Canon Pro 10 Cartridges...

[mikling]

My wife is a photographer that shoots family pics and weddings. I saw a review of the Pro-100, and the skin tone was a little off with the dye. But skin color looks natural with a pigment printer. !

I saw the same review and all I can say is this. The review while it saw its results the way it is, actually points out something that I have observed over the years. Printers and the way they print are targeted to certain markets. Dye ink printers are known for their vibrancy and pigment ink for its subtlety and permanency. Now while this holds, the comparison I saw in the review was so exaggerated it made me question the whole thing. Either the paper match to the OEM ink was wrong or the wrong settings as chosen OR the mfr intentionally created a profile that exaggerates the colors and vibrancy of the Pro-100 versus the Pro-10 or pigment. I am not saying that the choice of the Pro-10 was wrong but what I am saying is that Canon possibly exaggerated the colors of the Pro-100 when using their paper and inks. I can assure you that no such exagerration exists when both type of printers printers are properly profiled. So it is either a mistake was made in printing or the profile Canon supplies for their inks is non neutral. Over the years, I have seen the latter case.

Pigment ink printers are tilted towards the Pro market who would likely run with calibrated monitors. Dye printers are tilted towards the non pro and if such is the case their monitors are not calibrated and exaggerate colors and brightness. Thus an inaccurate profile might be better to match the printer to screen.

The choice for wedding photography naturally would tilt towards pigment and that was likely the proper choice fortunately especially if permanency is an issue.

But is the Pro-100 up to recreating the detail in the highlights and white wedding dress and its patterned fabric and the creases in the tuxes and suits and the shadow in the petals in the flowers? Yes.... and pigment printers will do that nicely as well. On some flowers the Pro 100 will print it more faithfully than the pigment printer will because of the dye vibrancy. Such is the imperfect world of printing.

 

[denny2]

Thanks for the explanation. I am new to using the better printers and my wife informed me that I will be the one in charge of the printing.
Our old printer is an HP 8250 with 6 separate inks. It prints well but not on par with the new one. I might try refilling the HP 02 carts on that one sometime too. Im sure it would run a lot cheaper using refilled carts for making those quick 4x6 prints.
But I need to learn about these profiles that change the way the photos look. I was on Red River paper site and they show profiles for their different papers and the Pro-10. Are these profiles something that can be tweaked by the average user, or are they a fixed program made for specific papers and ink?

 

[mikling]

Profiles are specific to ink and paper combinations. Red River profiles are for OEM Canon ink. If you refill, it would not be applicable unless the refill inks are closely matched to the OEM. In theory, the profile is specific to ink paper and a specific printer. However, most times, printers are similar enough to accommodate the variance.