Printer Problem

[Yellowhead]

I just calibrated my printer Spyder 3 Pro calibration tool. My monitor looks great but my prints (Canon Pixma Pro 9000) are a mess. They are just soaked with excess ink. I'm not sure there is a connection between the calibration and the problem but I never had this problem before. Anybody got an ideas?

[Steve Foss]

Yellowhead, there are printer profiles for the print papers you are using that can be downloaded from the paper manufacturers and installed so your prints will be more true to the monitor colors, though it's not always perfect. You also should have some type of printer driver software that needs to be installed (came with the printer), and then when you are printing you can select the printer type and paper type so the computer and printer can talk to each other and arrive at the right combination of ink distribution.

There's some trial and error here, and a lot of ins and outs, and I think Dan (Dbl) knows more about this than I do. After I activated my printer driver software, I just calibrated my monitor by eyesight to match what was coming out of the printer, and I've been good to go ever since.

Also, I use a Mac, where these things tend to go more simply. PC users have a bit more work ahead of them.

[Dbl]

Steve looks to be right on with his advice. If you are printing your own shots you really need to have a color managed work flow that starts with your monitor calibration (you've done that) and goes to profiling your printer.

Starting with the easy way you can just experiment with adjusting your printer driver to get the results you want. Not easy and uses a lot of valuable materials, ink, paper, and time. You will get acceptable results over time.

The next step would be to install as Steve said ICC profiles for each of your papers and if the profiles are high quality you will get good results with not much more work. The profiles are really important to get consistent results.

If you can't find ICC profiles for your printer and papers there are places that will do a custom profile for you. Keep in mind they are not particularly cheap.

Your excess ink problem may be related to your calibration. I would find profiles or start playing with your printer driver settings in the software. Use the custom settings in the software to start applying the changes until you get the desired outcome.

This is one of the reasons I use a lab for all of my prints except an occasional 4x6 at home. I download the labs ICC profile and use "soft proofing" that enables you to see what your print will look like from the lab.

Good luck with the saturation problem, if you want post back with how it turns out.

[WCS]

One other possibility is the paper you are using. Have you switched to a different paper? I also have a Canon Pixma printer and it does not print well with Kodak paper. The ink does not soak in and pools on the surface. I stick with Canon paper, but like Steve and Dan, I send most photos to a lab and use their ICC profiles for soft proofing.

[mountaindew]

Ditto on what Steve, Dan, and WCS said.... Pretty sure it's the paper. Like Dan said it's the ICC profiles that you need in order to match the settings on your computer to the type of paper you use for print.

I also use a Mac, very much problem free to set it up.

You should be able to download ICC profiles onto your computer from the Canon site.

I use Epson Stylus Photo R2400 for mostly 8x11 and for bigger prints I use Epson Stylus Pro 9880, and I went to their site to download all the ICC profiles and it installed flawlessly. When click to print, it shows a listing what type of paper you want to use.

Hope you got it solved....

[Yellowhead]

Thanks to all who responded. I do use ICC profiles for all my papers. I do 90% of my printing on Ilford glossy, a great paper for showing fine detail. Whatever was causing the problem is gone now. When I fired up the printer and printed the same shot that was giving me fits last night it printed prefectly. Go figure. Thanks again.

[buzzsaw]

Glad its fixed! I was just going to chime in that I have the same printer and generally use the Ilford paper (my favorite) as well as Canon paper. Now I wonder what the issue was, oh well glad its back to good.