Colors changed dramatically printing with a Canon PRO-4000 on Windows

[eduardohagio]

Hi!
I've searched in this forum something that could help me fix a problem I've got printing with my Canon ImagePrograf Pro-4000, but I haven't found anything so far. So please forgive me if I am repeating something already solved.

I used to print on my Pro-4000 from my Macbook, but now I'm trying to print from a Windows PC - and I'm not being able to fix a color issue that came up. I've heard of some tricky check boxes for color management that I'm supposed to pay attention when printing on Windows, but it doesn't matter how much I try, I keep having the same problem. I'll show some pictures  for you to understand that (sorry, I'm Brazilian, and my printer driver's in Portuguese).

Picture 1 is my print menu, with Photoshop managing colors with my (canned) ICC profile.
Picture 2 shows the printer driver, with color configuration set to "None" ("Desligado").
Picture 3 shows the "Layout" tab with "Special Settings" window: "Application Color Matching Priority" set to "On" and "Disable the color profile setting of the application software" to "Off".
And Picture 4 shows the colors that are actually printed (here, in Print Preview, but the same happens with the print in the real world).

I've tried printing from Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop, and the problem happens in both softwares. I've also changed the image to print, with different color profiles, but the weird printed colors still happen with more or less the same aspect. My printer is ok about ink levels, printing head, nozzle etc, since I have tested printing again from my Macbook and things worked perfectly. Same about the ICC profile, as it is the same I use from Mac - and also, soft proof preview shows no issue. I've also tried changing the ICC profile (both Canson canned and home-made), but the changes in color still happen the same way.
I've checked all the issues that Canon Manual provides, but nothing happened: adjusting color in printer driver, calibrating the monitor, checking the nozzles, calibrating printer colors, setting Application Color Matching Priority to "off" in the driver...  It doesn't matter the combinations I set, the colors are still very different from the original file. The only change happens when I set the printer to manage the colors itself: they get closer to the original file, but still far from a good, controlled print that I can reach from Macbook.
I've also tried reinstalling the printer driver, upgrading to the last version, but nothing new happened. Oh, I'm on a Windows 7, by the way. And via USB connection.
I guess it might be something very simple that I'm not seeing, or understanding, since I'm not that familiar with Windows OS... so if you have a clue what it can be, it'll be really appreciated

Thanks!

Eduardo

[dehnhaide]

Why not print directly using either Canon's Print Studio Pro plugin for Photoshop or Lightroom and spare yourself from all this trouble?

You could also try the newer Canon Professional Print and Layout plugin instead of PSP, also available in LR and PS!


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[dehnhaide]

I remember seeing an advice from Doug Gray on how one should print using Photoshop managing colors:

"For printing a regular image say, in Adobe RGB, you would first convert from Adobe RGB into the desired printer profile setting intents as desired then select that same profile to print it from Photoshop similar to your example."

Question: have you converted you picture to the printer profile prior to sending it for printing with the described workflow?


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[Panagiotis]

I print from Win 10 to PRO-4000 with no problems. Your settings seem fine.

And Picture 4 shows the colors that are actually printed (here, in Print Preview, but the same happens with the print in the real world).

The print preview shows weird colors in my case too. This happens because print preview is not a colored managed application. The actual prints are fine though.

I would suggest what was already suggested that is to try Professional Print and Layout plugin. This plugin bypass the regular printer driver completely. If this not work try LAN connection to eliminate any USB issues.

EDIT: I just noticed that you are using as a media type "Papel Fine Art Pesado" with Canson profile for Rag Photographique 310. The Canson profile was made with a custom media type. You should use this custom media type and not "Papel Fine Art Pesado". Canson provides an am1x file for this purpose.

[Doug Gray]

I remember seeing an advice from Doug Gray on how one should print using Photoshop managing colors:

"For printing a regular image say, in Adobe RGB, you would first convert from Adobe RGB into the desired printer profile setting intents as desired then select that same profile to print it from Photoshop similar to your example."

Question: have you converted you picture to the printer profile prior to sending it for printing with the described workflow?

That was a workaround to print using PSP with BPC or Abs. Col. intents which PSP does not directly provide. Not applicable here. Suggest always going through PSP for Pro2000 and above per Mark's review.

[eduardohagio]

Hi guys! Thank you for your help!
Hm, I haven’t thought about Canon plugins... that may work! I’ll try it tomorrow (I’m traveling today) and write here the results.
No, I haven’t converted the picture to the printer profile yet. I’ll try that too to see what happens
And yes, my mistake setting “Papel Fine Art Pesado” in that case; that’s the paper I use with my own ICC profile - but even with the custom profile provided by Canson the colors still plot weird.
Thank you all again


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[I.T. Supplies]

Are you having the software or hardware manage colors when using the profile?  If you have the software manage, make sure you turn off the color management in the print driver so it's not double profiling, which can be the cause of the colors looking off still.

If you need direction on where to turn it off on the driver, go through the print process and the "Print Settings" option.  When you get to the printer pop-up, the first tab should options for printing (may be slightly different with Mac).  Choose the option for "Color/Intensity Manual Adjustment" and the Manual Color Adjustment window should be provided (again, probably different in Mac).  Matching section and select "none" under Color Correction.  This will have the profile being used in the software to be applied only instead of double profiling the print by accident.

[ShirleyB]

I also notice that you used Perceptual rendering intent, try using Relative Colourimetric  instead, that is always my first go-to.  I find that if I have problems with red then Percetual comes out better, but for all else I use Relative.  The 2 intents treat the out of gamut colours differently. Shirley

[eduardohagio]

Hi everybody!
Thanks for your replies! Let me tell you some news:

Why not print directly using either Canon's Print Studio Pro plugin for Photoshop or Lightroom and spare yourself from all this trouble?

You could also try the newer Canon Professional Print and Layout plugin instead of PSP, also available in LR and PS!


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Yes, I've installed Canon Professional Print and Layout plugin, and it worked perfectly! No more greenish blues instead of blue, or purple instead of pink. Thanks @dehnhaide for that!
One thing I noticed is that the colors seem to be a bit more intense here than with the process I was used to in Mac (printing from Ps or Lr). Jeff Schewe said in "The Digital Pring" [p. 198] that the output gamut with the plug-in was bigger, but I hadn't tested that previously.
Just one question for those used to the plugin: it doesn't have an option to change the output resolution, right? I searched for that option, but didn't find anything.
But that's just for me to know; the print test I did is great anyway.

I remember seeing an advice from Doug Gray on how one should print using Photoshop managing colors:

"For printing a regular image say, in Adobe RGB, you would first convert from Adobe RGB into the desired printer profile setting intents as desired then select that same profile to print it from Photoshop similar to your example."

Question: have you converted you picture to the printer profile prior to sending it for printing with the described workflow?


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Oh, and I haven't tried converting the image to the ICC profile yet, as suggested here. I'll tell the results as soon as I do this.

Thanks!
Eduardo