Canon Pro 10 prints darker at the beginning of the image and gradually becomes brighter

[Lia]

I do not use Illustrator but I did find this:

https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/printing-color-management.html

If both the printer and application are set to manage color then errors may occur in the printed result. If the printer or application, which ever is set to manage color, is incorrectly set up for color management then errors can occur as well.

Yes, I am aware of that and as I mentioned before, when I specified my print settings, I chose only 1 source of color management at a time.
Usually, errors in color management result in incorrect colors, not gradients, at least from my experience.

Depending on how the test image was set up, other colors besides Magenta may be used in printing the rectangles. Without an image of this to examine, and that image be some sort of standardized image we can interpret, then I do not know what to make of your experiment.

Was the rectangle image something you found on the internet? Or, did you make the test image yourself? If so, what application did you use to make the image? Was the printer managing color or the application or both when you printed it out?

I now understand that I did not fully explain my experiment process.
The purpose of my experiment was to rule out Color management and/or Application error, by using the exact print settings I initially used for the project. If either one caused an error I would have seen the same gradient in other color values as well.
I am aware that though Illustrator like Photoshop, lets you set CMYK/RGB values, a so-called "RGB printer" like Canon Pro 10 will convert these set values to CcMmYK according to the gamut of the printer & it's additional ink variations.
Obviously, I can't predict the exact color combination the printer will use to produce any sent values, however, I can narrow it down to use mainly the primary colors.
I used Illustrator to create the file and in each solid color rectangle, I changed 1 value at a time, e.g if the first one 100% Cyan (C:100 M:0 Y:0 K:0), I then changed it to 100% Magenta.

Something else to try to help rule in or out a color management issue... download an image from a trusted source that has Cyan gradients that you did not create yourself. Use a simple application that does not do color management at all so that you are sure only your printer will be managing color. Use default settings with the printer. Of course proper paper type and size will need to be selected.

That's also a good idea, will try that as well.
-Can you recommend on a trusted source? (preferably, with a free high quality file).
-And Do you know of a printing software which doesn't do color management?
I have heard about Adobe Utility software which is quite ancient and isn't compatible with Windows 10 (my operating system).

You can try printing your troublesome file with a different printer as I suggested previously and see what happens. If the problem persists then you know it is due to the creation of the file, as long as you do not alter default settings with the new computer / printer. If the problem no longer occurs then it is probably in settings of the printer and/or application.

At the moment the only other printer available to me is a laser printer, so I will try your suggestion with someone else's inkjet printer later on.
I can, however, try to print the file from another computer, just rule out any pc related bugs or errors.

 

[stratman]

-Can you recommend on a trusted source?

"Trusted" -- Unnecessary word choice on my part. Any site that has an image of sufficient quality and composition to try the experiment with should be OK.

-And Do you know of a printing software which doesn't do color management?

The simple image view/print applications that come with Windows are examples. If you are using Mac then I cannot help you at all.

Googling "unwanted color shift illustrator" I came across some discussions of color profile mismatch and properly converting color spaces among some other topics. Google and take a look. Maybe they will help.

 

[Lia]

After browsing the web for a quality test image I found this pdf: http://cream.sourceforge.net/ColorCard.pdf.
I cropped the relevant section and printed it on plain A4 paper, without color management

Print settings Screen capture:

This pdf file contains Vector objects which means that you can click on each color square, scale it and position it to your will in the pdf itself, without causing any modification to the color characteristics or quality of the image.

So after printing the first cropped area, I cropped a number of rows scaled and positioned them to be printed separately.
The reason for doing this is that I suspected the size of each color square will influence the flow uniformity of the printed ink and while small squares may print out fine, larger ones might yield a different result.

Here are the scanned results:

Cyan Only:

Magenta Only:

To me, it is very obvious that the Cyan samples have a color shift.

I also tested Another file which I downloaded from: http://www.systeminsight.co.uk/Canon_Printheads_TestPrints.htm
and printed it from windows photo viewer application

As the print area for a solid cyan increase, the color shift in the first printed lines becomes more apparent.


Except for this forum, I also posted the same thread on DPreview printers forum
Edit:- removed by the Moderator....

 

[stratman]

1. What application did you use to print this images?

2. From which direction was the image of the swaths of Cyan printed: Top to bottom or right side to left side?

3. If altered ink flow were the cause of the Cyan gradient, why were the smaller images on a single sheet of paper identical in aberration as the larger singular print? One would expect the poor ink flow to be further stressed and not show an identical changes in the four smaller prints printed in succession ( as I discussed in posts 10 and 16).

Unless you think the ink flow can both rapidly rebound and then degrade identically no matter the dimensions of a print or number of successive prints are printed at one time. Ink starvation worsens the longer the cartridge is utilized in a print job. Image 4 would look worse than image 1 in your experiment.

4. If the cartridge or the print head were causing the darkened leading edge for Cyan and then a fading gradient of Cyan thereafter, I would expect to see a darkened leading edge and fading gradient in a solid color that use a mixture of Cyan plus another color, such as Cyan + Yellow to make green. I do not see this in your posted image. Do you see it in your printed image?

I let illustrator manage the color and use ICC profile I created specifically for the chosen paper.

Rereading this thread, I see you use your own created ICC profile. Even if this profile has worked with this image and paper combo, try using a different application than Illustrator to print, let the printer do all the work (no fiddling with customization), and use a different paper and ICC profile such as plain paper with the appropriate Canon ICC profile. Keep things as simple as possible.

I still think the issue is software related.

 

[Emulator]

May be I am missing the point, but to me there seems to be an equally strange shift in the paper white on some of the displayed prints.

 

[Lia]

1. What application did you use to print this images?

Acrobat Pro DC

2. From which direction was the image of the swaths of Cyan printed: Top to bottom or right side to left side?

From Right to Left, The relatively dark shade always appears where the first line of ink begins.

Unless you think the ink flow can both rapidly rebound and then degrade identically no matter the dimensions of a print or number of successive prints are printed at one time. Ink starvation worsens the longer the cartridge is utilized in a print job. Image 4 would look worse than image 1 in your experiment.

The gradient is more apparent in lighter tints of the Cyan.

Stratman, I truly appreciate your thoughts & invested time in this matter but I really don't know what to tell you about the rest of your questions/comments, I just know what I see from numerous printings using different applications without any "special" print settings and without my ICC profile.

Emulator, regarding the appearance of the uploaded scans, It looks much clearer on paper than on screen. I had to compress the scans in order to upload them here.


In any case, I think I should at least give a try to replacing the Cyan/Photo Cyan cartridge, I will update this thread once I complete the testing process.

 

[stratman]

Let us know what happens. I hope the new cartridges resolve the problem.

 

[Hector Vilches]

I may have a similar issue, with a PRO-100, on the magenta color. Cut to the chase, I was able to narrow it down to the magenta cart, because the symptoms occurred on a second PRO-100 using the same cart. I am refilling.

My symptoms were slightly reddish/pinkish photos at the start, that gradually improved over the first few inches of paper. I first noticed it on printer 'A' and when I reprinted the same image it would print fine. After a few weeks, I noticed it happened on printer 'B', and when I reprinted the same image it would print fine. Then the problem appeared again on printer 'A', and I also noticed it only happened after the printer had not printed for a couple of days. So I purposely waited a couple of days, and printed a nozzle check. Then I printed an image and saw the problem... and immediately printed another nozzle check. The difference between the first and second check was clear as day... the first one had the PM and M identical, while the second (after the printed image), was correct: one swatch was lighter than the other.

I can reproduce this problem on cue, and I overcome it by printing on a scrap piece of plain paper if the printer has sat unused... I suspect the M (darker than PM) is a little leaky and contaminating the PM channel, but I haven't yet checked the M cart to verify.