Horrible PRO-100 B&W

[Roy Sletcher]

Funny how our results can be so contrary. For me, the 9000 always made almost perfect, hands off B&W's in the B&W setting. Frankly, also color when using Canon papers. Ninety nine percent of the hoi paloi would think them perfect.

But my predicament with this 100 is about the color; my comments about B&W is mostly about using it as a superior "window" into color fidelity for the color portions of the test images. I mean, come on, when you have to adjust two of the three ink colors over 20 points to get some fidelity, somethings wrong.

I made a duplex test print, the tweaked Kodak model and my trusty tweaked TSS Photo, on my "go to" very cheap dual sided off brand matte paper. After letting it dry for a couple of hours, stunning. Well, at least as good as I get on the 9000. No adjustments at all.

Hi Paul

Completely agree about the finicky nature of printing. My home gremlins seem to detect when I am in a hurry, and become more active on those occasions. After slowing down and reverting to rational thought, the problem often turns out to be the NUT 18 inches above the keyboard.

A good neutral B&W grey-scale used to be my biggest challenge with the 9000, although the Spyder print calibration device also contributed to the problem. After springing for the Colormunki things got easier.

Also the ability of our brain to fool our eyes can be frustrating. So often I will leave prints I am satisfied with in the evening, and upon returning next morning be horrified `What was I thinking` And no, illumination is not the issue. Would be simpler of it was.

RS
Don`t believe your lying eyes - lesson for today!

 

[Paul Verizzo]

Ah, Roy, I do believe my lying eyes.............with the caveats you've described. My subjective gold standard is indirect sunlight, about 6500 degrees Kelvin. It's certainly the most common of viewing environments w/o extra illumination. Happens also to be the temperature of most monitors.

And even "instant" dry papers can shift colors over the first few hours.

Oh, about those gremlins? Try working on a master's thesis, that will surely cause power failure. No problem when not critical. That's when I learned about and bought my first UPS.

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

Nothing at all about bar codes. All Canon, printer, ink, paper.

Please read my post again. Unlike my HP, you don't have any bar codes. But it does look like the printer (or software) is trying to give you a sepia print. This may be a software effect -- a deliberate option. As Roy Sletcher said, he doesn't have any such problem. That's another reason for thinking it's a software or firmware effect.

There is one other possibility, however. Does the color look the same in both tungsten lighting and daylight? Some Canon inks are very metameric. The two-gray ink system is supposed to avoid this. I doubt if this is the problem, but I can't tell without seeing the prints.

 

[berttheghost]

Hi,
I'll guess that you have multiple printers installed on the same computer. Which should be fine so long as the printer software keeps them separate. But what happens when you install a new version of printer software on top of an old version for a similar printer? Did the install complete successfully? Or is the new printer trying to use portions of the old software? Does it seem to sort of work some of the time? You might want to try uninstalling the old software version(s) before reinstalling the new. Good luck.

 

[Roy Sletcher]

Hi,
I'll guess that you have multiple printers installed on the same computer. Which should be fine so long as the printer software keeps them separate. But what happens when you install a new version of printer software on top of an old version for a similar printer? Did the install complete successfully? Or is the new printer trying to use portions of the old software? Does it seem to sort of work some of the time? You might want to try uninstalling the old software version(s) before reinstalling the new. Good luck.

Excellent point, and your advice is a good reminder of this problem. And it is not limited to printers. Over the years I have spent too much time trouble shooting installation/setup problems only to find Windows uninstall frequently leaves remnants behind, and a new installation will often be corrupted by these same remnents.

RS

 

[Paul Verizzo]

Well, the good news is that the new girl retracted her claws and accepted her new master and destiny. I am still at a total loss how the exact same settings in the printing program gave such different results on the same piece of paper, only difference being one was a 9000, the other the p100.

I started back at base one, refreshed my knowledge of color management in, oddly enough (grin) the online manual and online, and started making some stunning prints. I've not made a direct comparison to the 9000. But, I took a RAW image print of some green leaves, a tomato, and blue pool in the background. It just so happens that it has perfect levels across the histogram in all three colors! I converted it to a 16 bit TIFF into the ultra-wide ProPhoto RGB workspace. Compared to the sRGB, the difference in the green and blue is huge. The PRO-100 apparently can reach deep into the gamut bag when needed. Unfortunately, as sometimes happens with that workspace, the tomato was not as red as it should be.

Running different test images, pattern prints, all absolutely amazing. Gotta love dye.

So thanks for all your thoughts, love, prayers, time. Ha.

Paul

 

[Smile]

Your last reply does not say how you resolved this, or the problem resolved itself?

Working in pro ProPhoto is OK, but it's better to use Adobe RGB when you print, as conversions from ProPhoto to printer ICC profile can be tricky.

 

[Paul Verizzo]

Your last reply does not say how you resolved this, or the problem resolved itself?

Working in pro ProPhoto is OK, but it's better to use Adobe RGB when you print, as conversions from ProPhoto to printer ICC profile can be tricky.

As I think I tried to convey, I resolved it by backing up to base, for lack of a better term. I can't tell you what settings changed, for sure.

I understand that ProPhoto RGB can go off the reservation....hmmm, an American term about our native people.... it was just an experiment to see what the printer could do in greens, the usual color cut off in smaller workspaces.