Canon Pro 1000 - desaturated prints

[David Eagle]

Hi, help if you can....

Mac Monterey 12.6.7, Pro 1000, Canon driver 24.30.0.0, Firmware 3.020, Canon Inks, Fotospeed paper, Fotospeed Custom ICC profile, Lightroom, Photoshop and Canon PPL software - prints are coming out desaturated from each of these applications.
I can replicate the effect using the Mac ColorSync tool, which seems to suggest that I am somehow getting double profiling.
But....the Lightroom print dialogue shows Color Mgt set to ColorSync without an option to change, Quality & Media set to Pro Lustre, printing using the custom icc profile.
I have tried deleting and reinstalling the printer, and making sure I have the latest firmware & driver, no change.....
I have run out of ideas for what to try next....any/all help appreciated.

 

[pharmacist]

Ohh, Mac OS: that says it all. Very problematic operating system concerning profiling (often double profiling or even worse) after each update....You know: when I used a iMac computer, I had to run virtual Windows and using a program to print within the virtual Windows session to get consistent results. In the end I sold my iMac and I am now working on a Ryzen based Windows machine and couldn't be happier. Maybe you can try install Oracle VM VirtualBox in MacOS and install Windows and print from within the virtual Windows session and sees if the problem is still there.

 

[David Eagle]

OK, finally got to the bottom of this.

After trying a whole raft of different options, settings, processes, it turns out it was the icc profiles yes plural!.

However, it's not straightforward, the key learning point is that you would expect the default profile for a given paper/printer to be 'close', but that was absolutely not the case.

A point of confusion was that Capture One was able to use the custom profiles and produce the results I was expecting which led me away from the profiles being the root cause.

However redoing the calibration prints and getting a new profile for one of the papers solved it of that paper. So now I'll redo the calibration prints for the other paper that is causing problems.

I have spent a fortune getting this resolved, but I have picked up a lot of information and knowledge along the way, so fingers crossed this is resolved.