They're here! More Muvipix.com Guides by Steve Grisetti!
The Muvipix.com Guides to Premiere & Photoshop Elements 2024
As well as The Muvipix.com Guide to CyberLink PowerDirector 21
Because there are stories to tell
muvipix.com

PS CS6 Woes with Updated Canon Printer Driver

A discussion area specific to the Photoshop Pro versions.

PS CS6 Woes with Updated Canon Printer Driver

Postby RJ Johnston » Fri Aug 31, 2012 10:53 am

I couldn't figure out for the life of me why when I printed a photo in Photoshop CS6 that the colors never matched what was on screen. While a better monitor and printer and calibration may help some, those aren't the reason for the disparity. In Photoshop CS2 and CS5.1, I don't have any problems.

Come to find out, whenever I changed how the colors were managed in Photoshop CS6 on the Print Settings window, either to "Photoshop Manages Colors" or "Printer Manages Colors," the Canon printer "Color Correction" settings would change to incorrect options. If I selected "Photoshop Manages Colors," then the Canon "Color Correction" setting would change to "Driver Matching" -- after I had changed it to "None." If I selected "Printer Manages Colors" then the Canon "Color Correction" setting would change to "None" -- after I had selected "Driver Matching." It should be the other way around. But why Photoshop is causing the Canon driver to change at all is still a mystery. Sometimes, not matter what, the color settings would always change to "Driver Matching." That was okay when I used "Printer Manages Colors."

I uninstalled and reinstalled the Canon Pixma iP4200 printer driver at least 3 times using the most recent updates from Canon's web site, but I always got the same results -- bad, bad, bad. I finally found the original Canon Pixma installation disc and installed from that. Finally, it worked correctly. I noticed that Canon changed the Color Correction procedures in the updated driver versions -- procedures that are more confusing. The original version is simpler to set up, but is still a little confusing. When I thought that I should turn "ICM" on or off in the printer driver setup was just the opposite of what I should have done. I also learned not to trust the Canon driver's Print Preview. When the preview looked like there were incorrect colors, the actual printout had correct colors.

I don't know how much photo paper and ink I used trying to figure out what was wrong. What's really disappointing is that updating the Canon Pixma driver caused me all kinds of problems and confusion. But I'm a "happy camper" now.
Dell XPS 8940 Intel 8-core 10th gen.-i7 10700K (3.8-5.1 GHz); 32GB DDR4 2933 MHz RAM; 512 GB SSD; 2 TB 7200 HD; BDRE-drive; NVIDIA(R) Geforce(R) RTX 2060 SUPER(TM) 8G8 GDDR6
User avatar
RJ Johnston
Premiere Member
Premiere Member
 
Posts: 3143
Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2007 4:33 pm
Location: Northern California, USA

Re: PS CS6 Woes with Updated Canon Printer Driver

Postby Steve Grisetti » Fri Aug 31, 2012 12:41 pm

This is exactly the kind of thing a color space workflow is supposed to remedy. It's bizarre that an updated color space is what screwed yours up, Robert!
HP Envy with 2.9/4.4 ghz i7-10700 and 16 gig of RAM running Windows 11 Pro
User avatar
Steve Grisetti
Super Moderator
Super Moderator
 
Posts: 14439
Joined: Sat Feb 17, 2007 5:11 pm
Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Re: PS CS6 Woes with Updated Canon Printer Driver

Postby RJ Johnston » Fri Aug 31, 2012 6:17 pm

When the color management works, it's amazing how close the colors match when comparing the screen with the photo paper, even with inexpensive printers and monitors. In my environment I have to turn the brightness all the way down and the contrast all the way up on my Dell LED monitor. If I did that with my old CRT monitor, the screen would be black.

The easiest way is to let the printer driver settings remain at the default installation settings so the printer handles the color management, and select "Printer Manages Color" in Photoshop. The for those brave soles who choose "Photoshop Manages Colors," they have to explicitly go into the printer driver settings and select the "ICM" option. There are actually two ICM options in different places in the latest version of the Canon Pixma driver that really make understanding color management even more confusing.
Dell XPS 8940 Intel 8-core 10th gen.-i7 10700K (3.8-5.1 GHz); 32GB DDR4 2933 MHz RAM; 512 GB SSD; 2 TB 7200 HD; BDRE-drive; NVIDIA(R) Geforce(R) RTX 2060 SUPER(TM) 8G8 GDDR6
User avatar
RJ Johnston
Premiere Member
Premiere Member
 
Posts: 3143
Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2007 4:33 pm
Location: Northern California, USA

Re: PS CS6 Woes with Updated Canon Printer Driver

Postby RJ Johnston » Fri Aug 31, 2012 6:31 pm

Here is a screen shot from the Canon Pixma driver setup showing that when you select the ICM option, the Print Type and Brightness options become disabled. To me that says that the printer color management is being disabled. When the ICM option is deselected, the Print Type and Brightness options are enabled, meaning that the printer will now manage the colors. This is from the driver version on the installation CD. The latest version that I downloaded from the Canon website is not the same.

Canon iP4200 Manual Color Adjustment.jpg


From the original version on the installation CD.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
Dell XPS 8940 Intel 8-core 10th gen.-i7 10700K (3.8-5.1 GHz); 32GB DDR4 2933 MHz RAM; 512 GB SSD; 2 TB 7200 HD; BDRE-drive; NVIDIA(R) Geforce(R) RTX 2060 SUPER(TM) 8G8 GDDR6
User avatar
RJ Johnston
Premiere Member
Premiere Member
 
Posts: 3143
Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2007 4:33 pm
Location: Northern California, USA


Return to Photoshop 


Similar topics


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 13 guests