Canon Pro 100 printer - dialing it in.. I bought this printer a couple of months ago and I am having trouble getting good prints out of it. What I see on my screen is not what I get on...

Superdave35

I bought this printer a couple of months ago and I am having trouble getting good prints out of it. What I see on my screen is not what I get on the prints. They are much darker and muddy.
What is the best method of getting this adjusted?

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

I strongly suggest that you calibrate your monitor. I doubt that the fault is with your Canon Pixma Pro-100 printer.
I use an affordable X-Rite ColorMunki Smile LCD/LED Monitor Calibration device:
http://www.xrite.com/custom_page.aspx?PageID=345

Jim Bob

Superdave35 wrote:

I bought this printer a couple of months ago and I am having trouble getting good prints out of it. What I see on my screen is not what I get on the prints. They are much darker and muddy.
What is the best method of getting this adjusted?

Not sure how calibrating your monitor will assist with "muddy" prints. Tell us about your printing protocol.

imagesintime Loc: small town, mid-America

Jim Bob wrote:

Not sure how calibrating your monitor will assist with "muddy" prints. Tell us about your printing protocol.

A calibrated monitor will let you more accurately adjust brightness, hue, saturation, contrast and highlights in your post processing. Most monitors come from the factory with the brightness level set way too high. Since the picture looks fine on the monitor you skip the brightness adjustment and quite often highlights and contrast and end up with dark, 'muddy' pictures. This topic shows up here on UHH several times a week.

TheDman Loc: USA

I think this whole issue is a product of new LED monitors. The brightness of my monitor is set at 1 out of 100, and it's still way brighter than it should be to match my printer.

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

Jim Bob wrote:

Not sure how calibrating your monitor will assist with "muddy" prints.

If you have no experience with printing at home, why are you attempting to mentor a Pro-100 owner?

"Calibrating" one's monitor is how a photographer synchronizes (matches) brightness, hue, saturation, contrast and highlights, between digital viewing monitor and printed image. There is a HUGE difference between transmitted light color qualities (monitor) and reflected light color qualities (print). It is much easier to adjust the monitor than to adjust the printer.

ChrisV Loc: Orange, CA

I had the same issue. After a couple days of trying it became a large paperweight. I continue to use and love my Canon Pro9500 BUT the day is coming when I will need to dust it off and try again. It's been sitting for over a year. A year ago I was finding I wasn't the only one with this issue. So you aren't alone but I know that isn't much help.

BebuLamar

Is that the reason why I saw so many new unopened Pro100 for sale on Craiglist for $100?

Jim Bob

Nikonian72 wrote:

If you have no experience with printing at home, why are you attempting to mentor a Pro-100 owner?

"Calibrating" one's monitor is how a photographer synchronizes (matches) brightness, hue, saturation, contrast and highlights, between digital viewing monitor and printed image. There is a HUGE difference between transmitted light color qualities (monitor) and reflected light color qualities (print). It is much easier to adjust the monitor than to adjust the printer.

Not only do I have extensive experience printing at home but I own the exact printer referred to in the OP. Calibrating the monitor cannot cure "muddy" prints. Perhaps you should gather the facts before making assumptions and sounding like an idiot and assh*le.

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

Jim Bob wrote:

Not only do I have extensive experience printing at home but I own the exact printer referred to in the OP. Calibrating the monitor cannot cure "muddy" prints.

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

BebuLamar wrote:

Is that the reason why I saw so many new unopened Pro100 for sale on Craiglist for $100?

Over the last year, Canon has offered special deal on this model, packaged with a 50-count box of 13x19-inch paper, a set of full ink cartridges, free shipping, and a rebate matching the sale price. Basically, the printer was free, but weighs about 43-pounds, so it is difficult to ship.