Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

I have an Epson Stylus Pro 3800 for quite a while and have been using it with Qimage Pro Studio since I received it (almost a couple of years ago) without any problems. I have been using Red River Ultra Pro Satin paper for most of my printing with their provided paper profile and the results are excellent. I do not have any discrepancy between printing test images in Photoshop and the larger prints in Qimage, they are identical.
However since I like the regular inkjet ink brighter colors more than the pigment colors, I just purchased a Canon Pixma Pro 9000 Mark II printer. It produces excellent prints in Photoshop CS4 using the Red River Ultra Pro Satin paper profile but I have problems with the color reproduction in Qimage Pro Studio. Using the same setup as I am using in Photoshop, same profile and no color adjustments in the printer setup, all my prints are coming out way too red. If I let the printer control the colors, not Qimage it is much better but too saturated and lighter than it should be. I am sure that there is a problem somewhere where Qimage does not see the printer setup the same way as Photoshop does but I cannot find what the problem might be. I know that I do not have an option in the Canon printer setup to specify no color control such as I have in the Epson setup, but I do not put any values anywhere in the manual color controls and this is the only option I have in the Canon Pro 9000 MK II printer setup.
Does anybody have one of these Canon printers and getting good results in Qimage? I would really appreciate any input so I would not have to use Photoshop for my 13-x19”prints.
Thanks for any input in advance,
Julius

Hi Julius,

What ICC profile have you set in the job properties section of Qimage for 'Prtr ICC'?

Best wishes,

Ray

Hi Ray,

Thank you for your reply, if you refer to the Color management section of Qimage, in the Printer Output Profile I put the same Paper Profile: RR UPSatin CanPro9000 Mk2.icc what I have been using in Photoshop CS4 also. The Epson 3800 Printer Paper profile has icm extension, the Red River paper profile has icc extension, I do not know if this would make any difference as far as the profile is concerned.

Julius

Hi Julius,
The problem boils down to turning off color management in the Canon.
I am attaching four snaps of how to turn off the Color Management in two types of Canon drivers. The sercond one is the 9000 Pro.
Most likely it will be the newer driver, the second screen snap.
That is a little hard to find; you are not alone.
See snap  006. There's a tab at the top called Matching. In there is the shut off you see in snap 004.
I also included a snap of the Quality settings to you will see to click #1 for quality, and click Diffusion too.

That should get it to work.

Fred

Hi Julius,

I'm referring to the area, generally at the bottom right of the qimage window, entitled 'Job Properties'. It has settings for Mntr ICC, Prtr ICC, Res(print) Res (poster), Interp., Sharpen, Info, Edges, G. Filter, and P.Filter. I was asking you to check that you were only applying the profile once. since you said that you could not turn off the printer ICC profile in the printer driver, then you do not want Qimage trying to profile it too (unless you've perhaps used profile prism to generate your profiles, which afaik is not your situation). It seems you are applying the profile twice - once within Qimage, and again in the printer driver setup. Turn off the qimage one, and try using the icc profile set in the printer driver. If all else fails, then try and generate a printing filter, and apply it by checking the P.Filter box.

I've not got the canon printer, but I know how easy it is to get lost in the differences between photoshop and qimage. I am not certain that not entering values would be the same as turning off the icc profiling in the driver.

icc/icm should not make any difference. icc was originated by apple, windows uses icm - everybody has a standard to uphold. :D

Best wishes,

Ray  

Hi Ray,
I have the driver for the 9000 Pro. The Color management off switch is in there, just hard to find.
Once he has that off, and as you point out, the profile set properly in Qimage, he should be fine.

Fred

Hi Fred,

Thanks for a definitive answer. I'm glad to see the time zone has kicked in  :D. I'd written my previous response before you had replied, got distracted, so ended up posting after yours. It's really stupid that a  manufacturer of printer with the word 'pro' in its name can obfuscate the colour profiling settings.

Best wishes,

Ray

Thanks, Ray,
I wouldn't say that my time zone kicked in. I'm just a weird early riser. (EST) I am up at 4:00 am, and wife and I walk the dog at 4:30. Then some cereal, and we start the day.
The price for that aberration is that I conk out at 9:00 PM.
:D
Fred

Hi Fred,

Thank you very kindly for your response, without your help I would have never been able to find it in my driver. It has never crossed my mind to click on the "Matching" tab. I have not tried it yet but I am almost certain that this will solve my problem.
I will try it a bit later and let you know.

Thanks again,
Julius

Hi again Fred,

You really made my day, since per your advice my problem is solved with one click in the Pro 9000 printer driver "Matching" tab by specifying "None".
I just purchased this printer a few days ago and I was going through so much frustration that I could not even sleep well for the past two nights, it just bugged the heck out of me. Without your help I would have never found the solution and I am very grateful to you. Apparently Photoshop CS4 does not pay attention what is in the printer driver's Matching tab since I did not have any problem there even before I specified None.

Thanks again,
Julius

Glad to help!
I peeked at some of your photos shown on your page: sweet shots! (Yosemite)

As for Photo Shop, I don't have the answer for you as I am no expert on PS, but it is possible that PS didn't pick up the profile and therefore didn't require the setting to be "none".
I base this guess on the fact that all settings alike in the driver when using PS or Qimage, the prints will be alike too including problems.
Only the quality is vastly improved when using Qimage.
Enjoy!
Fred

I have been having color problems with my Canon pixma pro 9000 printer as well.  I did follow the instructions given that have assisted others and my problem still exists.  The main problem I am having is color being printed incorrectly.  ex. - shaded areas of blue jeans printed doesn't just look a darker tone of the jeans but a shade of dark pink.  Any suggestive steps to follow would be sincerely appreciated.

Thanks

Robert

Robert,
We will try to help, but need more information.
What size print. What brand of paper and what type (glossy, matte?)
Are you using any printer profile?
If so, the name of the profile and where it came from, and the settings you used in Qimage and the driver to work with the profile.
Are you using Canon ink?
Have you done a nozzle check?
Are the heads aligned?

Let's start here and see what we get.

Fred

I am printing 8X10's and 5X7's
Paper Canon and or Kodak glossy
Canon inbk  -  yes only
Nozzle check.  Don't know how to do such.

Sorry, all prints are printed glossy type paper

Ok we can get to the nozzle checking easily after we get the rest of the information.
Very important that you tell us what it says in the Job Properties section of Qimage next to PRTR ICC.

Also must know the driver settings starting with the screen snap number 2

See snaps

Fred

Fred,  My apology on the delay.  There is one thing, Qimage, that is not seen on my printer.  I did locate the alignment test section and such shows after printing the test sheets that there is nothing wrong with such.  Any other suggestions on what to do and or try will be appreciated greatly.

Please explain the above.
Are you able to look at the screen snaps from the previous post and see what yours says?
Perhaps you are saying that you do not see that area?
If that's the case, go to VIEW, top left of screen area, click on behavior of closed panels, and set to manual.
Now click once on the job properties bar, lower right area of the main screen and it will open like my screen snap.

Stay with me!!
We will fix it.
Fred

Fred,

When the maintenance button is clicked it brings up the following:
CLEANING
DEEP CLEANING
PRINT HEAD ALIGNMENT
NOZZLE CHECK
BOTTOM PLATE
ROLLER CLEANING
AUTO POWER
QUIET MODE
CUSTOM SETTINGS

I pressed the print head alignment button with two sheets of paper present and the printed results, to myself, looked properly aligned.

Thanks again

Robert,
At this point I still need the answer to the questions posed in my previous three posts.
The buttons on the Maintenance section are not of major concern right now.

"Are you able to look at the screen snaps from the previous post and see what yours says?
Perhaps you are saying that you do not see that area?
If that's the case, go to VIEW, top left of screen area, click on behavior of closed panels, and set to manual.
Now click once on the job properties bar, lower right area of the main screen and it will open like my screen Snap"

Fred

My apology Fred,  I bring up a screen that has three sights, printer settings, printer status and trouble shooting.  I open printer settings and go through maintenance where all the previously mentioned sites are located.  If I am doing the wrong thing I am sorry.  Thanks a million for your guidance.

I think we are using different thought patterns.
The title of your problem says problem with printer in Qimage.
So I am trying to make sure your Qimage settings are correct before we go to the Printer setup, or driver.
In order to set the driver properly, I need to know what the Qimage settings are with regard to Printer Profile, Y/N, ON/OFF.
Then I know how to set the driver.
After that, if the problem still exists, we can set Qimage to a generic setting which is designed to make an excellent print without any profile.
If the problem still exists, then we need to look at the image and its color space or embedded or tagged color space.
..... and so on...
So we need your cooperation to stay with the questions and the answers.

Waiting to help!

Fred

Fred,

My sincere apology for my total misunderstanding of Qimage.  I do feel that I will have to take my printer to a Canon service center, here in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, for them to hopefully straighten out. 
I do greatly appreciate your professional assistance, once again my apology.

Robert

Robert,
Printer repair or service centers are not the place to go for HOW to MAKE prints, the best prints!
I gather from your replies, that my questions have you stymied.
It is all up to how much experience you have dealing with the strange terms we use when trying to print whether you follow the questions.
We all started somewhere and were baffled too in the beginning.
If you would kindly provide me with your email address and phone number, I will be most happy to work through the "minefield" of jargon and terminology.
Within 15 minutes on the telephone, and being able to email screen snap shots to you as we speak, you will be up and running very quickly.

If you don't want to post your phone number, then email it to me at    wathree.ssz@verizon.net
You are also welcome to call me if you would rather not give out your phone number.    941 359 1933  (Sarasota Fl)  See! We are neighbors!!  only 200 miles apart!!

I will be out most all of today, so if you wish to take me up on the offer, let's do it tomorrow or any other day.

(Going out picture taking today!)

Fred

Fred,

Thanks a million ahead of time and for your sincere patience.  My email address:
thefifthwish@gmail.com
Cell phone #
954-540-9400 :)

I have contacted our closest service here in Ft. Lauderdale, Fl and they seemed to be difficult to communicate with. 

Thank you so, so much

Robert Holbrook

Robert.
We did not have success at all over the phone, but I decided to do some checking.
If I google Canon 9000 red cast..... WOW!
You are not alone!!

Fred

I know this is an old thread but I've spent 3 days and alot of paper and ink trying to figure this out and had done everything that posted recommended like turning the printer driver off.  I put new ink in every slot today and still the same ol thing.  I then ran a nozzle check which I have done numerous times the past 3 days and guess what--pc color didn't show up.  Voila--changed it to another new cartride and now prints are beautiful.  Very maddening and hope my post helps somebody.  I think the real key to all this problem is make sure you are not double profiling as so many people have posted and make sure none of your cartridges are clogged.  I had tried printing from every possible way to print I think.

Thanks for posting a follow up.
It certainly helps others.
Fred