Double Profiling Workaround Test Prints

How to Avoid Color Issues on imagePROGRAF PRO Printers (Podcast 573)

Following some discussion with Canon regarding an issue with printing on my PRO-4000 printer from Mac OS X Sierra, I've confirmed the effectiveness of one workaround and one technique to overcome the issue, and I'm going to share these with you today. [smart_track_player url="https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3?https://traffic.libsyn.com/mbppodcast/mbpp_ep573" src="https://app.fusebox.fm/embed/player.js" class="mbp-ignore"> To give you a little bit of background on this...

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Martin Bailey
Martin Bailey is a nature and wildlife photographer and educator based in Tokyo. He's a pioneering Podcaster and blogger, and an X-Rite Coloratti member.
20 Comments
  • Cameron Cone
    Posted at 01:35h, 17 May

    Thank you for posting your research. I will be facing the exact same issues this week when my 4000 printer arrives. I would have never throught about creating your own media types but I do see this being the missing step when printing from macs.
    Thank you.

    • Martin Bailey
      Posted at 08:50h, 17 May

      I’m pleased that this will help Cameron. You know, I use mostly custom media, and have always created custom media types for these, so for me, it’s really just a case of embedding the ICC profiles, but if you don’t usually create custom media types, I definitely recommend it to overcome this issue.

      If you haven’t printed with the PRO-4000 yet, you are in for a treat. It’s an awesome printer that produces outstanding images.

      Have fun!

  • Charlie McDonald
    Posted at 10:42h, 06 July

    I can imagine the frustration this would have been.

    Have you heard about any other Canon printers being affected beside the pro-4000? The reason I ask is I just bought a pro-10 and I am having an issue. I had a pro9500 so at first I thought I was just seeing the result of a new printer. But after a while and after much printing and ink wastage I feel I might have a similar issue.

    All the profiles provided by paper manufacturers come out looking the same; kinda overexposed by a stop and the colors slightly off. But when using Canon paper & profile the print looks very close to what I was getting on the pro9500.

    The stranger thing is that for the pro-10 you can download an “Art Series” icc profile “pack” from Canon. This contains some profiles for other paper manufacturers. When I print on say Canson Baryta Photographique paper using the corresponding profile it looks so close to what I got from the pro9500 and then again when I use the same paper and the paper manufactures profile it comes out wrong.

    I’m using a windows PC so I couldn’t try your fix if I wanted too. I’ve done the typical upgrading my driver, uninstalling and reinstalling Lightroom and trying to print in Photoshop and nothing works. Maybe I am just missing something…

    Anyway, don’t want to hijack your blog post but I thought you might have heard something and you might find this interesting.

    Thanks,

    Charlie

  • Martin Bailey
    Posted at 10:53h, 06 July

    Hi Charlie,

    Sorry to hear that you are having problems.

    As far as I’m aware, this specific issue is caused by the new architecture in Mac OS X Sierra, so it shouldn’t be affecting you on Windows.

    I don’t know if there is a mechanism to embed the ICC profile into the media information for the PRO-10, but take a look for that. If it’s possible, maybe give that a try, and see if it fixes your issue.

    Otherwise, have you tried talking with Canon Support? I know printing issues can be difficult to troubleshoot, but they cannot expect users to work solely with their own media, so push them for help.

    Let me know how you get on too. I hope you find a solution! I do know how frustrating this stuff can be.

    Cheers,
    Martin.

  • Charlie McDonald
    Posted at 14:12h, 06 July

    Thanks Martin. Yeah I’m at the end of my abilities and have sent Canon a request for help today. Hopefully it’s a quick fix and I’ll definitely keep you updated.

    • Charlie
      Posted at 12:02h, 12 February

      I never did update you on my printer problem from long ago. After contacting Canon customer service they just ran me through the typical tech support stuff that you can find online yourself. So I took a break from it and reflected. I decided to start over and try to print some older pictures to print using one type of paper and profile and they came out fairly well and after some time I figured it was me imagining issues. I finally adjusted the other prints and they worked out fairly good too. So maybe it was just my rushed workflow at the time and my inexperience with the new printer.

      On a side note 4 months later the printhead stopped working and they replaced it with whole new printer. 🤷🏽‍♂️

      • Martin Bailey
        Posted at 15:39h, 09 April

        Hi Charlie,

        Thanks for the update and my apologies for my delayed reply. Just catching up here after my winter tours.

        I’m pleased you are in a good place with your printing again.

        Regards,
        Martin.

  • John
    Posted at 17:18h, 25 August

    Thank you for this. I’m very impressed with my pro 2000 print quality. Canon need to do more to integrate all the little tools or at least link them together. Eg MCT and Update Settings. Missing that link cost me time and consumables! Keep at it MB, and add an update if your print workflow changes.

    • Martin Bailey
      Posted at 19:05h, 25 August

      Hi John,

      I’m pleased you are happy with your PRO-2000. These are great printers.

      I agree that the linkage between the various software components could be better. Once you get used to it it isn’t such a big deal, but it does make the initial learning curve steeper.

      I’m actually really enjoying this workflow, but for sure, I’ll follow up with a new post if this changes.

      Thanks for the comment!

      Regards,
      Martin.

  • David Budd
    Posted at 22:12h, 05 August

    Hi Martin

    As I have recently updated my printer to a Canon Pro-2000 I found your article very informative and to be somewhat similar to mine in regard to double profiling issues.

    For the third party papers, I create a custom paper via the Media ConfigurationTool (MCT) and then do a custom paper profile of that paper using i!Studio, the target printed with Apple Print Utility. The .icc profile is then embedded afterwards into the custom paper via MCT.

    Previously, printing from Lightroom I would normally disable “Managed by printer” and use “Application managed”, using the .icc profile for that paper. It would appear that after doing some tests the Canon Pro 2000 MCT uploads the .icc profile to the printer which uses that profile during the printing process.

    By enabling “Managed by Printer” and not using “Application Managed” it has solved what I think was double profiling, the color issues and blocked-up shadow detail that was occurring.

    This is somewhat different Martin to your issues, but I thought this would be of interest to your readers. I’m using a MacPro, not Sierra, but OS 10.11.6 and fully color managed from camera to printer.

    Regards

    David

    • Martin Bailey
      Posted at 00:17h, 06 August

      Hi David,

      Thanks for commenting!

      Between the methods mentioned in this post and my earlier post on this issue (https://mbp.ac/554) we appear to be using very similar methods to workaround these issues.

      Regards,
      Martin.

  • Jake smith
    Posted at 13:57h, 13 August

    Recently my Mac has had a major update to Sierra 10.13.2 and this deleted all the color profiles for my Canon ProGraf Pro-1000 printer. Obviously, it caused a lot of frustration. After searching the internet for a few days i find Brother printer support for solution. they tld me the solution but i did not understand. after reading your post it looks easy to me. thanks.

    • Martin Bailey
      Posted at 09:25h, 14 August

      Wow! I’ve never known an OS update to delete profiles. That must have been a real pain.

      I’m pleased this post helped though.

  • Amelia Ryan
    Posted at 20:10h, 13 August

    Thank you for this. I’m very impressed with my pro-2000 print quality. Canon needs to do more to integrate all the little tools or at least link them together, but most of the time my Canon Printer not responding error , it really works for me thanks for gathering such a great info or us.

    • Martin Bailey
      Posted at 09:26h, 14 August

      You’re welcome, Amelia.

      I don’t get that error myself. I totally agree that it would be better if all the tools were available in one place, or at least better integrated.

      Thanks for stopping by!

  • Peter Corbett
    Posted at 15:28h, 20 October

    Hi Martin I recently bought a Pro 2000, unfortunately I have had issues from its installation in July this year. Without going into the other issues at this time could you please comment on the following:
    When you experienced “double profiling” using preview, did the onscreen preview show the fault i. e. was the colour incorrect in the canon preview but ok in the PS view?
    Regards
    Peter

    • Martin Bailey
      Posted at 10:10h, 23 October

      Hi Peter,

      Sorry to hear you are having problems. If it’s the same problem that I’ve been seeing, it is something that you should be able to work around.

      When the double-profiling happens, it’s not been possible to see it in any of the previews, in my experience. Neither the printer drivers preview or Photoshop show the colors being off. The first you know of it is when you look at the print.

      I don’t know if this will help, but that has been my experience.

      Regards,
      Martin.

  • Peter Corbett
    Posted at 15:03h, 23 October

    Thanks Martin, yes it does help and thank you It eliminates another unknown in the workflow. Thank you for the workaround you describe above.
    Best regards
    Peter

  • Carol Venitt
    Posted at 05:59h, 21 November

    Martin, thank you for this extensive piece on the Pro-4000. We have one at work and I have problems with banding from time to time with large areas of the same or very nuanced shades of the same color. Right now I’m trying a reprint using your suggestion to do without a print preview; one of our sometimes/not always fixes is to use Standard quality, not high or highest, so I’m hoping the print preview thing works for us.

    Again, thank you for something actually worth the Google!

    • Martin Bailey
      Posted at 09:14h, 21 November

      Hi Carol,

      I’m happy to have been of help.

      The preview trick might help, but just to let you know, I have continued to use custom media types with the ICC profile linked, as mentioned above, as my main way of printing, and I haven’t had a problem since. It takes a little more setting up, but enables stress-free printing pretty much all of the time.

      Regards,
      Martin.

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