A look at the G550 (and print for the G650/620 et al.)

[Keith Cooper]

I've just published a look at printing with the G550

https://www.northlight-images.co.uk/canon-g550-printer-review/

It's very much aimed at seeing what I could get from this little printer despite the lack of driver and forced use of the AirPrint driver on the Mac

I've produced loads of profiles as part of this, but they cannot be used on Windows systems, since they are just profiling the AirPrint-driver/media-setting as a black box.
The profiles make a very noticeable improvement with colour and B&W printing.

As well as the review I now do some videos for those allergic to reading ;-) (I have to thank someone from Canon for twisting my arm into making these)

 

[stratman]

Enjoyable reading.

I use PC's and therefore don't know about Mac's Air Print color management restrictions.

Could you more fully explain the following:

It’s important to realise that any profiles I’ve created are just for Mac/AirPrint use – they don’t profile at a low enough level to match normal ICC profiles, so they won’t work on Windows systems (normally they are interchangeable).

How did you use the profiles you made - copy them into the appropriate folder and then select them in the printer's driver?

 

[Keith Cooper]

Enjoyable reading.

I use PC's and therefore don't know about Mac's Air Print color management restrictions.

Could you more fully explain the following:



How did you use the profiles you made - copy them into the appropriate folder and then select them in the printer's driver?

For a win pc you use ICC profiles exactly as you would any other printer.

PC users, move along there is nothing to see here ;-)

For Mac though, the airprint driver has no way of turning off colour management which is what you'd use when printing profiling targets and also for using the profiles. The airprint driver choice is a deliberate one by Canon, it only matters to me for this printer - the PRO-200 and PRO-300 I looked at have 'proper' drivers.

So, for Mac (G550) use you print (from photoshop for example) with 'Photoshop manages colour', selecting the profile as normal. BUT you then have to print using the dumbed down airprint driver settings, where you just select media, size and quality.

I am using my profiles exactly as normal ones - they live in the same folder that all my other profiles live.

Unlike my other printer profiles which I could share with a Win pc user, the ones I made for the G550 are ONLY for use on Macs. They are 'real' profiles, just won't give useful results for PC users

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Thanks for the detailed report, I rather like to read a report instead of viewing a video......

the G550/650 models come with a red ink - is there any visible benefit in your test prints with this red ink ?

 

[Keith Cooper]

Thanks for the detailed report, I rather like to read a report instead of viewing a video......

the G550/650 models come with a red ink - is there any visible benefit in your test prints with this red ink ?

Yes - I virtually never watch videos if I can help it, but someone at Canon pointed out that we are in a minority :-(

Visible difference - no not really

That's probably not quite true - if you print an image with lots of red/orange/purple gradients and compare with an even cheaper printer, then some people might notice. Yes, I can see it, but I need to be looking and have two prints under good lighting.

However this printer is firmly aimed at a market which wouldn't spot such stuff if it fell on them.

The arirprint choice is a deliberate one aimed at 'ease of us'e rather than print quality ;-) They would have done the same on windows if microsoft offered the functionality.

 

[stratman]

Is Airprint coded by Canon or Apple? Trying to figure out if the color management controls are Canon's doing or Apple's.

Looks like Aiprint has been the only driver available since MacOS 10.12.

https://www.canon-europe.com/suppor...e=drivers&language=en&os=macos 10.12 (sierra)

MacOS 10.11 and lower can pound salt I guess.

https://www.canon-europe.com/suppor...rivers&language=en&os=os x 10.11 (el capitan)

Read more details on the Airprint fiasco for those looking to color manage via an app and not the printer.

http://www.colourphil.co.uk/printing-canon-mac.shtml

and

https://www.colourphil.co.uk/printing-mac_colour_problems.shtml

My guess is that Canon did not care to code their own drivers for Mac anymore, at least on certain printer models. It would certainly cut down on their printers competing with themselves functionality-wise, forcing buyers to spend more money to use applications to manage color. I doubt that Apple would give two road apples providing or not the added functionality.

 

[Keith Cooper]

AirPrint is Apple technology - Canon using it shields them from Apple moving the colour management and driver code goalposts as Apple bring out newer systems.

Whilst I am disappointed with Canon's choice, I think using the term 'Fiasco' for AirPrint is a somewhat loaded term for what is potentially a way of consistently making printers easier to use from a wide variety of devices - note that I say easier, since colour management does not impinge on most consumer printing. The G550 is firmly in the consumer category.

Whilst the info at the links you give is broadly correct, I'd note that you -can- make profiles with the airprint driver, just that they are limited in capacity and are not transferrable to windows pcs.

To say that you can't make useful profiles with the G550 and airprint is wrong (my prints and profiles show you can)

I'd suggest that the site mentioned needs to do some experimenting and add another 'Canon on Mac' addendum ;-)

 

[stratman]

you -can- make profiles with the airprint driver, just that they are limited in capacity and are not transferrable to windows pcs.

This takes us back to my original question wanting to know what you mean and how you worked around profiling and using that profile with Airprint. I was hoping you would answer this instead of me watching the video. You sly dog, I am watching the video so you're welcome for my 2 cents YouTube sends you.

Comments:
- After saying how easy Airprint is for direct printing you say "but from a quality point of view..." and then an awkward edit cut. Priceless. Signaling your thoughts without saying them.

- How do you decide how long is long enough to wait until scanning the patches? I know you said 30 minutes due to the weight of the paper. But that infers times may be longer or shorter. What are your criteria for time to dry before scanning?

- HUH? I thought you could not have an app do color management because the Airprint driver cannot be shut down. Yet you selected to let the app (Photoshop) handle color management and then selected your custom ICC Profile. This gets to the heart of my original inquiry. How did you get a color managed print from a driver that does not allow external color management??? This was the basis of my question to you originally.

 

[Keith Cooper]

This takes us back to my original question wanting to know what you mean and how you worked around profiling and using that profile with Airprint. I was hoping you would answer this instead of me watching the video. You sly dog, I am watching the video so you're welcome for my 2 cents YouTube sends you.

Comments:
- After saying how easy Airprint is for direct printing you say "but from a quality point of view..." and then an awkward edit cut. Priceless. Signaling your thoughts without saying them.

- How do you decide how long is long enough to wait until scanning the patches? I know you said 30 minutes due to the weight of the paper. But that infers times may be longer or shorter. What are your criteria for time to dry before scanning?

- HUH? I thought you could not have an app do color management because the Airprint driver cannot be shut down. Yet you selected to let the app (Photoshop) handle color management and then selected your custom ICC Profile. This gets to the heart of my original inquiry. How did you get a color managed print from a driver that does not allow external color management??? This was the basis of my question to you originally.

A profile describes the performance of a printer/ink/paper (OK, it's a transform to/from PCS to a printer space)

Whether that is via a driver with 'no colour management' or the black box that is airprint is neither here nor there. It's an ICC profile either way, just not created with the usual settings. It's possible to profile all kinds of devices, albeit some more usefully than others.

30 mins is a reasonable - personally I leave things overnight.

BTW all my edits are awkward, you mistake me for someone who does video professionally and somewhere else than his kitchen and maybe has a script... ;-)

 

[stratman]

Whether that is via a driver with 'no colour management' or the black box that is airprint is neither here nor there.

Maybe I am not explaining to you my dilemma adequately or am not understanding your answer sufficiently.

1) You chose Photoshop to Manage Colors. Why? I thought Airprint color management cannot be turned off/bypassed.

2) Next you set Printer Profile to your custom ICC profile. Is Photoshop functioning as a pass through to send the desired ICC profile to Airprint or the printer via Airprint?

3) Why set Rendering Intent to Calorimetric, or anything at all, in Photoshop if Airprint does not allow an external app to do color management?

4) Can you set the custom ICC as the desired one to use somewhere in the MacOS or Airprint driver so it can be used independent of printing application?

5) I presume you are not double profiling.

This seems like a pretty whacked out hybrid system.