[solved] Color management hand-holding needed!

[darinb]

I print off and on, often with gaps of many months, and every time I do I have trouble getting the screen to match the printer, ugh!

I have a Mac mini M1, a BenQ SW271, and am printing to a Canon ipf8400 with Canson Edition Etching paper. I calibrated the monitor with i1 Display Pro.

My problem is that I'm getting greens on screen that are significantly lighter and more saturated than the print (a picture of a eucalyptus tree). Original was raw Fuji file.  I also ran a sRGB "test print" from the internet and there are no color casts but the saturation is a slightly too low. I have not yet tested for other high saturation colors other than the green (next on my list).

Using Photoshop but Lightroom produced the same result.

How to trouble-shoot?

I updated the driver for the i1 Display which seemed to help a little.

I find color management bewildering--not so much the concept but why this hasn't all been simplified by now!

Proof Setup is set to correct paper profile. Proof Colors is on.

Photoshop print dialog has correct paper profile, Photoshop manages colors. Perceptual with black point compensation. Printer driver dialog has Fine Art Textured selected (which matches Canson's instructions).

Printer is set to Special 5 or Fine Art Text, or the paper profile--doesn't seem to matter.

Obviously I've missed something important but where to start?

Thanks for any help--I've been a day and a half on this and not there yet...

--Darin

[PeterAit]

I know these are basic suggestions, but ... you are using soft proofing? And you are have either Lightroom OR the print driver apply the profile, not both?

[David Eckels]

Go to digitaldog.net

[darinb]

I know these are basic suggestions, but ... you are using soft proofing? And you are have either Lightroom OR the print driver apply the profile, not both?

Soft-proofing yes, double-profiling--maybe? In the driver dialog the "Color Matching" options are greyed out. I don't even see how I could double-profile if I wanted to, though I know that is a "thing."

Basic suggestions are welcome. I am very much a newbie very time I set up a printer.

--Darin

[darinb]

Just stumbled across a clue? In the Proof Setup Dialogue box if I *check* Preserve RGB numbers the soft proof is very close the the print output... The print is a just a tad warmer overall but otherwise I'm not seeing any weirdness in the greens or otherwise.

Not quite clear what "Preserve RGB numbers" does but isn't it supposed to be unchecked?

Update: It looks like "Preserve RGB Numbers" bypasses the icc--shows what the file would look like without color management? Since my print is a better match when this is checked does that suggest that the icc is not being applied to my print for some reason?

--Darin

[darinb]

Problem solved.

With the clue (above) that the icc profile might not be being used, I opened the ColorSync Utility and hit "verify" on my icc profiles. Everything failed. When I tried to use "Repair" only a few would repair--the others said they were locked.

Then I found this page:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251252127

which gave instructions for using Terminal to force the icc files to be repaired which, after two runs, it did.

Ran a test print using the normal settings (i.e. profiles set to my paper, "Preserve RGB numbers" turned off, etc), and the print is a near perfect match to the screen--slightly off in warmth which I can live with or recalibrate at a different temperature. No weirdness with the greens, and a much better looking print than the dull, lifeless "Preserve RGB numbers on" method.

I'm assuming what happened is that the icc fie was corrupted and so either Photoshop did not send it (without informing the user) or the Canon printer did not use it (without informing the user).

Fun! But at least I can print now.

--Darin

[RaffiCoffee]

That was a weird problem. Had not see that one before. Glad its resolved! Relax with coffee and print!