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Colors are way off in Affinity Designer...


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So I noticed that in my soft-proof layer I could choose the Adobe RGB (1998) color profile and all parts of my poster are within the gamut.  I got excited and hoped that if I printed using that profile it would work... but nope.  Still comes out with certain colors (blues/greens) much darker.

In the Designer workspace I can choose the appropriate Canon Pro-100 <SG> 1/2 profile and with Gamut Check deselected the screen shows exactly the correct coloring.  When I print  I get a darker, muddier version with some colors matching great and some not well at all. 

As for making sure that the printer isn't doing color management... I am not sure exactly how to do that.  I think I might have it turned off, but 30 minutes of googling down rabbit holes hasn't improved my confidence. When printing, I choose printer properties, check the "Color/Intensity Manual Adjustment" button and a Manual Color Adjustment dialog box appears.  The second tab allows me to select None for color correction and that is the extent of any settings that seem to control printer color control. 

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I realized that another possible issue is that I design and print from one computer, then my printer is attached to another computer on the network.  I just ran a long USB from the design computer straight to the printer in the hopes that it might help, but I got the exact same results of strange colors.  All tests from now on will be done with the printer connected straight to the design computer.

Here is my 50th print of the same damn design.  Printed with all color profiles set to what they "should" be and printer connected directly to the design printer.  Blues are WAY off still. 

Img_6954.jpg.b093d44d795eb9f990923b104dd57f58.jpg

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12 hours ago, DarrenDriven said:

So I noticed that in my soft-proof layer I could choose the Adobe RGB (1998) color profile and all parts of my poster are within the gamut.  I got excited and hoped that if I printed using that profile it would work... but nope.  Still comes out with certain colors (blues/greens) much darker.

That wouldn't work. The physical characteristics of the printer and the paper determine how prints will ultimately turn out. The specification of the profile in the Print dialog merely helps the application adjust the data it's sending to the printer to get the proper/best results.

Being out of gamut simply means that the printer (with its inks) using the specified paper cannot physically reproduce the color you want. Your only choices at that point are to accept whatever comes out, or to change the affected colors to ones that will work. Making those changes is what soft-proofing (with the proper printer/paper profile) helps you to do.

13 hours ago, DarrenDriven said:

As for making sure that the printer isn't doing color management... I am not sure exactly how to do that. 

I think you're in the right area of the settings. As an experiment, I suggest you try ICM to see what that does. (I'm sure I saw a post recently about "None" not doing what one would expect, but I can't find it and I'm not certain which printer brand that applied to. The Canon manual was not terribly helpful, but seems to hint that ICM might be what is needed.)

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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42 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

As an experiment, I suggest you try ICM to see what that does.

See: Specify the Color Correction method from the driver (Windows)

Further: How to use ICC Color Printer Profiles via Windows ICM

☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan
☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2

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Thanks, @v_kyr. That's pretty clear that "None" should be the right value. Which leaves me puzzled why @DarrenDriven's prints are coming out wrong.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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Argh!  ICM got me nowhere.  I tried it with Perceptual and Relative Colorimetric (as per the link's instructions) and neither made any noticeable difference.

Image1.jpg.14419ac1e4d239ffa8a9df5deb9ef4d0.jpg

 

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I found a print that I made just before things went haywire and the biggest difference you can see is how my logo appears.  The old print shows it as a bluish-gray, as it should be, and every single new print shows it as a bright and dark blue.  Nothing changed on my computer, printer, ink or paper when this happened.  It just started printing this way one day and never has been the same since.

Img_6969.jpg.3afd83e197d399bb2bdff733ad752b53.jpg

...and here is my old (correct) print compared to the posters that I have done at the print shop.  The logos are very similar in color.  This backs up my theory that I am outputting the correct colors from my Affinity Designer source material.

Img_6970.jpg.fe4e74e65bbfb7d6d880c8e92a50e048.jpg

And here is the Canon print preview screen that is the last step before hitting print.  Again, it shows that coloring looks correct to me.  I think I might have to ditch this printer completely.  As I do more and more research online I run into others using the same printer with similar issues.  None of them ever seem to be resolved.  Maybe this just isn't worth continuing down the rabbit hole.

Image3.thumb.jpg.72cf4e85427e2eee145a88efb446849d.jpg

Image2.jpg

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I just tried exporting my work to a large PNG and then used Windows to print that PNG on the Pro-100 and the colors actually came out looking pretty close to what they should... not perfect, but close.

I then imported the same PNG that Windows printed pretty good into Affinity Designer and printed it using the same color profiles that I used when Windows printed and I got messed up colors again.  WTF? 

So.... this confuses me more.  I'm not sure what it tells me.  I think it means that things get screwy while printing from Designer to the printer, but exporting the digital art seems to work just fine?

 

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At this point... maybe I should completely uninstall and reinstall Designer?  I'm pulling out my hair.  I just want things to work like they did when I first started using the software and my new printer.  I've invested countless hours trying to troubleshoot this and I have nothing to show for it.

Anyone have a link to show me how to uninstall completely?  I can only find reference to Mac articles/topics.

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On 1/7/2019 at 3:05 PM, DarrenDriven said:

I think it means that things get screwy while printing from Designer to the printer, but exporting the digital art seems to work just fine?

You already knew that the exported file is OK, because (from an earlier  post) your external printing house used it and you got the colors you want. So the issue seems to be just with printing it from Designer.

Unfortunately, I have no idea what that might indicate. I think that someone from Serif will need to respond and help figure something out.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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Hmm if the Windows OS and other apps like those supplied by Canon, or Qimage, do all print it well then there is something strange happening in AD here when printing!

☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan
☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2

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Often they do not respond to discussions in this forum, but sometimes they do. It depends on whether they have noticed it and how busy they are. I have sent a message to one of the Serif staff asking for a review or other suggestions.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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  • Staff

This thread is on our radar. We are trying to get a good answer for you, this topic has not been ignored, just caught us out a little. Sorry please bear with us a little longer.

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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6 minutes ago, Patrick Connor said:

This thread is on our radar. We are trying to get a good answer for you, this topic has not been ignored, just caught us out a little. Sorry please bear with us a little longer.

No worries.  Glad to know that you are aware.  I LOVE your software and I want to continue to learn and master it... but this stupid little issue is driving me batty!!

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See also this user report here, same settings as yours shown above with set to "Color Handling: Performed by App" get's wrong shifted colors ...

... try to print a testdocument once instead by letting the Canon printer driver manage the color and see if it makes a difference then.

☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan
☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2

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Tried two tests allowing the printer to manage the color.  One with the correct paper color profile (Canon Semi-Gloss) and again with the sRGB IEC61966-2.1 applied to the printer.  Both tests resulted in prints that looked identical to when I print with the software controlling the color management.  No change.

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  • Staff

@DarrenDriven , That's exactly what our devs suggested to try. But it seems to be another issue. They initially thought that it the printer driver might colour correct somewhere down the line. Technically, "colour handling: Performed by the driver" should have fixed it. I will get back to them and see what they say. 

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  • Staff

Update: I will be honest with you and, at this point, without having the printer to actually test it/replicate the issue, there's not much testing we could do. "colour handling: Performed by the driver" should have worked, but this not working it might be something else down the line (might be our side, might be the printer's side, we don't know). I will leave this ticket opened for now. 

In the meantime, if your printer manufacturer releases an update, please install it and see if it works. Also, when the time comes, please try the 1.7 version ( currently in beta). Sorry, we could not be of more help in this situation. 

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I have three identical Pro-100s.  When this started happening I got so frustrated that I threw #1 away, unboxed #2 and started with fresh ink.  Did NOT solve the problem.  Thanks for the honest update, @GabrielM, but unless it's systemic in all Pro-100s or happened to be a factory defect that coincidentally appeared in two printers (purchased at different times/places) then I doubt it's the printer itself.

I guess I'll have to try a new computer with a fresh install of Affinity Designer.  I get that this is like chasing an invisible spider.  Just sucks.

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I doubt it's the printers, since you also wrote above ...

Quote

I just tried exporting my work to a large PNG and then used Windows to print that PNG on the Pro-100 and the colors actually came out looking pretty close to what they should... not perfect, but close.

... so if every other Windows software can print those images fine and nearly correct, it's not the printer, but instead the data which is send from the software over to the driver/printer here. - In other words more an AD related printing problem.

☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan
☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2

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