Printing looks horrible

[kirkmc]

I'm new to printing photos. I've never owned an inkjet printer, and I bought a Canon Pixma iP8750, a 6-ink A3 printer. I'm interested in learning more about my photos by printing them. 

 

The first thing I did was print a couple of photos from Apple Photos, which is where I store my photo library, just to make sure the printer worked. One was in color, one in black and white. They both looked okay; the color one was of a cat on grass, and the lawn looked a bit yellowish, but not too much. The black and white one was of some thatched huts near Stonehenge, and it had a bit of a magenta cast, but still looked decent. 

 

So my next step was to learn how to print more carefully. I followed this tutorial:

 

https://vimeo.com/203271868

 

I used the second method - placing the photo on a white background, to have borders - and I carefully followed the instructions selecting a profile for the paper I was using, telling it to use ColorSync to manage colors, etc. My iMac is calibrated with a Spyder Pro, so I'm confident that the colors are good. 

 

The print I made was ugly. The colors don't match what I see in screen, and it's dark and murky. I'm trying to find out where I went wrong. I'm attaching a scan of the photo I made with a flat scanner; it's not exactly the same colors as the photo, but it's close enough. I'm also attaching the photo itself that I exported from Affinity Photo, after soft proofing and adjusting the brightness and contrast. And two screenshots showing my print settings. I'd appreciate if anyone could help me figure out why this photo looks so bad. Thanks in advance. 

[v_kyr]

You have a Canon iP8750 printer, but use an Epson Stylus... profile under ColorSync for printer and paper media settings there? You should use some Canon profile instead there which comes close the  paper media type you use to print on. Further make sure you have hidden (turn off) any added soft proof layer before printing.

[kirkmc]

Well, I did what the tutorial said, which was to merge the layers, and copy them onto a new document. as you can see in the screenshots of the printer driver, the photo is much brighter and more colorful than the printout. Why should I choose a profile for the printer rather than the paper? I downloaded profiles for the two papers that I bought, and assumed they would be appropriate. 

[kirkmc]

3 minutes ago, BofG said:

The profile name suggests it's for a different printer (rx590). My understanding is a profile has to be for the exact model and paper being used.

 

No, that's a profile for the paper, not a printer. You can't see the entire name, but it's Espon Premium Glossy. Or is the profile only for an Epson printer? I downloaded it from a page that had Epson paper profiles.

 

And if that's the wrong profile, how do I know which one to choose? All the Canon profiles have names that aren't very helpful, like Series PT1, Series MT2, etc. 

[v_kyr]

3 minutes ago, kirkmc said:

Well, I did what the tutorial said, which was to merge the layers, and copy them onto a new document. as you can see in the screenshots of the printer driver, the photo is much brighter and more colorful than the printout. Why should I choose a profile for the printer rather than the paper? I downloaded profiles for the two papers that I bought, and assumed they would be appropriate. 

Canon and Epson printers have completely different inks and the way they handle and produce colors out of these hardware/software related in conjunction with specific media type. Thus you would need here a canon printer related profile for that Epson paper media type. - I assume the Epson paper media profile you used here is more meant to be also used for Epson printers and not specifically calibrated for Canon hardware reusage here.

[kirkmc]

Just now, v_kyr said:

Canon and Epson printers have completely different inks and the way they handle and produce colors out of these hardware/software related in conjunction with specific media type. Thus you would need here a canon printer related profile for that Epson paper media type. - I assume the Epson paper media profile you used here is more meant to be also used for Epson printers and not specifically calibrated for Canon hardware reusage here.

 

I don't know. I had assumed the profiles were for the paper, not for a combination of paper and printer. I'm new to this. 

 

So I can't use non-Canon paper - at least to get accurate printing - on this printer? I bought Epson because it was a bit cheaper, and there was a 2-for-1 deal at Amazon on their glossy paper. 

[kirkmc]

I just printed again using the default profile it offered; it looks much better. 

 

But why does the tutorial suggest not allowing the printer to do the color matching? I don't understand; I'd expect that would be more accurate. 

[v_kyr]

You can try out which Canon paper (glossy photo etc.) comes close to that Epson paper and then use that as a profile here. - See also for example: ICC Profiles for Epson Papers to use on a Canon Pixma Pro 100 printer

[v_kyr]

6 minutes ago, kirkmc said:

I just printed again using the default profile it offered; it looks much better. 

 

But why does the tutorial suggest not allowing the printer to do the color matching? I don't understand; I'd expect that would be more accurate. 

Well if you would have own high quality calibrated profiles here for the whole used input/output device chain (...cam, monitor, printer, paper type...) it might give overall better and more correct final results, when overgoing the printer drivers build in color management handling and let instead managing the app software this. But this would mean that you have made profiles for all needed and involved elements of the chain, which you mostly don't have. - So in your case it's better to rely on the Canon printer drivers color management settings to get closer looking output results, instead of using some profiles which don't fit completely here.

The video isn't that helpful and possibly instead more irritating for people who are overall new to color management and printer related things here.

[kirkmc]

4 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

Well if you would have own high quality calibrated profiles here for the whole used input/output device chain (...cam, monitor, printer, paper type...) it might give overall better and more correct final results, when overgoing the printer drivers build in color management handling and let instead managing the app software this. But this would mean that you have made profiles for all needed and involved elements of the chain, which you mostly don't have. - So in your case it's better to rely on the Canon printer drivers color management settings to get closer looking output results, instead of using some profiles which don't fit completely here.

The video isn't that helpful and possibly instead more irritating for people who are overall new to color management and printer related things here.

 

Yes, you may be right. Thanks. 

[kirkmc]

12 hours ago, BofG said:

If you are looking to create your own profiles the colormunki photo is a good option. By using custom profiles you also take into account the environment the printer is in, and if things drift you can just re-run the calibration. I found with my printer the difference between the printer's default and a custom profile was minimal, but it does make a difference. Whether it's worth the cost and effort is another question

Thanks, that's certainly a lot more complicated than when I need for now. I'm going to try a few different things to see how the photos turn out.