Prints fine on one printer not on the other

[mikecox]

When printing on my Canon MX922 series printer the colors are terrible, kind of on the purple side. I cleaned the ink jets, i realigned the heads, and even replaced on low ink cartridge but it didn't help.

I called Canon and they had me copy an image from the printer's scanner and it printed out perfectly. They are convinced the problems is with Ps and Lr, but until recently I have not had any problems printing images from either program.

 

[clee01l]

You need to begin with a calibrated monitor so that the colors rendered on your monitor are a good approximation of the color values that are going to be sent to your printer. Next you need a color profile that matches your printer and paper. Many Paper manufacturers provide these and Canon certainly does for the Canon Pixma Pro printers and Canon Papers. Other paper manufacturers also supply icc profiles for their papers. I can't find color profiles specific to the MX922 So you may have some problems getting the exact profile that you need for your printer.
When you print from the Print Module, you need to turn off color management at the printer and manage it in the Print Job panel in the Color Management section. It also helps if you use Soft-Proofing in the Develop Module to mimic the appearance of your image on printed paper. Soft proofing is not as critical as the other print recommendations.

 

[Hal P Anderson]

When you print from the Print Module, you need to turn off color management at the printer and manage it in the Print Job panel in the Color Management section.

That is probably the crux of the problem. Managing colour both on the printer and in LR will cause a colour shift toward magenta.

 

[mikecox]

Thanks for this detailed response. I really appreciate that.

You need to begin with a calibrated monitor so that the colors rendered on your monitor are a good approximation of the color values that are going to be sent to your printer.

Since my other printer is getting it right, I'm thinking that the monitor calibration isn't an issue.

Next you need a color profile that matches your printer and paper.

Again, my other printer is getting it right, wouldn't that r/o a color profile issue?

Many Paper manufacturers provide these and Canon certainly does for the Canon Pixma Pro printers and Canon Papers. Other paper manufacturers also supply icc profiles for their papers.

I can't find color profiles specific to the MX922. Canon told me there was no profile option with this printer but when I click "other" I get these, I've never used them in the past because I don't understand the suffix characters.

But I have been printing with this Canon printer without using any of these and been getting perfect prints, with the same settings and the same paper since I bought this printer

When you print from the Print Module, you need to turn off color management at the printer and manage it in the Print Job panel in the Color Management section.

Here are my settings for Lr and the settings on my printer. I don't know how I could change them, especially since they have been working in the past.

Here is what I get when I print.

quote] It also helps if you use Soft-Proofing in the Develop Module to mimic the appearance of your image on printed paper. Soft proofing is not as critical as the other print recommendations.[/quote]

I understand how that works but it doesn't help[/quote]

 

[Bruce J]

Just looking at the photo, it looks to me as if you are entirely missing yellow ink. Does the printer have a self-test page you can print? Does it print correctly from other software? Consider that printers do fail occasionally. You've probably already considered these fundamentals, but just in case . . .

 

[clee01l]

Since my other printer is getting it right, I'm thinking that the monitor calibration isn't an issue.

And maybe you just got lucky. Monitor colors drift as monitors age. They need to be tuned to provide consistent results.
I'll agree that monitor calibration is not the issue. I think Hal nailed the correct cause of the magenta color shift

Again, my other printer is getting it right, wouldn't that r/o a color profile issue?

Again this is probably due to luck and the fact that the other printer has different response characteristics. Every printer uses some color profile. Print drivers can't function properly without one being applied.

I can't find color profiles specific to the MX922. Canon told me there was no profile option with this printer but when I click "other" I get these, I've never used them in the past because I don't understand the suffix characters.

But I have been printing with this Canon printer without using any of these and been getting perfect prints, with the same settings and the same paper since I bought this printer

"GL" is to be used with Glossy paper. "MP" is for Matte. "PT" is designed to bring out the best in Canon's Platinum papers and SG/LU is to be used with Semi-Gloss or Canon's Luster paper. I think(?) the IJ profile is a generic print profile similar to AdobeRGB. The IJ profile may be the one that your printer driver defaults to when using other software to print. You should use one of these that matches the paper you will be using for best color response. Matte paper soaks up color ink and requires more ink to not result in a muddy dull print. OTOH Glossy paper gas a coating that keeps the ink from soaking into the paper.
Here are two color plots showing the color response for AdobeRGB and Canon's Matte profile for my PixmaPro100

You can see clearly the differences in the two.

Here are my settings for Lr and the settings on my printer. I don't know how I could change them, especially since they have been working in the past.

As Hal suggested, the magenta shift is due to both the print driver and LR trying to manage color. Change the profile setting from "Managed by the Printer" to one of the color profiles in your list that is specific to the paper that you are printing on and you will get better results with no magenta shift.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

As Hal suggested, the magenta shift is due to both the print driver and LR trying to manage color. Change the profile setting from "Managed by the Printer" to one of the color profiles in your list that is specific to the paper that you are printing on and you will get better results with no magenta shift.

No, I don't think this is the correct conclusion. If the profile setting in Lightroom is 'Manage by Printer', then Lightroom is not applying any color correction. That is the whole idea of this option...

This color shift is so severe, that I think it is indeed more likely that it is a hardware problem. One of the inks is not applied at all, due to clogging of the print head.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

I read all the messages again, and realised that you could make a perfect print directly from a scan. Sorry, I had overlooked that one at first. If you can make a perfect print in whatever way, it can't really be a hardware problem, even though it does look a lot like missing yellow ink.

As I said, the 'Managed by printer' setting in Lightroom means that Lightroom does not apply any color management (because the color is managed by the printer), so the suggestion that this problem is caused by 'double color management' is definitely wrong. However, just by coincidence, the proposed solution may still be correct. I think that the problem isn't double color management, but no color management at all. Lightroom doesn't do it, and in the printer driver screenshots I also don't see much that suggests that the printer is doing it. So changing the profile setting in Lightroom to the correct color profile rather than 'Managed by printer' may still be the solution.

Having said that, there are two areas in the printer driver that justify a closer look as well. First of all, in the Main tab, you have Color/Intensity set to 'Auto'. That may not be full color management, but it does look like some kind of automatic color correction, and that should not happen if you let Lightroom make the color corrections. What happens if you change this to Manual and press the Set button that will (probably) become active? Is there an option to turn off any color adjustment? Secondly, in the Page Setup tab, you have a button Print Options. That too could possibly lead to a dialog where you can enable/disable color management, although that is less likely. I don't have a Canon printer myself, so apologies if this button has nothing to do with that. Better safe than sorry.

 

[mikecox]

Just looking at the photo, it looks to me as if you are entirely missing yellow ink. Does the printer have a self-test page you can print? Does it print correctly from other software? Consider that printers do fail occasionally. You've probably already considered these fundamentals, but just in case . . .

I believe the results I get from printing a scanned image would r/o ink and ink jet problems but in spite of being convinced that it would not help I replaced ALL my ink cartridges, I also ran the "clean" function and printed out a test sheet, with good results.

 

[clee01l]

I believe the results I get from printing a scanned image would r/o ink and ink jet problems but in spite of being convinced that it would not help I replaced ALL my ink cartridges, I also ran the "clean" function and printed out a test sheet, with good results.

Have you tried the first suggestion by Hal to turn off "Managed by printer" and using a color profile appropriate to your paper type from the dropdown list?

 

[Cerianthus]

i have a canon printer with very similar drivers. If you want the driver to use the printer profile, you have to select manual at the color / intensity option. Press the settings (?) button next to it. Go to the second tab in the popup menu that comes.

there you can select ICM color management and choose the profile and rendering you want. It may be that the auto mode will choose the printer profile based on the paper you select in the options, but this way you would be more sure.

the other way, is selecting "none" in this option, and use the LR colour management instead.

 

[mikecox]

As I reported to Bruce, I replaced all my ink cartridges, and even re-installed the driver, and made "copy 1" the default!

As I've already pointed out, I have never used any of the Profiles listed and have always used the default color management option: "Manged by Printer". I did try GL2, since there is no GL, along with several others on the list with the same results.

I'm just baffled by this problem because It has never presented itself before. I've always used the default settings in Lr. From day 1 I got good color prints from this printer, on both computers. I haven't changed a thing, just upgraded the programs. This isn't just a Lr issue, it's Lr and Ps, but of course they both use the same print options.

I am resisting the possibility that this could be a monitor calibration issue. I've never, ever, calibrated a monitor and have never had this kind of problem.

Why wouldn't calibration issue result in the same color problem with both printers and why wouldn't recalibrating effect both printers and throw off the printer that is currently producing good color prints?

Thanks for those color plots but I'm afraid they are a bit too technical for me to understand their application in this situation.

I tried changing the color intensity, to no avail. I also set the Print Options/Disable the color profile setting of the application software", also to no avail.

I have also tried Cerianthus' suggestion and set color management option to "ICM" and to "none" and still get the same colors, consistently. Every single setting I've tried produced an image with exactly the same color printout.

I just rebooted my computer and tried these things again and nothing changes. I'm at my wits end! Fortunately, my other printer is producing good color prints. I considered jettisoning the offending printer but my other printer doesn't have a scanner.

I thought maybe I dealing with some kind it OS issue but since I get good color on my other printer I think I can rule that out.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Can you still make a good print directly from a scan? Replacing the ink cartridges does not solve the problem of a clogged print head, so it could still be a hardware problem after all.

 

[mikecox]

Ok, you appear to have nailed it!

I just scanned the cover of MaximumPC. The PC part of that text is in very bold and very yellow, it printed out as white! Bruce said he thought that yellow was missing, so he was right! The image I scanned previously was mostly in reds, with almost no yellow which is why I didn't notice it! So, it is clear, this really is a hardware issue!

Even thought I ran the nozzle cleaning utility it didn't help. I color test seemed ok to me but it did lacked brightness, maybe that's why I accepted it.

Thanks everyone for your very determined effort to solve this problem!

 

[mikecox]

ps I tried the Deep Cleaning option and got the missing Yellow test pattern to display in faint yellow, but it still didn't print the PC in the copy that printed. So I replaced the yellow ink cartridge with another new cartridge and this time the PC characters printed in Yellow!

I think the takeaway here is "use brand names ink"!

Thanks again for all your help!