Problems with colours from Canon printer

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connersz

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Jamie
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I am having problems with my Canon printer with getting the colours right.

I am using Canon inks with Canon paper and the paper profile selected. I have a calibrated monitor. I am trying to print an image but no matter what I try it prints out looking my more purplely in colour than what it should.

It is very obvious that something is wrong and I think anyone would notice.
 
What Philip said, sounds like a clogged head or two, run a print test from the software, only needs a couple of those little dashes missing to play havoc with your colours.
 
I had cleaned them but not done the test print so will try that and let you know.
 
I did the test print and they seem to be absolutely perfect! Any other ideas?
 
Just also tried replacing the colour cartridges which were running low anyway. Still have the purple tint to it. The main issue is that the skin tones in the more shadowy areas don't look right, I'm not too fussed about the background colour but the skin tones look completely off.
 
Are you letting the software or, the printer manage colours?

If it's the software, it may be the profile you're using in there, try changing the management of colours to whichever you're not using at the moment, could give you pointers to the problem.
 
Pete Allen said:
Are you letting the software or, the printer manage colours?

If it's the software, it may be the profile you're using in there, try changing the management of colours to whichever you're not using at the moment, could give you pointers to the problem.
Click to expand...
Well I don't know, I am just printing from the windows picture viewer that's all.
 
Although you have a calibrated monitor, there may be a disconnect between that and the printer system. How strong is the colour shift?

Are you using the Printer driver to make the print, or using Photoshop with the "Photoshop manages Colour "option

If it's the former, then you may need to tweak the way the printer prints. In most devices there is a colour control that allows you to tweak the final print. Depending on the software it usually in advanced or some similar location.

The other option " Photoshop manages Colour" you need to make sure you have the correct paper/ink/printer profile selected. If you are printing this way and have the option to soft proof. I would see if when the profile is applied in soft proofing you get the same result on the screen.

If you let us know how you are printing we may be able to give more advice
 
When you click to print your image, you get the Canon software box come up, where you choose paper type etc, on the right you should be seeing an option to choose to allow either the software or printer set colours.

If you don't see it immediately, try changing the tabs, it will be there.
 
Your reply arrived just as I posted.

OK If you are printing from the windows picture viewer yo need to see if the printer driver has colour adjustment options . As I suggested these may be an option when you select "Print"
 
My apologies Jamie, mislead you on my last post, the option to use printer or software for colour selection is set in the software you are using, not in the Canon popup.

That'll teach me to put my brain in gear first.
 
I can't find anything in the printer settings to swap between the printer or the software, all I can find is the ICC profiles. I can see the manual colour adjustment which might help. With regards to photoshop I am using lightroom mostly, I there an option in there because if there is I can't find it. All I can find is the profiles.
 
In Lightroom, the options are in the print tab, scroll to the bottom of the settings on the right, there is an option to let printer manage colours or, choose a profile (other) from your settings.

This is in Lightroom 5, may be different if you're using another version.
 
Pete Allen said:
In Lightroom, the options are in the print tab, scroll to the bottom of the settings on the right, there is an option to let printer manage colours or, choose a profile (other) from your settings.

This is in Lightroom 5, may be different if you're using another version.
Click to expand...
Yeh I have that, by default it was on let printer manage colours and then I don't know difference between the profiles, they are not the paper type, they're like GL2, GL2, MP2 etc.
 
I have to be honest it is irritating me, because I have been looking at things online and nothing seems to match. I just watched a video from adobe on how to setup the printing in LR4, in the video there is options in the bottom left for page setup and print options but i have no print options button. I can't find how to enable it either.
 
If you want to switch off the printer managing colours:-

Go to Main Tab in the printer settings.
Check the manual button in the color/intensity section
press set
go to the Matching tab
Set matching at "none"
Apply the settings.

I believe that canon paper profiles use the following codes:

MP1 Matte Photo Paper 1
PR1 Photo Paper Pro (I and II) 1
PR2 Photo Paper Pro (I and II) 2
PR3 Photo Paper Pro 3
SP1 Photo Paper Plus Glossy 1
SP3 Photo Paper Plus Glossy 3
SP4 Photo Paper Plus Glossy 4
SG1 Photo Paper Semi Glossy 1
SG3 Photo Paper Semi Glossy 3
GL1 Photo Paper Glossy (or Photo Paper Plus Glossy II) 1
GL3 Photo Paper Glossy (or Photo Paper Plus Glossy II) 3
PT1 Photo Paper Pro Platinum 1
PT2 Photo Paper Pro Platinum 2

The lower the number the higher the quality e.g. 1 is highest quality.
 
I have spent most of the day trying to sort this out. I have been manually adjusting the colours but when I get one thing perfect it throws the others out. It looks perfect on the screen. The the first thing I did was adjust the magenta and lowered it loads because it was well off, but then in the subjects skin colour it started to look yellow. The brightness was also too too dark for the subject but ok for the background and the contrast was miles off. I have used up a whole page of canon gloss 2, changed the cartridges and ive since started on the HP everyday photo paper to see if i can get some results from that. I have got it close but still have yellowy skin tones. None of the profiles for the canon paper get it even anywhere near close. So basically shall i just give up?
 
Jamie

I'd take a different route

I'm going to suggest you print from lightroom and use colour management options.

Take one of your images that you printed and select this in the develop module. Now click the soft proofing box. Does the image you see now bear any relationship to the printed result. Don't worry if it is a bit dark at the moment. I'd look at the overall colour balance.



Also out of interest what system did you take to calibrate your monotor
 
connersz said:
I did the test print and they seem to be absolutely perfect! Any other ideas?
Click to expand...
I would leave the printer settings alone for the time being if you are getting a good quality print.

Instead have a look at the image you are trying to print. Depending on the source, it could have any colour space applied.

Check it is sRGB or better still Adobe RGB.

Here Canon explains a little about Colour Space
http://cpn.canon-europe.com/content/education/infobank/capturing_the_image/colour_space.do
 
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I've tried printing from Lightroom, photoshop and Windows. I have tried the Canon colour matching squares thing, I have tried manually adjusting the colour, I have tried most of the profiles for the paper and for whatever else.

The image printed is nothing like whats on screen, I have also checked the image on a variety of different monitors of different resolutions, even mobile devices don't look as contrasty and rubbish as the prints.

I have not really been using the printer for anything serious recently but I promised a friend a few free prints which I was hoping to print myself but I just can't get the colours correct.

I have established the the Canon glossy plus 2 profile for use with said paper adds a massive amount of magenta which is insane.
 
OK, I know the image attached isnt great, but just to give you an overall look at the colour difference. The paper is the Canon glossy plus 2 sheets, its one of the first prints I did. In comparison to the one on screen you will see lots of contrast in the skin tones, it is also very red in colour, the chair is also very red compared to the white on the screen and the blue background is also off.
 
Hi,

Have you a copy of Canon Easy Photo Print software?

Regards.
 
this may have no relevance but have you sent pictures to be printed by an online lab, if you have they may have sent you there profile
 
Jamie did you ever get to the bottom of this? I am having the exact same problem, and having done a little research it seems to be particularly prevalent with Macs. Every time I set the colour profile on my printer, it defaults to IJ again, and I get a pink colour cast. Send the exact same image to my HP printer, no trouble. Print it from my laptop, no trouble. I've spent hours trying to figure this out. :(
 
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