Problems with Pixma Pro-10 Printing Color

[Brookie]

Yesterday I was printing an image I had printed previously (year or so ago, but that time frame is irrelevant) and I was unable to get a print with the same range of color that I had before. Just to let you all know, here is what I have tried to rectify the situation:

1 - I ran a nozzle check print and it looked fine
2 - I performed a standard cleaning cycle and ran another nozzle check and of course it looked fine
3 - I performed a deep clean and ran another nozzle check and it too looks fine
4 - I checked my monitor calibration with an i1Studio and it passes just fine
5 - I reprinted the image in question but still got the same result - it is an image of fall foliage with nice red and orange  maple leaves - the red is basically missing from the print (yet the red had printed a year ago)

I am using soft proofing and an appropriate ICC profile for the paper I’m printing on.  I’m using the same soft proofing file that I printed on a year ago without making any changes. I’m using the same paper. The screen image looks fine.

Out of curiosity I looked through my images and found one with a wide range of colors that I had never printed before and prepped a fresh soft proof file to print from. This time I got some red in the print, but it is not a good match to the red on screen. Also, several other colors are a very poor reproduction of the colors in the monitor view - some light blue looks like royal blue, some bright sea foam green looks medium blue, some orange looks tangerine (that is a little closer at least).

In both images mentioned above there are out of gamut colors involved, so I know it is not going to be perfect.  What really puzzles me is why the print from a year ago looks much better yet uses the same file, settings, and paper. And that there is no apparent problem with the print head nozzles- no missing tracks of color in the nozzle check prints.  The out of gamut colors would have been the same when I printed last year.

Does anyone have any idea of what could be going wrong here?
Thanks for your input,
Dave Cornue

[Simon J.A. Simpson]

Has anything changed in your set-up (OS / new version of Photoshop or Lightroom / updated printer driver / something else ) ?

If you can, download a copy of a printer test file and print this (e.g. http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/printer-test-images/ ).

Solving this kind of problem is a process of elimination, one thing at a time; what has caused the change (and it will probably be something that is not obvious) ?

Good luck !

[Brookie]

Simon,
Great suggestion. Particularly since I’ve used the Datacolor test print (as on Keith’s link) since day one to test all of my potential paper sources AND I have kept all of those prints and files so I can just print from the same old file and compare to an older test using the same paper. I should have thought of that!  I’ll report back soon on results.
Thanks again for the suggestion!
Dave

[Brookie]

Simon,
I made a test image print of the Datacolor image linked on Keith’s North Light website link. For the test I used Red River Palo Duro Baryta Fiber and, after waiting a couple hours for good drying time, compared it to my original test print for that paper made over a year ago. Viewed under the same light:
1 - the new print does not match the screen
2 - the old print is a close match to the screen
3 - the two prints, of course, are a poor match to each other
4 - the new print has muddy reds and oranges, over saturated blues, and greens just don’t match up well between the two prints

So something has changed. Possibilities include:
1 - I am running on a MacBookPro with Catalina (have not upgraded to a Big Sur)
2 - I have loaded updates to LRC (which I print from) and PS in the time between the two prints
3 - The paper from the two prints came from different boxes purchased at different times - so maybe a different batch of paper
4 - earlier this spring I lowered my monitor luminance to 60 as I was still getting some prints that were a bit on the dark side when my BenQ monitor luminance was set to 80 

In both cases when I made the test image prints I did so with no changes made in soft proof, I printed the test images as if they were “perfectly processed files”, the only thing I did was set up the proper ICC profile, paper size and weight specs, and ran both in relative rendering intent. My understanding is that since I have not made any edits to the image files, the different luminance valves for the monitor should have no effect on the resulting print at all - please correct me if this belief is incorrect.

Also, the prints with problems that I mentioned in the OP were on different papers. The issues were similar to what I observed on the RR PDBF, but I did not run additional prints of those as I wanted to see what would happen on the paper I use the most. So I’m thinking that different batches of the paper probably aren’t the issue, I suppose they still could be......

So perhaps a difference in an intervening LRC update to the Print Module? Any other ideas as to the source(s) of my problem are appreciated.  I must admit that I am not completely comfortable/confident with LRC’s soft proofing process as I don’t feel I get results that are as good a match as I’d like to see. But perhaps I am expecting too much out of the soft proofing process?

Thanks to you and any others who can offer some insight on the issue,
Dave

[ColourPhil]

Hi,
There's a good chance that the Apple AirPrint driver has somehow been installed. This will cause those kinds of problems.

Check under System Information/Printers & Scanners/Options & Supplies.

https://www.colourphil.co.uk/printing-mac_colour_problems.shtml

If it has delete it (-) and add (+) the correct Canon driver. You'll need to wait for it to show.

Check the Canon site first for the latest driver.

[Simon J.A. Simpson]

ColourPhil has made a very good suggestion.  How did that work out ?

So, by printing a test file for comparison you have managed to eliminate the file as a source of the problem.

I doubt that a different batch of paper would produce such a big difference in the results.

The next thing to try and eliminate would be the printer.  Try making a print of the test file without using colour management (printer manages colour).  Can you get a good (but perhaps not perfect) print ?
Have you got access to another computer to which you can connect the printer ?  Will this produce a good print ?

The next thing to try is to eliminate the software.  Can you print using colour management using software other than Lightroom ?  Photoshop?  At a pinch you can use Apple’s Preview.

After trying these you then need to hone it down by trying to eliminate all the steps in the colour management pipeline.  Are all the settings correct ?  Could it be the profile (can you try a different profile) ?

It’s often a long and tedious process to identify the cause.  Patience and a methodical approach will get you a solution in the end.

[Brookie]

Thanks for the suggestions from you both. I will give them a try, soon I hope - some other demands are pulling me away right now.....

I don’t use this printer in AirPrint mode, but I will definitely check to see if the setting was changed unknowingly.

Who was it said so many years ago that computers would make our lives easier?  Too often I question whether or not that is true...... LOL!!

Best Light,
Dave

[Simon J.A. Simpson]

Once you've resolved this it would be good if you could share as this can help other people.