Bought a ColorMunki, and STILL innacurate colours?!

John.D

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Having just forked out a lot of money for a ColorMunki, I was looking forward to getting accurate printouts. I calibrated my monitor, noticed a difference, great. Then I came to sorting out the printer side of things. I'm using a Canon Pixma 6700D with geniune inks, so a good printer. Although I was having problems with banding in the colour chart things the ColorMunki setup prints out, despite running countless print head cleans. So I took it out myself and washed it, put back the inks and tried again. The banding was reduced but it was still there, printing on Canon Photo Paper Pro, but strangely not on normal paper.

Thinking it wouldn't affect the profile I continued, read the colour strips with the device, and it created the profile. Now I find that the colour is still not accurate, even after leaving the inks to dry.

In printer settings, I have it to 'Allow PS to determin colours', with my new ICC profile it's just created, all settings at best - the same ones used during the creation of the profile. I also used the 'Proof' settings, set to 'Working CMYK', also with the newly created profile but they're not accurate either.

I'm at my wits end now, because I need everything printed by Monday!
 
I've replaced some of the inks with new ones, but maybe it's because the others have been in the printer without use for a while? If I replace them and it prints out fine, great. But they're still about half way full, and I don't want to replace them only to find the results are the same.

The banding has thankfully stopped though with the photo printouts.
 
What rendering intent are you asking PS to use. I would suggest either Relative Colourmetric or perceptual.

Also make sure PS has picked up you printer profile.

OK if all else fails try some generic profiles for the canon and see if this makes any difference. The banding will have an effect on how the colour munki sees the test targets. it may be this that's causing the problem.

Try the generics first and if gives better prints then suspect you munki profile.
 
I have tried both intents, the RC is better for general photos, and Perceptual is better for this particular photo I am trying to print out with problems. I've tried selecting Gamut Warning, and it shows pretty much all the red in the shot (the image is heavy with reds). Could it be that my printer just can't print the reds accurately?

How do you mean printer profile? I have set it to the new profile created with the ColorMunki, if that's what you mean.
 
It sounds as though you've got the printer end set up correctly. And yes some images look better as Rel Colormetric and some as Perceptual, That's normal (?).

OK if you've got Gamut warnings on the images then that may be the problem. You've got colours that your printer cannot cope with.

I'd still try a generic canon profile for the printer to see if it makes any difference. The banding you are getting does worry me that the profile may not be as good as it could be. Try and see if it makes any difference with the generic profiles
 
Due to time constraints, i've gone ahead and printed the photos despite not being fully accurate. After tomorrow I will have more time to set up the calibration device.

What's bothering me more now is this banding. It's coming back after printing out, say, 2 half size A4 photos, having to clean it, then it's back again. I took it out and gave it a wash just the other day.
 
The banding may be caused by clogged print heads as the printer hasn't been used for some time. Washing may help for a time. You can get cleaning fluid for print heads, not sure how good it is though.

Try to see if the banding is on those carts you've not replaced. If it is it points to the carts being the problem
 
First rerun the profile for the printer on the unbanded print out now you have changed the ink, aply this profile to the print but try using "printer manages colour management" when printing
 
Bump. Forgot I had this thread. Still getting innacurate printouts. Printouts mostly come out too dark, sometimes the colours are quite off. I've made sure i've calibrated my display, and I did the printer matching utility with the device and it created an ICC profile. I print with Photoshop set to determin colours, colour management off, and am using Photo Paper Pro (although yesterday I bought some Illford classic photo paper, and don't think i'll ever be going to back to gloss).
I installed the ICC profile for this paper yesterday too, but am still seeing much innacuracy like I was with the Canon Photo Paper Pro.
Oh, i'm using a Canon 6700D.

Just wondered if anyone could help out, as the amount of paper and ink i've wasted over the years is ridiculous!
 
You may like to try this web site. Ian goes through th set up of Photoshop for CM printing. Might be worth a look just to check ypu are not missing anything.

http://www.computer-darkroom.com/

The site is Mac and Epson orriantated, but I think most of the controls you can find on th Canon machine.

Also have you tried soft proofing, to see if you get the same resuly on screen as you do n print?
 
I had terrible trouble getting accurate prints -drove me round the bend too....just one version of IT hell I've found myself in over the last few years....

If I remember correctly I eventually found the solution in "view" on the photoshop menu. It was either

"view>proof setup>custom".....then click on the correct printer profile

or

"view>proof colours" (is this soft-proofing as mentioned by chappers above...?)


Try this anyway and I hope it works for you. :)
 
Just a thought,

Have you turned off the colour control in the printer driver?

If you're letting photoshop manage the print colours, then the last thing you want is the printer driver sticking it's oar in and mucking things up again!

Finally, download and try Qimage. I find i get noticeably better prints from it than I ever got from photoshop.
 
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