Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

This will no doubt seem like a very simple question with an obvious answer, and if so, my apologies.
I have just bought a new Canon MX922 printer as well as Qimage Ultimate; I used to use Qimage Studio with other printers, and was happy with the quality of the prints I made. Here is my quandary - I am not sure if I need to choose a profile appropriate to the Canon paper I use, or if in fact the profile is automatically chosen when I select the type of paper in the printer dialog box. In other words, if I choose to print on Canon Pro Platinum paper, do I need to also choose the correct profile, or is that taken care of for me by the printer when I select the type of paper?
As a secondary question, in the "Prtr ICC" section, do I choose "Let the printer/driver manage colour" or should I choose "OFF" (assuming that I am not choosing a printer profile here)? I have found that the colours have been off in some prints (reds come out as magenta) and I suspect that I may have double profiled somehow.
With my previous printer, I had a custom profile made, but I have not yet had that done for my new printer. With the custom profile, it was quite straightforward, but I seem to be having some issues with the new printer.
To further confuse matters, in the printer dialog box, for Colour/Intensity, I can choose Auto or Manual - which is correct? If I choose Manual, another dialog box opens where under Matching/Colour correction I can choose Driver matching, ICM, or None. The Canon help screen for this section is not much help - which should I choose if I have selected Manual?
Sorry that this became longer than I expected. I would appreciate some guidance. I really don't want to use lots of ink and paper experimenting and I know there's lots of expertise in this forum.

Good Morning,
The questions aren't complicated, just a lot of them, so we will take them one at a time.
The last one first!!
Since 99% of all printer profiles are created using NONE (No Color Adjustment) (OFF) depending on the brand of printer, you need to set yours to NONE!


OK we can sort this one out.
If you have a "PROPER" profile, then that is what should appear in the Prtr ICC box. 
This, coupled with "NONE" in the above answer, makes a match.
The match is that you want absolutely no color influence coming from the printer (hence NONE), and all color information being adjusted by the profile.


This one is the hardest question because Canon always used to use secret code when naming their profiles  e.g.  PR1, PR2, MP160pr1, AND A BUNCH OF CNB83CBO types.
They did publish a chart to inform you what to use.
Your printer is newer, and perhaps they have listed the profiles better.
YOU have to select the proper profile to match the paper.  Check the information sheet that comes with the pack of paper. That usually tells you what paper selection in the driver, and there should be a printer profile that come on the CD with the driver installation that goes with various Canon papers.

Last item.
Let printer Manage Color.... that setting in Qimage is an excellent substitute for not having the correct profile.
Qimage shows that in the Prtr ICC box, and the DRIVER (Print page setup) gets set on ICM instead of NONE.

Hope this helps, but I'll see if I can find that secret Canon decoder file to sort out the profile numbers.
Fred

In addition...
I searched all over including the driver download, and can find no printer profiles for that printer.
I believe it's a scanner and a copier too... so they may not provide profiles.
In that case, the paper selection is telling the driver which built in profile to use.

I hope someone with that printer chimes in here to say for sure; but that would leave two alternatives.
Either buy a copy of Profile Prism and make your own profiles, or have one made for you by an on line service...
Other option would be to use Qimage's Let Printer Manage Color, and select ICM in the driver.

Fred

Hi,

I don't know about this specific printer, but I use an MX870 (printer, copier, fax, etc.) for my every day printing and when I installed the printer driver, eight profiles were automatically installed and are available through the list dispalyed by QI.

Have you checked your ICC profile list ?

Also here is a pdf provided by Canon that explains, among other things, the naming conventions for different papers.
http://usa.canon.com/app/images/service_ware/Canon_ICC_%20Profile_Guide.pdf (http://usa.canon.com/app/images/service_ware/Canon_ICC_%20Profile_Guide.pdf)

Hoping this helps,

Claude

Thank you for the replies.

I know which profiles were installed with the printer software, and I know which ones apply to each kind of paper (glossy, matte, semiglossy etc). What I was asking (amongst other things) was whether I needed to choose, under "Prtr ICC", the profile for the type of paper I was using, or if when I selected that paper in the printer dialog box, the correct profile was automatically chosen. I suspect that when I choose the media type in the printer dialog box (Photo Paper Pro, Photo Paper Plus Glossy II, Pro Platiinum, etc), the appropriate profile is chosen. If I had also loaded the profile in the "Prtr ICC" then I would in effect be double profiling - am I correct in that analysis?

If I understand you correctly Fred, you are saying that I should choose, in the "Prtr ICC" the appropriate Canon profile for the paper that I am using. Then I should choose "Manual" under "Colour/intensity", followed by "None" under "Colour correction". Is that right? As an alternative, I can choose "Let printer/driver manage colour" under "Prtr ICC", then "Manual" under "Colour/intensity", followed by "ICM"  under "Colour correction". I did a test print with the latter settings and the print looked good. The former settings should produce a very similar print, I assume.

Hopefully I understand the situation now. I appreciate the responses.

Merry Christmas

That is correct!!
Merry Xmas to you and yours, plus a thanks to Claude who found that special file I knew I saw at one time..
He also supplied valuable information for you too.

Thanks and Happy Holidays to you too, Claude.

As a NOB I struggled with my recent set up. I eventually figured out that there are two parts to the solution. My thoughts may help!!!

First there is the 'paper' part. Second is the correct 'application of the ink' part.

My mistake was thinking the paper 'profile' contained all the answers.
It apparently doesn't.

So, for me and my Epson, I physically set the 'paper' part in the printer dialogue box. ie select Glossy, matte, semi gloss etc. So the printer controls the actual physical paper properties. That's the paper under control.

Now by turning OFF colour management in the printer dialogue box and letting Qimage handle the 'ink' and 'colour management' using the 'profile' all turned out just as it should. Qimage handled the ink application onto the appropriate paper using the profile.

So the printer handles the physical paper and Qimage handles how the ink is applied to that paper.

Or have I now confused you more?

Thanks Fred, Claude, and BruceT.

All of your explanations have helped clarify this process for me. It can certainly be confusing with so many places to apply settings.

Merry Christmas!