Monitor/Printer Color Management

[woodchuck]

6 months ago I purchased a new computer with Windows 7 Home Premium. I reinstalled Paint Shop Pro X4 but have not used it much since then. Recently I wanted to print some photos and I was very disappointed that the results were VERY red. I have a Canon MP600 printer that I have used for several years with very good results. With my old computer (on Win XP) the difference between the monitor and printer was minimal. I am not familiar with the technical jargon relating to color management and relied on the operating system to do a satisfactory job. I only use PSP as a hobby and am not as picky as most photographers but this was very disappointing. I also tried printing some graphics as might be used in a brochure and the colors were too red. I cleaned the print heads as per the Canon instructions and all 5 ink cartridges are full. I might also mention that grayscale images print looking similar to sepia although they are greyscale on the monitor.

I would appreciate any suggestions anyone might have. Please don't get too technical as I don't really understand this whole "color management" thing. I just want a satisfactory result.

Thanks.

Joyce

[RoseW]

Have you tried printing through the Canon printer software( circumventing PSP) ?

The paper profile for the Canon Printer should be in the drop down list in Psp preferences for color management. The names are a little obscure so translating the code to figure out which is glossy or mat is a challenge.
The numbers along with the prefix indicates the quality of the print, 3 being the lowest, and 1 being the highest.
For the following media type
Photo Paper Plus Semi-gloss (SG-101/SG-201),
Glossy Photo Paper (GP-401),
Glossy Photo Paper "Everyday Use" (GP-501) you will use the profile information as SP.

PR = Photo Paper Pro
MP = Matte Photo Paper
SP = Photo Paper Plus Glossy

and finally the quality setting at the end (1, 2, 3, etc.).


In the Canon Printer set up there is a choice to either allow the external software to control the colour or to have the printer manage the colour. Check the page quality setup in your printer and look at the choices under custom.

I chose to not have the printer control the colour because I use the QImage printing software and I use a printer profile created with a colour calibrator so I chose NONE in the custom section of page quality in the Canon printer setup.

[rpenmanparker]

OP might consider that it is the monitor which is wrong, not the printer. I am assuming that when OP says he/she has a new computer, that also means a new monitor. Obviously I can't be certain of that, just guessing. The new monitor could be grossly out of calibration. It is very common. If OP doesn't want to buy a colorimeter to frequently calibrate the monitor, it can be done once by renting a colorimeter like the ColorMunki or Spyder units for about $30/day. The procedure only takes a few minutes. For someone not too particular, once in the lifetime of a monitor just may be enough.

Alternatively, if the color shift is fairly constant (and again OP is not terribly particular), color adjustments can be made in the printer driver such as subtracting magenta or adding cyan and yellow. Whatever works. These setting could be left in place permanently. Then a brightness discrepancy can possibly be handled just by adjusting that one "knob" on the monitor.

Regarding the advice above about printing with PSP managing color, I certainly agree, but want to make it clear that it should not be necessary unless OP is using either non-OEM paper or non-OEM ink. Otherwise the printer driver isn't doing anything much different to manage color than PSP would do, i.e. the correct printer profile is loaded into the printer driver when the proper Canon paper type is selected in the dialog.

Finally if OP wants to follow the advice to manage color in PSP, I don't think that the advice given above regarding the file names for Canon printer profiles will be helpful. PSP does not show that information for Canon profiles that other software does. What a PSP-Canon user will see in the printer profile drop down is the actual file name CNB9TXYZ.ICC or .ICM (not a descriptive code) where the X, Y, and Z have the following translations:

For X: H = Fine Art Paper Photo Rag, I = Fine Art Museum Etching, J = Fine Art Paper, M = Photo Paper Plus Glossy, D = Matte Photo Paper, L = Premium Matte, C = Photo Paper Pro II, N = Photo Paper Pro Platinum, and K = Photo Paper Plus Semi Glossy.

For Y: A = 1 = highest quality printing, B = 2 = middle quality printing, C = 3 = lowest or standard quality printing

For Z: All values are 0 and have no meaning

So for example, CNB9TKA0.ICM is the profile for using Canon Photo Paper Plus Semi-glossy at the highest print quality setting and so on.

In PSP these file names replace the ones in the profile selection dropdown menu that show up differently in other software.

I hope this is some help and hasn't been too confusing.

Robert

[RoseW]

Thanks for listing the translations of these Canon printer codes.
I searched for this info in the past and it was only historical info that I found.
For my info I have saved your list posted here.

Rose

[woodchuck]

Thank you Rose and Robert for your suggestions. You are correct that it is not an issue with PSP. It makes no difference what application I use, the results are the same. I submitted the question here because the Corel users have been very helpful in the past with video and image issues.

My new computer does, in fact, have a new monitor. I purchased a HP Omni which is an "all in one". The processor etc. are in the monitor. I very seldom use the printer for printing photos on photo paper as I prefer to use an outside printer for that. Where I am having a problem is using photos in newsletters. I am careful to select the correct paper in printer setup but the results are still not very good (a red cast).

For testing purposes I took a still life picture (using my Canon DSLR camera) making sure I had many colors. When I displayed the photo on my monitor is PSP (and other apps as well), the colors were very close to what my eye saw is real life. However when I printed it without any adjustments to the photo it had a definite red cast. I tried several types of paper and there were slight differences but all still were too red.

I never had this problem with my old Dell computer on Win XP. I was just surprised that the defaults in Win 7 would not give better results. Maybe I've accidently reset the windows color management and need to get things back to the default. Not sure just how to do that.

Anyway, thanks for all you help. As a work around I can make adjustments to photos first but unfortunately that takes lots of trial and error and ink.

Joyce

[brucet]

I have a few computers and printers. One of the printers is a Canon MP600. Great printer.
Now I also run PSPx3 on an old laptop connected to the MP600. The only time I have ever had a colour issue, using various combinations of paper, was when I tried some non Canon inks. (I also run PSPx5 off a newer laptop with Win 7 to the MP600. No issues). In all cases I turn colour management OFF in PSP and let the printer manage colour.
So question. Have you changed ink? Are you sure your printer has ink and/or clean heads. I have had colour casts problems caused by ink issues.

regards

[woodchuck]

I have never used anything but Canon ink. I believe using bargain basement ink is only asking for trouble. All ink cartridges are nearly full. I have turned off color management in PSP and other applications as well. I have a feeling that I don't have windows 7 color management configured correctly but I'm not sure how to fix it. Also, I might mention that I have the latest driver for my printer.

I have an old HP printer that I use solely for printing on printable DVD's. I might try it just to see what happens.

Joyce

[Kathy_9]

Maybe this will help with Color Management on Windows 7 http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/wind ... t-settings