16 bit printing with the Canon Pro 100

[peter D]

Here's an article by Adrian Ford of MSDN from 2008 that covers the 16-bit printing question pretty well

Thanks for that link to the article you mentioned. Brought me up to speed on what current Windows OS can do in respect to 16 bit printing.

As you are using the set up that I prefer would you mind my asking whether you are printing via the Canon Print Studio Pro software and whether or not you are using Precision color profiles. cartridges.

In case other readers are wondering about why we are talking about having two Canon print drivers installed for the same printer model it is a requirement from Canon that the standard 8 bit driver be installed as well as the 16 bit capable XPS driver if the user wishes to utilise the XPS driver.

 

[peter D]

Here's my thoughts on this........................

Wow, now that is a comprehensive take on my problem, thanks very much for all the suggestions, I'll certainly take them to heart. As for Mike's EZ ICC method you probably have gathered that I only went there to try and see if I could duplicate his results with his dye set by reverting what he might have used or at least recommends as an option.
I will reload my drivers as you suggest just in case.
I assume you are referring to fading issues with refill inks and dye printers as the "complicating" issue when compared to pigment inks. I was always aware that there could be archival issues although there are pretty impressive claims being made by Canon in respect to the colour fastness of their Chromalife 100 dye inks. In fact one of their executives was put on record as stating that fading was pretty much a non issue with Canon's latest dye inks.
I love the colour rendition and shadow detail I can get from a dye print on the Pro-100 when everything is working properly. My prints behind glass are fine so far as are the ones in an album using clear plastic covers.
Now that I'm no longer printing for more than myself and one other I will be taking steps to use much better ink transfer techniques to try to reduce biological contamination and will likely be including a 0.2um syringe filter for the inject into cartridge stage along with frequent cartridge flushing and sterilising, this way I hope to push out my inks set's life a bit.
Don't store that unused PC ink set for too long especially at room temperature in Hong Kong, ( I keep mine refrigerated now along with carts that aren't in use) several contributors to this forum are advising ditching insets more that one year old.

Happy printing with your new PRO-10.

 

[peter D]

PROBLEM SOLVED!!
Bit of a surprise really, but sure was a pleasant one. Went with finepics solution and added a twist from the Canon website.
Printed (from Print Studio Pro using the 16 bit printing driver) a reference image for comparison of an RGB 1998 colour space test chart from "on-sight" http://www.on-sight.com/downloads/ onto Canon Pro Lustre paper using PC's PC42R profile designed for their bridging ink set (2 new magentas and one a new black) and then removed both the existing Pro-100 printer drivers and reloaded new ones (2015 ones) downloaded form Canon's website. Printed the same test image and bingo, an accurate result without any manual adjustments.
THANK YOU finepics for making the suggestion re the reinstalling the printer drivers.

As additional test I tried PC's PC42G profiles for the same paper. This profile is intended for the completely new PC's ink set for the Pro-100 which involves tweeks to the grey inks as well as the new magentas and black inks. The result with my PC bridging ink set (see above) was not as good as the PC42R profile but should respond to manual adjustments suggested by a pattern print.

 

[The Hat]

@peter D It’s good to hear you have sorted out your colour problems for once and for all, and now that you have don’t change a thing and it will continue just like that.

But a word of caution, yes by all means try and improve your refilling technique but don’t over do it, because that will lead to even more complications sooner rather than later.

Once you have a good basic knowledge of refilling, there’s no need to be constantly flushing the cartridges, leave them to work and you can refill again and again indefinitely without problems, only purge a cartridge when necessary at the first sign of poor ink flow and not before.

Happy Refilling..

 

[peter D]

Once you have a good basic knowledge of refilling, there’s no need to be constantly flushing the cartridges, leave them to work and you can refill again and again indefinitely without problems, only purge a cartridge when necessary at the first sign of poor ink flow and not before.

The voice of experience speaks and is worth more than 1000 speculations. Thanks for that I'll certainly bear it in mind.

It would be nice to have more info on what is causing other folks head clogging problems (no pun intended). Is it just old ink, a contaminated batch, mistakes with refilling techniques that could be avoided, etc.
As a precaution considering syringe filters suitable for dye ink are relatively cheap on Alibaba express it would seem prudent to fill cartridges with one fitted to each syringe and then thrown away after use. However I have no idea as to exactly what size microorganisms are causing the problem here and even if they are really small do they aggregate in colonies to form a larger obstruction?
I did see filters for a continuous flow solvent ink printer systems that had as much as a 5 micron pore size. These are presumably for large commercial scale printers and what is meant by solvent ink?

While this is (hopefully) being sorted out by the very able contributors to this forum I'll keep my inks refrigerated and increase the number of nozzle checks prints to try and pick up problems before they cause me serious grief with my print head. So far the pattern printed has been flawless. Looks like I'll be migrating to Mike's remaining new inks anyway to extend the range of generic profiles that are available from his website so the likelihood of being tempted to use older inks will likely recede for a while.

 

[finepics]

Peter, really glad to have been of help and very happy to hear your problems have been resolved. Incidentally I'm beginning to regret selling my Pro100 but it's done now so making the best of the Pro10!!

 

[peter D]

Peter, really glad to have been of help and very happy to hear your problems have been resolved. Incidentally I'm beginning to regret selling my Pro100 but it's done now so making the best of the Pro10!!

This has been a head scratcher for me for some time and I did report the solution to Mike at PC as I must confess I had sort his opinion independent of this forum. I think he gave up on me some time ago when the custom profile he prepared for Canon Pro Platinum paper did not work out and made matters worse. As I previously explained in this thread, the set up that I used to make this print was incorrect and therefore the error entirely of my own making. Anyway here's the gist of what he had to say in reply: (a) he's always avoided OEM provided software. (b) His workflow is either directly Adobe apps or an intermediate Qimage print app. (c) He sticks with the standard drivers to minimize problems and trys to use what most are using.

I'm interested in hearing future reports from you on the prints that you are producing with the Pro-10 verses what you made with the Pro-100 using OEM inks.

The longevity of the OEM Chromalife 100+ dye inks as claimed by Canon was according to their literature, dependent on the use of Canon papers as well (very convenient promotion wise) and Canon papers like their Pro Platinum gloss paper were billed as being specifically designed for use with this inkset with a number of innovations included into the coatings to achieve this.
My own opinion about this paper when used with at least the original PC refill inks was that the impressive image reproduction performance of this paper held up well but that if contaminants were present in the atmosphere around an unprotected print then the colour fastness was no better that other gloss papers. I'd have to agree with Mike when he says that if you want to improve the fade resistance of a dye print then the use of a swellable paper like HP's Premium Plus is a worth considering. Unfortunately this paper has been withdrawn in New Zealand and possibly the rest of the world as it seems to have been designed for a particular line of HP inks that may also have been superseded. Certainly there is less of it being offered for sale on the USA websites that I use.

For my part I'll keep track of how Mikes new Pro-100 ink set performs for colour fastness when protected by glass and exposed to normal light household lighting, and in an album inside protective sleeves, or exposed to light and protected by spray on lacquer, and endeavour to report my findings on this forum from time to time.