Canon Pro9000 ll colour shift noticeable in greys

[The Hat]

That was quiet a pep talk Hat & I'm now going to show this printer who is the boss. The only problem is the printer is bigger than I am

Ah yes But you have a bigger FOOTPRINT..

 

[Emulator]

The Hat

And it looked as though it was going to be such a peaceful day, pottering around the profiles.

 

[fotofreek]

I just bought a Canon Pro 9000 II (new, factory sealed $100 on Craigs list) and haven't unpacked it yet. My experience with previous Canon "Easy Print" software that came with my i960 and my iP5000 printers was that the software really took over and left very little ability to do any color adjustments. I have a disk with the "Pro" version that came with the Pro9000 but am reluctant to even bother installing it. I use Photoshop Elements and have been very happy with it. With PE you can make adjustments in the Canon driver software if you wish.

One peculiarity that I've found with comparing the i960, reputed to have been one of the best photo printers, and the ip5000. The four dye based ink ip5000 prints much more neutral black and white photos than the six dye based ink i960. If, however, I set the i960 to plain paper it possibly only uses the basic four carts - CYMK - and the blacks are then much more neutral. I'm hoping that the eight cart 9000 printer can be "coaxed" into printing a reasonably neutral b/w print. I'm using the same IS inks in both the ip5000 and the i960. Adding the photo magenta and photo cyan into the mix apparently introduces a less than neutral black/gray image.

Just for sake of a simple experiment, try a plain paper setting for a test print on the 9000 to see if the blacks are more neutral. Worth a try.

 

[DSchell]

You are right, fotofreak, that if you print to plain paper, best quality, with the Pro9000Mark II, you will get a neutral coloured print.

But it is very unsaturated - faded looking. It is by no means better than my most recent results with settings to print on photo paper.

Dave S.

 

[fotofreek]

I didn't make the suggestion clear. I've set the canon driver software to plain paper but printed on glossy photo paper. Worth a try with the problem the original poster mentioned when trying to get a neutral gray. Might work, might not. It did work for me with the i960.

 

[rodbam]

Freek, If I was you or you were me you should install the easy Print Pro plug in it will install itself in Eliments as a plug in & when you want a neutral B&W print it prints these beautifully. Print Pro & the printer take care of everything. There's also a great feature in there called "Pattern Print" & it will show you a series of thumbnails with different contrasts & brightness settings, I find that printing this thumbnail A4 page out lets you pick the best looking B&W. Easy Print Pro is nothing like the other Canon Easy Print program. I have made my own profiles with a Colormunki optimised for B&W but they don't give me anywhere near as good a neutral B&W print as Easy Print Pro.
Here's two prints the left one is done in Print Pro & the right one I think was was done with my own profile & it has a slight cast.

The same print done in Print Pro which is as good I can imagine, for me anyhow.

Forgot to mention I use IS inks.

 

[Emulator]

I didn't think you would be able to resist commenting Rod

I agree.

With the Pro plug-in installed, you have the choice of using Photoshop Elements' own print routine, or the "Automation Tools" route to Easy PhotoPrint Pro, or use it as an option through Digital Photo Professional.

Which ever way you use it, I think you will be impressed with the results of ticking the "greyscale" box in Pro. Rod's images illustrate this.

Do not confuse the original topic of this posting with B&W printing. It was related to a problem with Lt Cyan affecting greys in colour prints.

 

[Emulator]

As mentioned in an earlier post, this is the profile file and media settings information, related to the Pro9000 Mk ll.

This the selection of specific Canon Pro9000 Mk ll profile files found in my CWINDOWS\system32\spool\drivers\color:-

CNB9TCA0.ICM Canon Pro9000 Mark II <PR> 1 Photo Paper Pro II
CNB9TCB0.ICM Canon Pro9000 Mark II <PR> 2 Photo Paper Pro II
CNB9TCC0.ICM Canon Pro9000 Mark II <PR> 3 Photo Paper Pro II
CNB9TDA0.ICM Canon Pro9000 Mark II <MP> 1 Matte Photo Paper
CNB9THA0.ICM Canon Pro9000 Mark II <FA> 1 Fine Art Paper Photo Rag
CNB9TIA0.ICM Canon Pro9000 Mark II <FB> 1 Fine Art Museum Etching
CNB9TJA0.ICM Canon Pro9000 Mark II <FC> Other Fine Art Paper
CNB9TKA0.ICM Canon Pro9000 Mark II <SG> 1 Photo Paper Plus Semi-Gloss
CNB9TKC0.ICM Canon Pro9000 Mark II <SG> 3 Photo Paper Plus Semi-Gloss
CNB9TLA0.ICM Canon Pro9000 Mark II <PM> 1 Fine Art Premium Matte
CNB9TMA0.ICM Canon Pro9000 Mark II <GL><PP> 1 Photo Paper Plus Glossy&Gold
CNB9TMC0.ICM Canon Pro9000 Mark II <GL><PP> 3 Photo Paper Plus Glossy&Gold
CNB9TNA0.ICM Canon Pro9000 Mark II <PT> 1 Photo Paper Pro Platinum
CNB9TNB0.ICM Canon Pro9000 Mark II <PT> 2 Photo Paper Pro Platinum
CNB9TTA0.ICM Canon Pro9000 Mark II <GLN><PPN> 1 Photo Paper Plus Glossy II N
CNB9TTC0.ICM Canon Pro9000 Mark II <GLN><PPN> 3 Photo Paper Plus Glossy II N

This is the selection available in Easy PhotoPrint Pro version 2.7.1:-

Photo Paper Plus Glossy ll N
Photo Paper Plus Glossy ll
Photo Paper Pro ll
Photo Paper Pro Platinum
Photo Paper Plus Semi-gloss
Glossy Photo Paper
Matte Photo Paper
High Resolution Paper*
Plain Paper*
Fine Art Photo Rag

Note that those marked with * do not seem to have a related profile.


This is the selection available in my normal Print command for Photoshop Elements or Digital Photo Professional (as profile or paper type):-

Plain Paper
Photo Paper Plus Glossy ll N
Photo Paper Plus Glossy ll
Photo Paper Pro ll
Photo Paper Pro Platinum
Photo Paper Plus Semi-gloss
Glossy Photo Paper
Matte Photo Paper
Fine Art Photo Rag
Fine Art Museum Etching
Fine Art Premium Matte
Other Fine Art Paper
Canvas
Board Paper
Envelope
Ink Jet Hagaki
Hagaki
High Resolution Paper
Printable disc (recommended)
Printable disc (others)
T-shirt Transfers
Other Photo Paper

Some of these do not seem to have an associated file and are probably purely media settings, which would allow the unmodified application of user produced colour profiles. May be this is why I find "Plain Paper" works well.

If you are interested in using Easy PhotoPrint Pro it is well worth having a look at the Canon tutorial at:-
http://files.canon-europe.com/files/soft33490/software/EPPProV2(Metric).pdf

 

[fotofreek]

Thanks, Rod and Emu, for the great information dealing with B/W printing on the 9000II. I see that there will be a learning curve in dealing with the new printer. Ah, the simple life of the i960 and ip5000! What is unsaid is that there was experimenting with settings with those priners as well, but there are less numbers of variables with them. I'll still leave the ip5000 in use for banging out 4x6 prints for friends and family. My wife is very happy with the i960 that I retired some years ago and gave to her for her needs - printing emails and selected web page items. Although it sounds backwards, using the ip5000 was more predictable than the i960 for printing photos! With side by side comparisons it was most difficult (impossible?) to identify which print was made by which printer.

 

[fotofreek]

Freek, If I was you or you were me you should install the easy Print Pro plug in it will install itself in Eliments as a plug in & when you want a neutral B&W print it prints these beautifully. Print Pro & the printer take care of everything. There's also a great feature in there called "Pattern Print" & it will show you a series of thumbnails with different contrasts & brightness settings, I find that printing this thumbnail A4 page out lets you pick the best looking B&W. Easy Print Pro is nothing like the other Canon Easy Print program. I have made my own profiles with a Colormunki optimised for B&W but they don't give me anywhere near as good a neutral B&W print as Easy Print Pro.
Here's two prints the left one is done in Print Pro & the right one I think was was done with my own profile & it has a slight cast.

Rod - very nice photo of the old dock. What advice do you have on glossy or pearl surface paper for this printer? I am also using IS inks.