) on the print so the head seem to be clean.  
« Last Edit: December 29, 2012, 09:24:34 pm by sightbliss »
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Mac Mahon

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Re: Canon Pro9500 Mark II Color Managemen in OSX Lion
« Reply #9 on: December 31, 2012, 07:15:26 pm »

OK.  Time for some diagnostic work!

As a first step rule out print head/ink clog issues by printing two* images using "printer manages" rather than applying a profile. 

If you choose the right media setting for your paper the match may not be superb, but should not be hopelessly out. 
  • If there is a really bad mismatch under "printer manages", then the issue is almost certainly to do with the ink flow, or head. I'd run a head cleaning cycle first.
  • If the match is much better than you're getting when trying to apply the profile there is something else going wrong in your color management workflow (which we could diagnose further).


Tim

* two images:  choose standard  test images so as to rule out any possible issues with your own files:   a colour one such as this one  and a black and white test image such as this one.  Incidentally those two sites contain vast amounts of great information on colour management.

PS Which paper are you using?  Which Profile?  The 9500 is a pigment ink printer:  as you probably know some papers work better with dye-based inks than pigment.
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sightbliss

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Re: Canon Pro9500 Mark II Color Managemen in OSX Lion
« Reply #10 on: January 03, 2013, 07:00:52 pm »

Hi Tim,

Just wanted to thank you for all your help. I did couple of more steps and tests and it seem that i had a major breakthrough.

Originally i downloaded the first image sample you recommended and i did a print of that... it was way off. The lady had blue eyes just like in the Dune book. Basically all the colors were washed out and there was no pure black anywhere in the print sample.
 
Next i did a printer head cleaning (even though i suspected this should not be an issue because there were no sign of lines in the print but i did it anyway). Than i decided to install the canon software called "Easy photo print" and i did a test with that one. After i clicked "Print" button i was given a warning that i should select the profile "Default" from the Printer Settings otherwise the results will be unexpectedly bad. I did so and the print was just perfect.
I then went into Photoshop and i did all the settings as before but i left the "Default" in the Settings instead of anything i used before and voila everything went very well there also.

Looking at the profile of "Default" i can see that while struggling in the past with the tests i actually used a similar preset (see the screenshots sRGB) but the results were bad at that time.

Now i am not sure if by installing the Canon Easy photo print has anything to do with the results i am seeing (i guess it does not) but i am quite sure the "Default" option in the Printer Settings helps. However as i said before i used a similar preset before (you can see my sRGB preset = current Default). It is really strange and i hope i will not run across this thing ever again.

Just to go a bit further to make a comparison between the Canon software and Photoshop, i prefer the print resulted from canon easy photo print. The difference is subtile but i can see more gray tones. But in any case now i am 98% same image on the screen as on the actual print.

Thanks again,
George
« Last Edit: January 03, 2013, 07:06:57 pm by sightbliss »
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Mac Mahon

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Re: Canon Pro9500 Mark II Color Managemen in OSX Lion
« Reply #11 on: January 03, 2013, 09:18:33 pm »

Hi George
Glad to see there is some progress. 

sRGB is not a print profile:  it's a generic 'abstract' profile and if it works for printing that's luck rather than design. While it has given you enough of a match to rule out printer problems, I'm sure you can do better.

I see you are using Canon's Photo Paper plus semi-gloss.  Canon's canned profiles for that paper should look something like "Canon Pro9500 SG1.icc".  If you use Canon's profile rather than sRGB when using Photoshop you'll get a much better match:  possibly only bettered by having a custom profile made, but that may be a step too far just now.

There's a 'sticky' with some screen shots of how to configure Photoshop CS5 here. After you select Photo Paper Plus Semigloss and High Quality as your media settings, see if there is a profile ending in SG1.icc  in the dropdown under 'printer profile', and try the standard file again.  It will be better!

Tim

Edit:  remove suggested SP1
« Last Edit: January 04, 2013, 05:32:18 pm by Mac Mahon »
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sightbliss

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Re: Canon Pro9500 Mark II Color Managemen in OSX Lion
« Reply #12 on: January 04, 2013, 08:00:12 pm »

Hi Tim,

I have double checked the settings and i am already using the paper profile that i have for the media type.
However am not sure if in your email you are referring to media type or to the color matching setting or both? .
 
The reason why i am asking this is because i cannot tweak the color matching to anything but sRGB unless i do a bit of a dance and i first set in photoshop "Printer manages color". After i do this i can go in color matching and under ColorSync i can see my profiles and i can select SG profile. Only then i can go back to photoshop and i can say "Photoshop manages colors" so in the end both photoshop and printer setting will point to the same thing SG.

If i do the reverse order however 1. Set "Photoshop manages colors" 2. Printer settings color management, I cannot set anything under that ColorSync meny because it is grayed out so i will always end up with sRGB.

I see that in the tutorial you kindly provided the author did not touch the color matching. If possible maybe you can clarify this a bit for me.

I have attached 3 screenshots with what i have as settings (expanded).


« Last Edit: January 04, 2013, 08:17:26 pm by sightbliss »
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kingscurate

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Re: Canon Pro9500 Mark II Color Managemen in OSX Lion
« Reply #13 on: January 05, 2013, 04:25:17 am »

On your last post, the first screen shot, one of the dialogues says default preset does this need altering? As i see it when using a windows system photoshop does all the colour management, no defaults involved apart from paper size and the canon print profile. I would try to speak to canon support.
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Mac Mahon

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Re: Canon Pro9500 Mark II Color Managemen in OSX Lion
« Reply #14 on: January 05, 2013, 03:21:39 pm »

Hi again George

I think the middle screenshot - showing the default preset - may be misleading you.  It's not relevant when you choose to apply the correct profile with "Photoshop Manages Colors'

As soon as you set 'Photoshop Manages Colors' in Photoshop's print module, Colorsync kicks in and applies whatever profile you selected (which, according to your first screen shot, is the correct one for Canon PPSG).  Further colour management is disabled by the system, and all options are quite rightly greyed out - you don't want arbitrary changes messing up the colour matching that the profile provides. 

Your third screen shot suggests you chose the semi-gloss preset in the printer driver, which sets the media type and quality, correctly.

If you're not getting a better match between printer and monitor with those settings than you did with "printer manages" , and if the printer is working well, (full inks, no clogs etc.) I wonder whether the profile is damaged.  Try downloading the latest printer driver (from Canon, not Apple) and reinstalling it.

Tim

PS All this assumes you're using Canon's inks (OEM inks) because its that ink-paper combination the profile is created for.  If you're using third party inks you'd need a custom profile made.
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kingscurate

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Re: Canon Pro9500 Mark II Color Managemen in OSX Lion
« Reply #15 on: January 06, 2013, 01:31:20 pm »

As a thought, rather than trying to set everything in PS, why dont you create your own preset under your printer properties? And then use that preset when you get print in PS. I know i can do this in windows, you must be able to access your printer properties in a mac im sure.
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