Lack of vibrancy / punch in photos advice needed

Hi mike

There is really no need to use any paper profiles with the Fotorite inks at all, so now this method is going to sound a bit odd but try it and then compare it against what you have printed already.

Open as new your test print using Elements and do nothing else, allow the printer to handle colour and just click print now go into your print setup and set your paper quality to photo Paper plus Glossy ll, then select paper source then set Print quality to High and Colour/Intensity to Auto and click Apply then print,.

You’ll be amazed at how good your prints will look when you allow the printer to handle everything for you..

Click to enlarge.

Good Afternoon Gentlemen
I have tried all the above suggestions But with no real improvement to my prints I am attaching a downloaded then printed and then scanned professional test print and attach it for you to see.
I think perhaps my next step should be to remove and do a really good clean of the print heads with a Kit I have from the "Print Head Hospital" and failing that purchase a fresh set of Ink on that point ! I did a few weeks ago change to foto-rites Pygment Black (PGBK from the dye based BK ) which I was told would be better !? perhaps a change back to the BK might be worth trying . Thank you for your help and patience Unless you have any other suggestions I will over the next few days try the above and get back to you
Mike

Have you ever had acceptable prints with this printer, paper, ink and ICC profile? If so, when did the problem begin and what was your set up and settings at that time.

Unless there is a microbial/fungal growth, then cleaning the print head probably won't alter anything. Ditto with flushing the cartridges.

Changing inks may work, particularly if something is altered in or conflicting with one or more of the inks. Flushing cartridges in this case may be prudent.

Paper used is an obvious source but you say you've tried other brands to no luck. This means it is down to inks, software/hardware settings used (including ICC profile), or the printer is wonky for some very odd reason.

The idea now is to isolate the problem. Potential solutions:

1) Uninstall all printer software, power down completely, and then reinstall the printer per Canon's instruction. A long shot but has worked for gremlins in the past. Uninstall and reinstall whatever software you are using to print from. Again, a long shot but on rare occasions this has helped.

2) Try all new Canon OEM cartridges and set printer and software to default with no third party ICC profile. Let the printer manage color. This will determine if the printer is malfunctioning.

3) Get fresh inks. I recommend Image Specialists inks from either Octoinkjet in the UK or Precision Colors on ebay. These are proven performers and the owners are responsible members on the forum. Either flush your cartridges before refilling with whatever new ink you choose.

4) Try different papers again once you have different inks if the first print is still bad.

hmmm, I'm not sure yet to understand really what the problem is - the colors overall are not so bad, no obvious tint or else, so any tweaking with profiles, color adjustments etc may not bring an improvement.
My first impression of the scans indicated a pretty low print resolution which can be a driver setting or a setting in Elements - I'm not familiar with these details.
The last scan does not resolve good enough to judge the sharpness of the test print at all, it may be better to scan with a higher resolution but just half the page.
If it is a resolution issue it would be rather easy to test - just create some small text with an editor with
different small font sizes, print that as text from this text editor, scan it with high resolution - 600-1200 dpi, and reprint this imagefile (.tiff) again with Elements with the same settings as you printed the test image, and compare the sharpness of the letters.
If it is some issue with software, you may try to print the test image again with another program than Elements, from the Windows image viewer, or any other image editor/viewer which is available. There is probably as well some Canon software on your computer - Imageprint or something .
If it is something with the printer, ink, cartridges, driver etc you may follow the advise above. You could as well, if available, try to replicate the issue on another computer/notebook, print the same test image from there (without Elements) and compare.

Thank you Gentlemen I have read carefully all your comments and make the following observations in reply .
1.I have had good results in the past with this printer and paper .
2. I have used two differnt versions of Photoshop elements. I have been useing elements 6 for many years But last week in an effort to eliminate this problem I downloaded a trial version of Elements 13 .results of which while very minimal were an improvement .
3. while I was not ammediatly aware of any change in print quality a few of months ago I changed from dye Black ink to Pygment black ink . ( Just had a light bulb moment the ICC profile was done with the old ink ) .
I feel my options are now deep clean of the heads, can not do any harm so worth a try . Change all the inks perhaps try from Octoinkjet .
If this does not improve things perhaps a fresh ICC profile is due ?.
Obviously all of the above will take a little while so I will get back to you all with the results in a week or so .
If all else fails I did have a reminder from my Optician that I was due an eye test .
Thanks again everyone for all your input .
Regards
Mike

Mike Whitworth said:

I changed from dye Black ink to Pygment black ink .

Click to expand...

- in which cartridges did you change these inks? Please be aware that the Canon pigment black ink in the IPxxx models and corresponding multifunctional units is suitable (only) to print on normal paper and matte inkjet paper but is not suitable for prints on glossy foto papers. Black dye ink may be used alternatively in place of the pigment ink but with some disadvantages - the pigment black ink nozzles are printing with a larger drop size than the foto black ink nozzles, for the purpose of print speed, but larger ink drops on normal paper from dye ink tend to spread further in the fibrous normal paper, so you may loose some edge sharpness on text print, and pigment ink is spreading less. And dye black ink for text print is not as much marker resistant as pigment ink prints, so there are good reasons to use both types of inks, and I would not recommend to change the original original dye/pigment ink assignments.

Just a my very first impression of your scans:
- the first looks blurry, your hand writing appears sharper
- the second looks not bad
But these scans are more useful if you could scan two prints side by side, a good one and a bad one, preferably with similar subject.

Hy Folks
Just a quick update .
I have now cleaned the heads replaced the ink with fresh ink from octinkjet
Removed and re loaded all the software
and also allowed the printer to manage the settings .
Prints are now fine and back to Normal .
Not totally sure what actually cured the problem as i have made so many changes no one thing seemed to do the trick but is now printing well

THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR HELP AND PATIENCE WITH ME AND MY PROBLEM .