Any reason my prints look cold, dark and slightly magenta

jetpack

jetpack

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Lyle
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I've just got the Canon Pixma Pro 100s. Admittedly I've only had a quick play with it until I've had to come out. However, after 3 attempts printing direct from Lightroom all of my prints look very cold, dark and magenta. They have no warmth whatsoever.

I tried tweaking with the printer settings a little but nothing changed. I will start troubleshooting but wondered if anyone had any wisdom they'd like to impart before I work my way through all of the expensive ink and paper I have?

Thanks in advance, Lyle.
 
jetpack said:
I've just got the Canon Pixma Pro 100s. Admittedly I've only had a quick play with it until I've had to come out. However, after 3 attempts printing direct from Lightroom all of my prints look very cold, dark and magenta. They have no warmth whatsoever.

I tried tweaking with the printer settings a little but nothing changed. I will start troubleshooting but wondered if anyone had any wisdom they'd like to impart before I work my way through all of the expensive ink and paper I have?

Thanks in advance, Lyle.
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I would suggest having your monitor calibrated first Lyle before trying any more prints.
If your prints are coming out dark, it may well be due to the brightness of your screen.
 
Get a monitor calibration device and run a calibration on your monitor. Then, check and possibly adjust your pictures to look correct again.
Now you are in a better position to judge the prints. You might need to make further adjustments, at the printer end.

Also when working on the pictures on the computer, be aware that the room lighting colour and brightness will affect your opinion of the correct colour balance. Same goes for judging the final prints.
 
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As above get your monitor calibrated and then make sure you're using the correct print profiles during the proofing stage in lightroom or whatever software you're using.
 
jetpack said:
Nice one chaps, that's one for me to try then. I'll give it a go and report back.
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Even the type of paper used will influence it, which is why it's important to get the right colour profiles for the paper you're using too. It's a real headache if you want it to be exact tbh.
 
Argh I was anticipating this to be a little easier. I do have the right paper set up on the printer but it sounds like I need to do more than that. I'm committed to getting decent prints so I'll keep working at it.
 
Having set up my monitor and an earlier Epson Printer to agree well enough, which settings translated well to a cheap Canon A4 printer, I found my Pixma Pro 100 had a sling magenta cast. It was easily removed using the colour test calibration prints the Pixma software provides, which show the effects a range of minor tweaks around d a central setting. Don't ask me now how I did it! It seemed pretty straight forward at the time just following the instructions provided. Note that the printer has a lot of detail in the deep blacks which it takes a good light to see.
 
jetpack said:
Guys I'm back in my office and looking in to this. Do I need to purchase a calibration tool - they look to be about £300 - is that right??
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You don't need to spend that much. A second hand one from eBay will do the job.
 
jetpack said:
Guys I'm back in my office and looking in to this. Do I need to purchase a calibration tool - they look to be about £300 - is that right??
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Before spending that sort of money I'd want to be sure this is the right way to go.

I wonder have you printed at home before and if so what were the results? I'm always a bit phased when people suggest calibrating the monitor as a solution to printing issues as if this was the case you'd have to be doing something in post processing to make the shots look cold and magenta, are you? Or your camera / settings was the issue. If you haven't printed at home before maybe you can take a pen drive somewhere and print a shot out and compare it to your home prints?

I remember having issues with my Epson and dark prints and one of the suggestions was the usual, calibrate the monitor, but I reasoned that if this was the problem either I was causing the issue in post processing (I wasn't) or my camera was causing the problems by under exposing every shot (and this just wasn't the case) so I saved the cost of a needless and expensive monitor calibration.

So, that's my advice. Think about the possible causes and if at all possible print a picture using another printer or computer and printer before going out and spending hundreds on what could potentially be needless calibration software.
 
Yes you might find an easy fix for the printing calibration. But calibrating the monitor is certainly not needless if you are spending time on PP.
Even if it is just for web use, you don't know if other people are seeing it the same as you do.

I bought a second hand one (Spyder) very cheaply off Amazon. But you could also borrow one.
 
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I bought an earlier Spyder model, used but mint and boxed, on Amazon for less than £40.
 
ianp5a said:
Yes you might find an easy fix for the printing calibration. But calibrating the monitor is certainly not needless if you are spending time on PP.
Even if it is just for web use, you don't know if other people are seeing it the same as you do.

I bought a second hand one (Spyder) very cheaply off Amazon. But you could also borrow one.
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No, it's not needless and it seems to be the standard reply in threads like this but it might not be the problem and certainly I think that thought is required before spending any money. That's all I'm saying. My experience has been that printer profiles and setup have been the problem rather than quite minor colour differences between the screen and the print. The dark print issue for me was definitely caused by the printer/printer profiles and setup and if something else had been the cause it would have had to have been the camera under exposing or me backing off the exposure post capture and neither were the case.
 
Guys I've fixed the problem and feel slightly foolish.

After carrying out a nozzle check I realised that 4 of the colours weren't printing at all and some blots of ink were on the paper too. I decided to open up the lid and noticed that 4 of the inks still had plastic stickers saying 'pull' on the top (slaps head).

I now have beautifully rich coloured prints which I'm actually blown away with. I will still go ahead with the calibration to get things on the money but wanted to post my resolution in case anyone makes the same slightly foolish mistake as I have!

Cheers,
Lyle
 
woof woof said:
Before spending that sort of money I'd want to be sure this is the right way to go.

I wonder have you printed at home before and if so what were the results? I'm always a bit phased when people suggest calibrating the monitor as a solution to printing issues as if this was the case you'd have to be doing something in post processing to make the shots look cold and magenta, are you?
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I guess this depends on whether they genuinely look cold and magenta or just cold and magenta compared to what he's used to seeing on a poorly calibrated monitor. Could be they've printed fine but just look different to what he's used to seeing.

For any colour issues I would always suggest calibrating the monitor first then you know that it is at least right at the start and therefore have a reference.

Of course another problem arises when you printer has a wider colour space than your monitor if your monitor is only sRGB, but I'll not complicate it further at this stage ;)

Edit just seen the op posted he's fixed it just before I posted this ;)
 
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snerkler said:
I guess this depends on whether they genuinely look cold and magenta or just cold and magenta compared to what he's used to seeing on a poorly calibrated monitor. Could be they've printed fine but just look different to what he's used to seeing.

For any colour issues I would always suggest calibrating the monitor first then you know that it is at least right at the start and therefore have a reference.

Of course another problem arises when you printer has a wider colour space than your monitor if your monitor is only sRGB, but I'll not complicate it further at this stage ;)

Edit just seen the op posted he's fixed it just before I posted this ;)
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I do tend to take the calibration issue lightly perhaps because I couldn't tell you how many monitors I've fixed in my life (certainly hundreds, maybe thousands) and it does phase me a little that some need a calibration tool to tell them if colours are off... I see the main problem as brightness and I do agree that checking could help here as quite obviously it would be quite easy to look at a bright image on screen and be fooled into thinking that it needs backing off for printing.

Then again it's always worth doing a test print :D
 
Interesting another Canon user happy straight out of the box. I've had several Epson printers and always found myself calibrating (Spyder and Colormunki). Good this got resolved easily and a simple error. It's true though re monitor brightness, mine runs at around 35% I believe.
 
woof woof said:
I do tend to take the calibration issue lightly perhaps because I couldn't tell you how many monitors I've fixed in my life (certainly hundreds, maybe thousands) and it does phase me a little that some need a calibration tool to tell them if colours are off... I see the main problem as brightness and I do agree that checking could help here as quite obviously it would be quite easy to look at a bright image on screen and be fooled into thinking that it needs backing off for printing.

Then again it's always worth doing a test print :D
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I guess it depends how good your eye is. Also I've found your eyes can trick you. For example I remember doing a series of shots and I was playing about with WB and I put quite an extreme warmth on one of my pics. After working on it for a while it started to look 'normal' and all my other pics then looked too cool so I adjusted them. The next day when I went back to them after my eyes had readjusted I couldn't believe how bad they looked :lol:

My point is your eyes adjust. I had a PC laptop that I used to think was fine, and looked normal. I then started using Mac and thought the screen was far too warm at first. Now the Mac looks normal (it has been calibrated but adjustment was minimal) and in the rare occasion I go back to the PC laptop everything looks blue :runaway:
 
ecoleman said:
At the cost of decent ink and paper, I'd rather not have to.
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Then don't and trust everything to work perfectly when you do a print but in the real world nozzles block and things go wrong.

I do a little thumbnail test print before printing out anything that matters or that'll cost me the sort of money that anything from a small normal print to an A3 will cost. That little thumbnail print doesn't even cost a sheet of photopaper as I position it next to the last thumbnail I printed and it's good enough to check for nozzle and colour issue. Seems daft not to IMO and doing so has no doubt saved me a lot more than it's cost :D
 
BlackCloud said:
Interesting another Canon user happy straight out of the box. I've had several Epson printers and always found myself calibrating (Spyder and Colormunki). Good this got resolved easily and a simple error. It's true though re monitor brightness, mine runs at around 35% I believe.
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I had the same with my HP printer, perfect prints pretty much every time unless the paper jammed which it often did so I swapped it for an Epson that I'm still married to or at least it seems like a marriage as it takes up so much time.
 
Ha ha, yes, they print superbly but do take some effort, or at least in my experience.
 
woof woof said:
Then don't and trust everything to work perfectly when you do a print but in the real world nozzles block and things go wrong.

I do a little thumbnail test print before printing out anything that matters or that'll cost me the sort of money that anything from a small normal print to an A3 will cost. That little thumbnail print doesn't even cost a sheet of photopaper as I position it next to the last thumbnail I printed and it's good enough to check for nozzle and colour issue. Seems daft not to IMO and doing so has no doubt saved me a lot more than it's cost :D
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I do a nozzle check before a print if I haven't used the printer for a day or two. This uses a minute amount of ink.

With a calibrated monitor, ICC print profiles and soft proofing, I've never not been happy with a print.
 
jetpack said:
What are ICC print profiles and what do you get from soft proofing?
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ICC print profiles is a colour profile made specifically for a printer and paper combination. The printer manufactures usually provide some to work with their own brand paper, decent paper manufacturers will also usually provide the for their own paper, or you can generate your own with the correct equipment.

I just use epsons profiles if print in on Epson paper, or if printing on paper I get from Marrutt, then I use their profiles.

Their are plenty you YouTube videos on the subject and plent more to explain soft proofing.
 
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