How to Calibrate a Canon Printer: I have a new Canon Pixma MX922 printer. Ink cartridges are new. Several test prints of my recent trip to Zion were significantly over-saturated...

daf40 Loc: Mesa, AZ

I have a new Canon Pixma MX922 printer. Ink cartridges are new. Several test prints of my recent trip to Zion were significantly over-saturated, particularly in the red colors, but also somewhat in yellow and blue. My first thought was to calibrate the monitor, but first I decided to print the same prints at Costco. The color on the Costco prints was perfect. Clearly the problem is with my printer, not my monitor. What can I do?

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

Another reason for a print NOT matching the colors viewed on your monitor is that the correct ICC profile of the photographic paper used was not entered into the printing program.
What photo paper are you using? What ICC profile did you designate in your printing program?

Canon Pixma MX922 printer: http://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/products/details/printers/inkjet-multifunction/mx-series-inkjet/mx922

davidrb Loc: Half way there on the 45th Parallel

daf40 wrote:

I have a new Canon Pixma MX922 printer. Ink cartridges are new. Several test prints of my recent trip to Zion were significantly over-saturated, particularly in the red colors, but also somewhat in yellow and blue. My first thought was to calibrate the monitor, but first I decided to print the same prints at Costco. The color on the Costco prints was perfect. Clearly the problem is with my printer, not my monitor. What can I do?

Don't blame the printer. It was only doing what your computer told it to do. Probably not your monitor, either.

Ianooc Loc: Littleton, CO

daf40 wrote:

I have a new Canon Pixma MX922 printer. Ink cartridges are new. Several test prints of my recent trip to Zion were significantly over-saturated, particularly in the red colors, but also somewhat in yellow and blue. My first thought was to calibrate the monitor, but first I decided to print the same prints at Costco. The color on the Costco prints was perfect. Clearly the problem is with my printer, not my monitor. What can I do?

I work in the printer industry as it is, so the above statement is correct. The printer only does what it is told to do. It doesn't make decisions. That being said, there are certain programs that will affect the output as well as the ICC profile. What did you use to print your photo?

daf40 Loc: Mesa, AZ

Ianooc wrote:

I work in the printer industry as it is, so the above statement is correct. The printer only does what it is told to do. It doesn't make decisions. That being said, there are certain programs that will affect the output as well as the ICC profile. What did you use to print your photo?

I Printed from Lightroom, Photo Printing, High Quality, Photo Paper Plus Glossy II, Profile Canon Mx920 series. Tried both Kodak Premium Photo Paper Glossy and Canon Photo Paper Plus Glossy II. Same over-saturated results. Printed from PS Elements, same settings. Result-- over-saturated print. Downloaded to Costco. Costco prints were perfect-- they were not over-saturated. What next?

daf40 Loc: Mesa, AZ

Nikonian72 wrote:

Another reason for a print NOT matching the colors viewed on your monitor is that the correct ICC profile of the photographic paper used was not entered into the printing program.
What photo paper are you using? What ICC profile did you designate in your printing program?

Canon Pixma MX922 printer: http://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/products/details/printers/inkjet-multifunction/mx-series-inkjet/mx922

Tried 2 different papers (see response above) with same results. Only Costco printed what I see on my monitor. My Canon printer over-saturates. Don't know about ICC profile.

Haydon

Was your monitor calibrated and was the correct ICC profile used for the paper?

Ianooc Loc: Littleton, CO

daf40 wrote:

I Printed from Lightroom, Photo Printing, High Quality, Photo Paper Plus Glossy II, Profile Canon Mx920 series. Tried both Kodak Premium Photo Paper Glossy and Canon Photo Paper Plus Glossy II. Same over-saturated results. Printed from PS Elements, same settings. Result-- over-saturated print. Downloaded to Costco. Costco prints were perfect-- they were not over-saturated. What next?

Try this, seriously... Save it (export) as a JPEG and use a viewer to print the result, not the editing program. See if the result is the same. I deal with over saturated and strange print issues all the time with the "creating" programs. Granted this happens more with PDFs but it's worth a try.
By the way, I'm a Canon certified technician for what it worth.
And I shoot Nikon and Sony, haha!

daf40 Loc: Mesa, AZ

Haydon wrote:

Was your monitor calibrated and was the correct ICC profile used for the paper?

The monitor has not been calibrated. However, the colors on the monitor were accurately reproduced by Costco but oversaturated on my printer.
As for the ICC profile, I don't know what this is or how to set it. I did try two different kinds of paper, including the one recommended by the printer manufacturer, with exactly the same results

daf40 Loc: Mesa, AZ

Ianooc wrote:

Try this, seriously... Save it (export) as a JPEG and use a viewer to print the result, not the editing program. See if the result is the same. I deal with over saturated and strange print issues all the time with the "creating" programs. Granted this happens more with PDFs but it's worth a try.
By the way, I'm a Canon certified technician for what it worth.
And I shoot Nikon and Sony, haha!

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "using a viewer". I did export it as a jpeg, however, and printed the jpeg using Faststone Image Viewer. The result was a print that was a little less over-saturated than the prints from Lightroom or Elements, but still a little more saturated than my monitor or the Costco print.

Haydon

This should give you an idea on ICC profiles at work with paper specifically Red River paper. You will have to try to find your profile likely at a the paper manufacturers website.

http://www.redrivercatalog.com/profiles/how_to_install_ICC_color_profiles.html

As far as you monitor calibration, there is dedicated hardware/software like the ColorMunki or the Spyder Pro that is necessary. It is possible you have a close match but highly unlikely. Monitor calibration is also required to be done periodically because the monitor changes as they age. I have mine set to be re-calibrated every two weeks.

Here's a background link.

http://spyder.datacolor.com/display-calibration/

Hope this helps you.

daf40 Loc: Mesa, AZ

Several people have suggested that I need to calibrate my monitor, even though the colors on my monitor are accurately reproduced by Costco and by my old (now inoperable) HP printer. That suggests to me that my monitor is fine, but the specific printer that I am using is not reproducing the colors which are accurately reproduced by other printers. So, back to my original question: How can I get my new Canon printer to produce the colors that my monitor, my old HP printer, and Costco produce? Is there any way to give my printer instructions?

twowindsbear

What sort of 'set up' procedure did you run when you first started using your new printer?

As I recall, from ages ago, my new Epson printer had a process that printed a variety of color 'setting' for a picture. I then chose the 'best' version of those different pictures - also, there may have been several other steps, too.

Good luck!

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

daf40 wrote:

Don't know about ICC profile.

The ICC profile tells your printer exactly which photo paper is being used. Every paper has a specific ICC, and many are unique.

Think about making color prints in a dark room: you have to select b&w or color paper, and positive or negative paper, depending on the film being enlarged. You cannot use the same paper for printing from a color slide, a color negative, or a b&w negative. Same with telling your printer the ICC profile of the paper you are using.

Costco has the proper ICC profile selected for the paper used in their color printer. You need to do the same.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

daf40 wrote:

I have a new Canon Pixma MX922 printer. Ink cartridges are new. Several test prints of my recent trip to Zion were significantly over-saturated, particularly in the red colors, but also somewhat in yellow and blue. My first thought was to calibrate the monitor, but first I decided to print the same prints at Costco. The color on the Costco prints was perfect. Clearly the problem is with my printer, not my monitor. What can I do?

Are you using Canon paper? If not, then you'll have to profile your printer/paper/ink. If you use the mfgr's paper, the settings used for the printer setup will take care of the profile, so your results will be somewhat similar to a commercially made print. Remember, Costco is C41 wet process silver halide photo paper, and you are using inkjet on paper. There are bound to be color, black depth and dynamic range differences.