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Author Topic: Color Magement Problems: Used to work but no more.  (Read 6034 times)
Michaelbe
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« on: February 11, 2010, 09:22:51 PM »


I'm having problems with color management printing from Qimage.  First some background.

I've been using Qimage successfully for many years with an old Canon printer (no longer used) and for the last 3 plus years with an HP B9180.  With the B9180 I have a whole bunch of profiles for various the papers that I've used successfully in the past.  I run Windows XP and I have a calibrated monitor.  Due to a variety of reasons I hadn't printed any photos in a few months.  In January I tried printing some photos I took in the fall I noticed that skin tones were far too red on the prints.  I didn't have time to troubleshoot the issue so just kind of left it.  Today I tried again with the same results and I did some playing to try and understand the issue.  I'm confused from what I see.

Some things have changed since the last time I was able to successfully print using Qimage.  I upgraded from a fairly old version (don't remember which) to 2010.106.  I replaced an old CRT monitor that died with a Samsung LCD display (which is calibrated).

My standard printing process is to open Qimage and select the photos to print.  Go to "printer/page setup" and select the paper, size, border or borderless and I select "application managed colors". In Qimage I would select the icc for the paper that I'm using for Prtr ICC.  Mntr ICC has my monitor profile set.  This used to work just fine but now skin tones are too red, everyone has a sunburn!!!

The first thing I eliminated was my editing on a new monitor.  I tried printing an older photo edited on my old monitor and that I've printed in the past with good result.  The same issue, red skin tones and even some red in neutral shadows.

If under Prtr ICC I select "let printer/driver manage" I get a decent print.  Not as good as a properly colored managed one but not bad at all.

I tried printing from Photoshop setting the printer to "application managed colors" and selecting the icc profile within Photoshop.  Here I got an excellent print.  The colors matched the monitor very well.

So back to Qimage to play some more.  I noticed something interesting.  When I go through the process of setting up the printer I reopened the dialog after clicking "ok" to set everything.  I noticed that the settings I set didn't appear to be saved. For instance, under color management it would be reset to the default sRGB setting after I had though I set it to "application managed colors".  Now I know for a fact in the past ( when things were working) when I reopen the printer dialog  it would have all the setting I selected set correctly, they wouldn't revert back to the default.

Next I went back into Photoshop went to the print dialog and opened the printer dialog box by clicking "page setup".  I set color management to "application managed colors" and closed the dialog box.  I the reopened the printer dialog and everything was still set correctly.  So it appears that Qimage and my printer software aren't playing nicely together and there's some double profiling going on.  This is after they've been working fine together for years.  I tried to download an older version of Qimage 2009.209 but it had the same trouble.

One last thing I did has me even more confused.  I went into some other software my printer had and was able to change the default color management setting to "application managed colors".  Thinking I solved the problem, I reopened Qimage opened the printer dialog and sure enough "application managed colors" was set.  I printed the image again expecting to get a good print but it was the same as all the others, red skin!!  I then changed the Qimage setting to let the printer manage color.  remember the printer is set to "application managed colors". Here the print was good, the same as the last time I let the printer manage color.

I love using Qimage, it makes printing so much easier.  I really want to get it to work again.  Any help would be very much appreciated.

Michael

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Fred A
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« Reply #1 on: February 11, 2010, 09:36:51 PM »

Michael,
There have been many documented reports all similar to what you described and all related to buggy HP printer drivers.
The cure is to change your habits a bit.
First of all click HELP and reset Printer.
The next suggestion is to avoid using saved printer setups. You will need to start from default in the driver and insert the correct paper, quality and Color Management "OFF" settings.
With the correct print profile inserted in Qimage, you should get your print quality back.
Good Luck
Fred
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Terry-M
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« Reply #2 on: February 11, 2010, 09:37:58 PM »

Michael,
Your problems sound as they due to a buggy HP printer driver, not unknown on this forum with several of their printers.
See Mike's latest article on The HP8850 (link near top of forum page)
Have you checked to see if HP have an updated driver?
Terry
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Michaelbe
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« Reply #3 on: February 11, 2010, 10:12:49 PM »

Thanks for the quick replies.  The Help --> Reset Printer Settings fixed it!!!  I'm sure all that hair I pulled out will grow back eventually Wink

Michael
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Fred A
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« Reply #4 on: February 11, 2010, 10:16:00 PM »

Quote
The Help --> Reset Printer Settings fixed it!!!  I'm sure all that hair I pulled out will grow back eventually Wink
Michael,
Happy it is fixed. Keep the other parts of the suggestions in the back of your mind too in case......
Fred
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