16 bit printing with the Canon Pro 100

[peter D]

I've ben using Canon Studio Print Pro to print up with my Canon Pro 100 until recently because according to Canon it offers 16 bit (wide dynamic range smooth with tonal transition printing) using Windows 7 64 bit OS when the XPS driver is used.
I'd like to know if this feature (16 bit printing) still works properly using this driver and printing straight from Adobe CS5 with the "printer manages colors" option that Mike at Precision Colors recommends in his "EZ ICCs with the Canon Pro-100" article on his website - note Mike does not mention the use of the XPS 16 bit driver in his article.
Almost everything else available in Studio Print Pro including apparently Pattern Printing seems to be available from the printer driver itself so it seems like 16 bit printing should still work but the message I've picked up from some experts in the past is that 16 bit printing with the likes of the Windows 7 OS was not available due to a Windows OS limitation.
This is what Microsoft has to say about it:
"The x64-based versions of the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 operating systems and Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition do not support 16-bit programs, 16-bit processes, or 16-bit components. However, these 64-bit versions of Windows may recognize some 16-bit installers and automatically convert the 16-bit installer to a 32-bit installer".

Similarly in the past the Adobe did not offer CMM (Adobe manages colors) for 64 bit OS systems but this could have changed by now.

 

[peter D]

Also another question for the refillers amongst you (just about all of you?) have any of you installed the latest Canon Pro-100 firmware (which seems to be vers 1.20) without cartridge refill issues?
My version is unchanged and still sitting at vers 1.040 as I've been reluctant to upgrade due to some earlier comments on this forum that later firmware versions could contain software devices to limit the ability to refill cartridges.

The new Avatar (my first) was supposed to go with the moniker "Monkeybiz" (appropriate for refillers maybe) but I don't know how to go about a change or addition of that type.
The auto crop was a bit of a surprise and I see nearly lost my head.

 

[berttheghost]

I
...
This is what Microsoft has to say about it:
"The x64-based versions of the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 operating systems and Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition do not support 16-bit programs, 16-bit processes, or 16-bit components. However, these 64-bit versions of Windows may recognize some 16-bit installers and automatically convert the 16-bit installer to a 32-bit installer".
...

This applies to ancient 16 bit drivers written for the likes of Win95 and DOS. It refers to 16 bit addresses, not 16 bit (colors?). You can safely ignore it.

 

[peter D]

@berttheghost
"This applies to ancient 16 bit drivers written for the likes of Win95 and DOS. It refers to 16 bit addresses, not 16 bit (colors?). You can safely ignore it"

Thanks for the advice on this one, you are obviously well versed on the software complexities, however in Scott Kelby's 2011 book on CS5 in the printing section (where the emphasis is on letting Photoshop manage colours with ICC profiles) it specifically mentions the ability of MAC OS X Leopard to enable CS5 support for 16 bit printing by turning on the "Send 16 bit data" check box and that it wasn't a feature available in Windows because of a limitation of the OS which was probably Windows 7 at the time of publication.

The ZPS driver that Canon provides for 16 bit printing is mentioned in the Canon printer manual as enabled in Studio Print Pro but no mention is made of it being enabled via Adobe CS.
Because I was having odd colour issues (strong Magenta cast with PC's new inkset and to a lesser extent it's predecessor) with printing via Studio Print Pro I decided to try printing from CS5 using the printer driver to manage colours to try and eliminate any additional source of error. Hence my question on this forum.

So far the jury's still out on my trial and error effort to address the magenta cast problem and I did learn that there are quite a few sources of error that can trip you up when printing without using Canon's additional software.

 

[The Hat]

Whether you’re using 8 bit or 16 bit colour that will have no bearing on your magenta colour cast, that is a total different issue altogether, but from what I’ve learned and seen you can’t tell any difference in a print done with 8 or 16 bit colour.

Saying that Photoshop Lightroom can actually turn a cow’s ear into a silk purse...

 

[peter D]

@The Hat
"Whether you’re using 8 bit or 16 bit colour that will have no bearing on your magenta colour cast, that is a total different issue altogether, but from what I’ve learned and seen you can’t tell any difference in a print done with 8 or 16 bit colour."

I totally agree with the first part of your statement but not with the second part but would rather address that later as another issue entirely, perhaps the subject of another post.
Put simply I was trying to eliminate a number of potential sources of the magenta problem by replicating Mike's (Precision Colors) EZI icc printing advice.
I was wondering whether the magenta issue is possibly coming from my use of the Adobe RGB colour space rather than sRGB, or a driver issue ( the use of the XPS driver rather than the 8 bit one), or even the printer firmware version I'm using (1.01).
Hopefully I'll get some time this weekend to check these possibilities apart from the firmware a this stage. (1.01).

Not sure what you mean Hat by the last part concerning Photoshop Lightroom and would appreciate further explanation as it went over my head -(the bit that's not cropped off).

 

[The Hat]

Normally when you want to achieve good accurate colours while using 3rd party inks you would profile your inks with the paper you wish to use, or use an already produced profile from a known source.

The second thing is to make sure that all of the OEM ink has been used up inside all of your cartridges otherwise slight discrepancies can creep in to your prints and if you try using both of the Adobe colour spaces in your test prints you can find the right one for your needs.

The only time driver issues may have any input into a print problem is when your using Mac O/S, then you should seek the latest one from the web otherwise the driver that comes on the CD is more that adequate to do the job.

Firmware upgrades are at most a sticking plaster approach to inaccurate colours, there usually of limited benefit to you and in my opinion should not upgraded where possible.

The lightroom moment was meant as a funny comment and no other, nice Avatar by the way but if you’re not entirely satisfied with it, copy the original and try re-editing it again, it may take you several goes to get it just right..

 

[finepics]

I recall there was an issue with the magenta ink from Mike and he offered a new formulation of it. I had the original inkset from him and also had big colour cast problems that I didn't have with the genuine inks and canned profiles. At the time I hadn't purchased a profiling device so I stopped using them (no reflection on Mike) and went back to genuine inks as I'm printing for my camera club and felt that, as I was charging to print (and recouping my costs), I needed to offer the proper longevity and reassurance of genuine Chromalife inks.

Incidentally I edit in the AdobeRGB space, work in 16bit and write my own profiles.

 

[The Hat]

Incidentally there are no longevity problems when using OEM or 3rd party pigment inks, they are pretty much the same, but dye inks are so different..

 

[peter D]

Thanks Hat for your excellent reply and as a result I feel I can put firmware upgrades and driver versions as a possible cause to one side for now.

This morning I set up for a print of the Fuji test image (sRGB) that Mike provides on his website.
I set up the printer driver as he recommended on his website article this time selecting the 8 bit driver and using "standard" as the input profile and used Mikes generic icc profile for his bridging inkset (the one with a new black and 2 new magenta inks) and Canon Pro Lustre paper.
Rendering was chosen as relative colorimetric.
The result was as ever with this profile (PC42R) and my printer, a disappointment showing a strong magenta colour cast in what's supposed to be blue sky having a violet tinge.
The B&W wedge doesn't look too bad but the skin tones of the models are more reddish than they should be.

I did some months back send some test prints from my printer to Mike in order to generate a custom profile for the printer. Because the image for profiling was in the sRGB colour space I used Canon's recommended work flow for dealing with this and selected "Pro Mode" in Print Studio Pro. I realise now that this was the wrong choice because it probably ordered the printer driver to use a standard Canon profile for the paper selected as icc profiles aren't a selectable option in that mode of printing (Pro Mode) with Print Studio Pro software. The resulting print on Pro Lustre paper was the worst I've experienced for magenta issues. That mistake aside the new PC inkset should according to Mike deliver results that are very close to the OEM inkset so selecting the Canon ink profile should not have made that much difference.

Kinda stumped for now so waiting to see if anyone else has the same problem apart from finepics (see above) reporting big colour cast problems with the original PC inkset.
I was hoping that new set would be the answer to similar colour cast issues (with magenta) that I'd experienced with the old Precision Colors inkset but actually the problem is now about 50% worse. Reverting to the profile for the older PC inkset helps with the magenta issue strangely enough.