New to the Canon Pro-4000; need some printing advice

[epines]

I just set up my Canon Pro-4000 a few days ago. Prior to this I had an Epson 7890, so I’m used to printing straight from Photoshop. For those of you who use this printer, a few questions:

- Are you printing from Photoshop or from Professional Print & Layout? And why? PPL seems to have more sophisticated / in-depth controls, but perhaps most of them are also available in Photoshop’s printing interface (haven’t done a detailed comparison yet). 

- Can you recommend a good tutorial for PPL?

- What settings do you recommend for B&W printing? (On my Epson, it was converting the image to sRGB and using Epson’s Advanced B&W controls.)

- For B&W printing, in Photoshop’s printing dialog, under Print Settings > Quality & Media, there’s a checkbox for “black and white photo print.” Should I check that box? What does it do?

- What maintenance do you recommend to avoid clogged nozzles? I used to leave my Epson on all the time and print a nozzle check 2-3 times per week. I don’t print a ton; probably once a week or so.

- Any advice on using the Chroma Optimizer?

Thank you,
ethan

[Panagiotis]

I just set up my Canon Pro-4000 a few days ago. Prior to this I had an Epson 7890, so I’m used to printing straight from Photoshop. For those of you who use this printer, a few questions:

- Are you printing from Photoshop or from Professional Print & Layout? And why? PPL seems to have more sophisticated / in-depth controls, but perhaps most of them are also available in Photoshop’s printing interface (haven’t done a detailed comparison yet). 

- Can you recommend a good tutorial for PPL?

I print from Lightroom and Qimage. I tried PPL but I find it cumbersome to use.

- What settings do you recommend for B&W printing? (On my Epson, it was converting the image to sRGB and using Epson’s Advanced B&W controls.)

- For B&W printing, in Photoshop’s printing dialog, under Print Settings > Quality & Media, there’s a checkbox for “black and white photo print.” Should I check that box? What does it do?

I used to print with the printer BW mode (the check box “black and white photo print.”) but I find that printing with the icc profile gives more pleasing results for BW.

- What maintenance do you recommend to avoid clogged nozzles? I used to leave my Epson on all the time and print a nozzle check 2-3 times per week. I don’t print a ton; probably once a week or so.

I don't do anything. I just leave the printer on. It takes care of itself. I have printed a nozzle check once when the printer was new to check that everything was ok.

- Any advice on using the Chroma Optimizer?

I leave it always to "Overall". That means it covers the whole page.

[epines]

Panagiotis -- thanks very much. This all makes sense. I'll do my own comparison for the two B&W printing options, but I suspect the ICC profile will be the winner. I've had a couple of custom profiles made for my favorite papers.

[epines]

Another question: What's the ideal PPI / DPI for this printer? On the Epson, from what I had learned, it was 360, followed by each 90-DPI increment downwards (270, 180).

thanks
e

[Panagiotis]

Another question: What's the ideal PPI / DPI for this printer? On the Epson, from what I had learned, it was 360, followed by each 90-DPI increment downwards (270, 180).

thanks
e

It is 300.

[John Caldwell]

My answers are much as Panagiotis has already responded:

1) Print from LR only
2) B&W is processed as as RGB image, printed with custom ICC profile. Results are good.
3) I print about every two weeks, on average, with no special care other than to maintain 45% RH at the printer
4) I've not found much difference in 300 or 360 dpi, but my work is not untra-critical in terms of print resolution as some may be.

I think I'm 18 months into the 4000 and am pleased. I've donated our Epson 9900 and 4900 machines with no regret aside from missing the 4900's cut sheet abilities. Since most of our printing is on roll paper, I've found the 2nd paper spool accessory, which I use as a take-up spool, to be really helpful. I never damage big prints anymore.

John Caldwell

[epines]

John Caldwell -- thank you, and happy new year.

e

[vikcious]

2) B&W is processed as as RGB image, printed with custom ICC profile. Results are good.

IMHO this is a NO, NO, NO! BWs, unless toned on purpose, should be printed using Canon PPL's Print Black and White Photo checkbox. Else it will result in other colors being used to "reproduce" BW tones...which is 100% wrong. I have tried this on my PRO-2000 and not heard it through the grapevine.

[henrikolsen]

IMHO this is a NO, NO, NO! BWs, unless toned on purpose, should be printed using Canon PPL's Print Black and White Photo checkbox. Else it will result in other colors being used to "reproduce" BW tones...which is 100% wrong. I have tried this on my PRO-2000 and not heard it through the grapevine.

Are you saying you have had your PRO-2000 print B&W using only grey and black Canon OEM inks with the BW driver setting, or "just" saying that the color ink mixing is different with that setting (optimized for BW but still using colored inks besides grey/black)?

[Panagiotis]

IMHO this is a NO, NO, NO! BWs, unless toned on purpose, should be printed using Canon PPL's Print Black and White Photo checkbox. Else it will result in other colors being used to "reproduce" BW tones...which is 100% wrong.

Since BW mode also mixes other colors to produce "Black and White" why is 100% wrong?

IMO a good icc profile gives more pleasing BW under various lighting conditions over the printers BW mode and also provides a more accurate preview (softproof).

[vikcious]

Are you saying you have had your PRO-2000 print B&W using only grey and black Canon OEM inks with the BW driver setting, or "just" saying that the color ink mixing is different with that setting (optimized for BW but still using colored inks besides grey/black)?

Hi henrikolsen,

Exactly so! Much to my surprise (or NOT since that's why I presume Canon chose to have a BW mode!) the printer goes for much more natural BW output for true, not toned, BW target images (less intrusive other supporting colors). It started with an accident where I forgot to tick the BW mode...

[vikcious]

Since BW mode also mixes other colors to produce "Black and White" why is 100% wrong?

Since, at least IMHO, Canon makes an awful more use of "supporting colors" in true BW than it should. Or it shouldn't at all while you're printing a full, not toned, BW pictures. Such color tainting, infusion, call it whatever is way more obvious in the Color mode than it is in the BW specialized mode.
You could event check it yourself in Accounting and look for the amounts of colors used in each mode for the same printed BW picture in the two mentioned modes.

IMO a good icc profile gives more pleasing BW under various lighting conditions over the printers BW mode and also provides a more accurate preview (softproof).

yes and no... also based on observation, given the already good neutral linearity of the PRO-x000 series, the differences are ... well, they are not. I would love to be able for a blind test but I live in Germany and don't have any knowledgeable pal around.