Another problem with my printing ....
I most certainly am doing something wrong here, but I don't know what. When I print out a photo with black, parts of it come out dark blue, even with b & w photographs.
The photo in my gallery of "Sabine" for instance has a little dark blue under the lady's left arm and in a fold of the cloth over the shoulder. (and yes, she has given her permission :) )
Take your pick - printer settings, software settings.
I know you're not shooting with XP1 or XP2 and developing under C41 process which also creates the same output - ooh get me giving my age away ::)
My Canon Pixma 4600 is prone to trying to output with a blue hue but i've only tried to print to it the twice and worked out it was cheaper to send off and get the picture printed than print it out myself!
What printer are you using - that might help as well with answers
QuoteWhat printer are you using
Pixma 4500 :)
I find in general that the prints are just fine with the Pixma. I've done calenders and all sorts of stuff with no problems.
Except this black/blue business.
Have you soft proofed your pictures?
I have a Pixma too, and I don't have any trouble with accuracy black and white pictures. Or colour ones either. But then I don't use Photoshop to print them.
Couple of questions: are you using genuine Canon inks? when you say 'even with black and white photographs' are these images whose colour mode is greyscale?
I have just taken the libety of copying your image onto my desktop and printing it using my Epson R285 using compatible inks and a sheet of paper that came free with those inks (it's of Chinese origin) and there is nothing wrong with the blacks at all. I printed it using the Epson Easy Print software that comes with the printer. The only setting changed was the selection of the vivid and clear option.
PM me an address and I'll send you this print (I've already deleted your image).
There is nothing wrong with you image so it must be down to the equipment or software you print with.
Howard, have to be blond here - what is "soft proof" ?
I have the same problem whether RGB or greyscale.
The inks are original Canon.
I've just tried using the original Canon SW to print, same problem.
CannOffice - if you would send me your mail address, I'd like to send you another photo which is worse than the one posted here in the gallery. Would that be OK ?
Thanks for your help!
Carol, if you don't knonw what soft proofing is then you probably don't need to know. It's a way of emulating on screen what your prints should look like using a given profile. But if you are using Canon's own and you haven't created or bought any new ones then you can safely ignore the concept.
If the printer is tinging everything you print and no matter which programme you use, then that would suggest a hardware problem. Have you given the printer a deep clean using the software that came with it? Have you been able to try the same files with a friend or neighbour's printer to see what happens?
I clean regularly using the normal Canon software to be found in the Canon Solution Menu, not sure if this is a "deep" clean tho.
Any other colours are printed fine, clear and sharp. That's why I think I must be doing something wrong.
A good idea to try on another printer. A friend of mine has a pixma too, I'll pop round and visit her. Sometimes you can't see the wood for trees, thanks Howard :tup:
Carol, I was having colour issues with my Pixma 4600 when printing photos. In the try everything to sort it out I went and bought some expensive(ish) canon photo paper. I've got to say it made a huge difference after I'd selected the matching paper profile in PS Elements.
Quote from: michaelb104 on March 17, 2010, 04:54:48 PM
Carol, I was having colour issues with my Pixma 4600 when printing photos. In the try everything to sort it out I went and bought some expensive(ish) canon photo paper. I've got to say it made a huge difference after I'd selected the matching paper profile in PS Elements.
I was going to suggest trying a different paper. Had this problem with some paper I was given a while back. I now know why it was given to me. ::)
Thanks guys - I will certainly give that a go!
OK, did a deep clean, adjusted the heads, printed on Canon paper.
Still blue. grrrrrr.... >:(
Mike, just to be sure - where is the "paper profile" in elements? Sometimes things get lost in translation with me.
Tomorrow I'm visiting a friend to print out the pciture on her Pixma.
The photo I'm using to test is this - it's a piece cut out of a larger photo.
(http://img686.imageshack.us/img686/6172/swtest.jpg)
The main picture is of a black material with creases, so there are shadows. The lighter shadows come out grey with a slight blue tinge. The darker shadows are dark blue. The grey frame is grey, the black frame comes out navy blue.
If anyone feels like trying it out, fell free :)
I didn't print it Carol, but the screenshot is definitely all greys and blacks according to the histogram.
I'm not sure what to suggest.
Quote from: Sarasocke on March 18, 2010, 05:34:35 PM
Mike, just to be sure - where is the "paper profile" in elements? Sometimes things get lost in translation with me.
Hi Carol,
When you open the print box (File > Print) in Elements there is a drop down list called Printer Profile (could be under colour management), from this list I'm using 'Canon IP4600 series PR1'.
I think these are some of the matches of profiles to paper:
PR1 = Photo Paper Pro (print quality level 1)
PR2 = Photo Paper Pro (quality level 2)
SP1 = Photo Paper Plus Glossy (quality level 1)
MP1 = Matte Photo Paper (quality level 1).
I'm using Elements 8 which I think has the printer profile in a different place to the other versions.
Found a link to a Canon ICC Profile Guide > www.sns.ias.edu/~jns/files/Canon_ICC_Profile_Guide.pdf (http://www.sns.ias.edu/~jns/files/Canon_ICC_Profile_Guide.pdf)
Mike.
Just a bit more, I tried opening the photo you put into the thread in PSE8 and I got the following message:
The embedded ICC profile cannot be used because the ICC is invalidI'm not sure what this means as I'm at the limit of my knowledge now, I did print the photo and the blacks were black. I'm not sure that is any help though.
Simple. Get a better printer.
The Pixma 4600 sells for about 60 quid. These days that's about the cost of printing an instruction manual, packaging up a CD and putting an empty box on the shelf.
It has black ink in it but it won't generally use it for photo printing. Instead it will mix the coloured ink. It's remarkably hard to get all shades of grey out of coloured ink. It's even harder to get it out of a single black cartridge.
My advice would be give up ;) Either accept that some monochrome areas are going to have a colour cast, print it at a lab or get a better printer. Some of the new Epsons have 3 - 4 grey cartridges. Lyson make a dedicated monochrome set for some printers. Mixing it out of different colours in a cheap printer is never going to work. A "better printer" is likely to be expensive. I'd get somebody else to print it.
Any suggestions on a new printer ? Canon again, Epson?
90% of my printing is photos, sometimes DVDs, with the occasional letter. I don't need anything bigger than A4.
I think it is generally accepted that Epson do a bitter job of printing B&W...
Hi Carol
I printed the rectangle on my Epson 285 and it was all black and grey without a trace of blue anywhere.
I would suggest that if you buy a new printer an Epson would be the better choice. Get a photo printer with 6 Claria Inks and you will enjoy using it and get the results you really want
Malcolm
Can I beg to differ here? I have had two Epsons (the last one purchased only recently to replace my 'everyday' desktop printer).
The first was a 265 or something like that. I bought it to replace my worn out Pixma 4000. It was about £130 or thereabouts. And BIG. Don't hold me to the model number. I kept it for two weeks, and it was lucky to last that long - the colour rendition was appalling, it was slow, noisy and simply ate ink like there was no tomorrow. I managed to palm it off onto a neighbour for half what I paid for it and put the money towards another Pixma, a 4200 which I still have and which I find excellent.
The second was the lower priced one. Utterly rank. After 3 days I replaced that with a Canon MP250 which is also cheap and cheerful and I would never use to print colour photographs, but it prints black and white passably well at a pinch. This one is definitely NOT a photographic printer.
My lesson from this is Epson = don't touch with a bargepole. I am sure this is unfair, but I speak as I have found.
It does seem that there is a problem with your printer. I have never had a colour cast on the monochromes I have printed from either of my Canons, even the one that cost less than the box it came in.
I do, however, usually print to matt paper - but I doubt that makes a difference to colour cast.
One last thing - before you throw the printer out, have you tried hooking up someone else's printer to your computer? If that also prints with a colour cast you might have to think again about colour management.
In suggesting further investigation I am minded of the fact that the Canon boys just talked you into buying an unnecessarily expensive flash gun :legit:
Can't speak too highly of Epson. I've had a Photo RS 2400 since I returned to photography some three years ago now and am delighted with the results. Can't speak for other printers since I have no experience of them but the Epson serves me well and once you have it set up properly and use the paper manufacturers' profiles, or better still profile them individually, colour is 99.9% spot on and B+W hits the spot every time.
It's got three blacks so you get a good tonal range, especially in the shadow detail.
I suppose it must be said that it's not churning out prints ad infinitum however, perhaps a hundred or so a year and ink consumption is a little on the high side.
As an aside, I'm no techno geek but of all the equipment that is now out there, I think the printer is the most amazing. How does it know when to spray what colour combination and in what amount on what part of the paper to reproduce the image that's on your screen? ???
Before you all rush to tell me, please DON'T, because I shall end up getting all confused and not understanding it all. As someone said in a thread somewhere else, ignorance is bliss. :tup:
I did say I thought my assessment was probably unfair, and I certainly have no experience of the higher specification Epson printers.
Although I have got an Epson 2480 Photo scanner, and that's rubbish too :legit:
Apart from this recent palavar with the blacks, I've been pleased enough with the pixma iP4500, which I've been using for about three years now. I've always used the original inks but have had all sorts of paper - I can't always use Canon or whatever, as I print calenders, greetings cards, postcards, t-shirt transfers etc. - as you know a lot of what I have been doing has been for our dog rescue charity. I can't get this sort of thing printed by experts - either they don't do it, postage is too high or the amount I need printed is too low.
I recently gave someone a cd with some photos of their dogs - they had them printed through an online service and the prints were atrocious, the colours had all been "brightened" so much, that the animals looked like clowns. The photos looked fine on both my and their monitor, my prints were just fine and I had a couple of A4 prints done professionally through a "real" high street shop who use a "real" lab and they were just fine too.
I'm wary of cheap printing services, and if someone only wants a couple of prints, I prefer to do them myself - I do have decent paper for this purpose, and as I said up to now the prints have been fine.
I rarely print in b&w - the latest picture which was discussed here was more of an exception. Also I very very rarely need anything larger than A4. If someone really want an A3 or bigger then I send them to the pros. Alan's printer prints A3, and to be honest, it's just too expensive for what I'm doing right now. I do have paying customers sometimes, but I'm a far cry from earning enough to keep us an our animals in food ;) At 58, I doubt whether I'll ever be able to do much more 8)
I'm going to give Canon a ring, and then I'll see what happens with the print this evening at my friends' house. If that is OK, then it may well be a good idea for them to hook up their printer to my computer.
If I should have to buy a new printer, from what I see at the moment it'll be either the Pixma iP4700 or the Epson P50.
I guess everyone has their preferences and experience, same with everything else - buying a Canon or Nikon camera, which make of car (my husband would never buy French or Japanese :-\ ) or which dentist to go to.
Oh well, I'll see if I can save the printer I have first :)
I'd always had a hatred of Epson dating from the very first scanner I ever bought - needed a specific one to scan old slides. It nearly ended up being thrown through the window or jumped on several times due to it's, shall we say, quirky nature! So I was initially, and no doubt irrationally, wary of buying one of their printers. I can only say I've found the P50 more than acceptable. Where the odd print has'nt been right it's been down to my getting the original wrong and a bit more tweaking has normally put things right. Sold quite a few prints from last years shows from it anyway! But I have only done prints of dogs and birds of course ::)
Quote from: Tringle WP on March 19, 2010, 09:33:10 AM
Although I have got an Epson 2480 Photo scanner, and that's rubbish too :legit:
Well, would you believe it. I've got an EpsonV500 scanner, specifically bought for scanning 6X6 negs, and it's magic.
You don't seem endowed with much luck Howard as far as Epson are concerned, or microsoft, or IE or...............! :legit:
Alan, you'll be pleased to learn that I finally got windows sorted, after a lot of tweaking. Tempting fate here, but I haven't had a single crash, or even a annoying glitch for absolutely ages now. It's running as quickly as I need it to.
I bought the Epson scanner specifically for 35mm negatives (the few I have left) but the resolution is awful. Scanning a black and white photograph produces a horrid moiréd mess no matter what settings I use. So I bought a Canon on account of having been so pleased with the printer.
In all fairness Alan you have the top end gear - all my problems have been with their consumer products.
And yes, IE is the work of the devil. He made it on his day off from designing Apple products. :D
From my years in the trade, I can only recommend Epson or HP, they have the best combination of device and driver to match, particularly with/for dedicated photo printers
Just to let you know - the printer is kaputt.
I tried printing the picture on my friend's Pixma - all nice blacks and greys. I coupled my printer up to her system - blue.
My Canon is 2 1/2 years old >:(
However, I'm not going project my Pixma experience on to other Pixmas - I do realise that things can go wrong, like with Howard's Epsons.
I have a comparison test report to download, then I'll decide - I realise that these reports are not always 100%, but I have to start somewhere :legit:
If your printer is kaput, as mine was, I think you'll find they make a very satisfying noise when you throw them out of a 2nd floor window. (Mine did.).
Graham.
Quote from: Sarasocke on March 20, 2010, 12:08:49 PM
Just to let you know - the printer is kaputt.
In which case it's more likely than not to be the print head which of course have a limited life-span much like the shutter on any digital camera. If you are generally satisfied with the printer as is it might be worth your while sourcing a replacement print head and checking the price out first. I had a Canon 474D print head fail on me several years back and seem to remember that the replacement wasn't exorbitantly priced.
Edit - a quick Google search indicates that print heads for the Pixma 4500 are available priced around €59,95 although with a more detailed search you'll probably find them even cheaper.
A new Pixma 4700 costs only 89€ from Amazon. I'd have a new printer with guarantee.
Still looking at the Epson P50 as well ....
Everything indicates that they are very very similar. Tests reports give the same quality and the price is more or less the same. :-\
Check the ink prices and print quality.
My experience tends to point towards Epson producing much better prints - but do so with with much dearer ink supplies!
Actually the inks seem to be about the same price. If I understand correctly there are two different sizes for the P50 - 7.4 ml and 11 ml. From one supplier the 7.4 ml are about 9.50€ and the 11 ml 12.9€ (varies from colour to colour).
The pixma inks are about 9.45€, but it doesn't say how much there is in a cartridge.
With a rating up to 21 one test report gave Epson 21 and Canon 20 on the quality of the prints.
Carol,
I never had much problems with the Epson. I use the R285 which is now the P50. I have recommended the P50 to many people and they are all over the moon with it.
I get my inks from this place http://www.inkredible.co.uk/Default.aspx?View=Offers&OffersView=OffersListView&CategoryID=2653 and the big size compatibles are very good indeed.
I need to use Epson paper with original inks to see a slight difference in quality, but for professional jobs I use pro labs anyway, so with paper from Lidl and cheap inks I can print whatever I like without it costing me a fortune.
I'm about to throw 3 X Epson R220s out. I have literally used them to destruction printing DVDs. I shall be very glad to see them go.
They've worked well and I probably now know more than most people about Epson error codes and patterns of not working. But Epson really cannot write drivers for Macs. They are just hopeless at it. I feel a change to Pixmas coming on.
Guys, you are not helping :-*
I think there's problably really very little to choose between the two.
A question I asked Sue as I thought she printed postcards .... maybe someone else knows. I print postcards in A6 but have a problem with the pixma. To get a decent print I have to "pretend" I'm printing on A4, i.e. I copy my motive onto a quarter of a blank A4 file. Canon doesn't support A6, only 10x15cm which is unfortunately not the same. According to the blurb on the Epsons, A6 IS supported.
Anyone help ?