I'm using Qimage again after a 3 year hiatus from playing with pictures.  I'm using a Canon MP600 printer.  I played around with the printer driver settings and got satisfactory results.  Pics looked good, some great but not WOW.  After reading all the posts and newsletters (thanks for the one on using Canon printer profiles) about color management and ICC profiles.  Following Mike's directions, I finally found the profile for the paper I'm using (Photo Paper Plus Glossy), set up the drivers, ICC profile and printed my first picture.  WOW!  Printed another photo I'd been experimenting with and once again--WOW.  Printed yet a different photo--YUCK--very dark and dull.  Printed the 4th photo I'd been working on---YUCK---dark again.  The pictures that were WOW looked exactly like they looked on my monitor.
Any ideas on what happened?

What file-format are the pictures you're printing: TIF, JPG, RAW, and any difference between the WOW or YUCK ones?

What is the ICC profile embedded in the original images you're trying to print: sRGB, AdobeRGB, ProPhotoRGB, and does this change from the WOW and YUCK images?

The righthand part of the info given for each photo in the View Print Queue area is the profile.  sRGB and AdobeRGB would be possibilities for JPGs coming directly out of a DSLR and is a seting in the camera, itself.

If you are making adjustments to the photos in some program like Lightroom or Photoshop, then the profile that is embedded in the photos is determined within that photo-editing program and may be different.   Can you confirm whether these JPGs are direct from the camera or have been manipulated by some other program and whether that program has been used to export or save new copies of the manipulated images?

The reason for inconsistency between WOW and YUCK can be a mis-configured profile, somewhere, or double-profiling, where both QImage and the printer are trying to account for the profile, or even the printer being set to Auto Color and trying to fix an image that QImage has already adjusted and sometimes guesses well and sometimes does not.

Steve,   I think that you've hit on the problem.  The photo that is printing dark and lifeless--Photo 2 was indeed manipulated using Canon's ZoomBrowserEX.  However,  I can't find any print properties in the Print Queue.

Marie,
I just sent you an email with the cure including a screen snap of the images looking proper.
I think Steve had the right idea. If you did any image manipulation in Zoombrowser, it is likely that the adjustments you made were stored in a sidecar type file. If so, only Zoombrowser could see the adjustments.
If you viewed the image in Zoombrowser, but didn't create a new JPG which would include the adjustments, then Qimage only had the original which was MUDDY to say the least.
I think you will be happy with the results. I just made a couple of glossy prints, and they are beautiful.
Even the WOW print of the baby needed a little touch up which I noted in the email. I also cropped that gorgeous face in a portrait layout.

Take your time. Make a print, and advise.
Fred

Hi Marie,

Not sure if you've solved it or not, but if the 'wow' images are of different subjects/colour range than the 'yuk' ones, e.g. landscape cf portrait', then maybe it is an ink flow problem. I am not familiar with your canon printer, but for epsons, on some papers the yellow test pattern is very difficult to see. If you print with some yellow missing, it can look a bit lifeless, so the first thing is to check your printer nozzles. If they are  ok, do a print. If it is 'yuk', run another nozzle check to confirm. For many printers, in particular towards the end of the cartridge life, you get ink foam, not liquid, which will give intermittent print quality. If Fred has got both printing good, and if you have them both saved as srgb and they both look good in qimage, then there can't be much else wrong, except inkflow, or a really screwed up printer profile,  if some print good and some print bad.

Best wishes,

Ray

Ray,  Thanks for the suggestions.  I've cleaned, deep cleaned, changed all the inks, downloaded new drivers.  None of these suggestions have worked.  The pictures that I was working on were all similar, family members taken Christmas morning.  I've emailed Canon once again to see if they have any suggestions but haven't heard back from them yet.  Keeping in mind that I can indeed print and if I don't like what I get I can play with the filters, print again and keep doing that until I get a print I like.  However that takes up a lot of paper and ink.   I do occasionally find a picture that prints exactly the way it should.  I'm just looking for more consistency.  Perhaps someone familiar with the Canon Pixma MP600 or 620 will see this and be able to help.  Fred has gone above and beyond in trying to help.