Weird Outputs from Printing through Lightroom or Photoshop on Canon Image Pro-100 Printer - But Preview Program Looks Great

[MMH]

Hi all,

I just got a new Mac mini and apple studio display. Running Mac OS Sequoia 15.2 and latest Adobe Lightroom Classic and Adobe Photoshop.
I have a Canon Pro -100 printer. Just downloaded the latest drivers from canon's website.

When I tried to print a test photo from Lightroom, I got a super weird result, lots of magenta.
When I tried to print a test photo from Photoshop, I got a different, but equally horrible result (stripes and weird greens)

I ran the "Cleaning" utility:

That test came out fine.

I opened the photo (TIFF) through the Preview program, printed directly from that and it came out great.
I generally let the Canon Printer manage colors, and I make sure to double check that setting is selected in the color management area when trying to print from Lightroom or Photoshop.
But for some reason it sends out weird results when trying to print from Adobe LR or PS.

The Preview workflow is an acceptable workaround, but I had the same general issue with my previous computer (2017 iMac) and the Canon Pro-100.

Any thoughts on how I could get this printing through Photoshop?

 

[Willyekerslike]

Hi, I have had very similar results when I have loaded the paper the wrong way round with a new printer.

 

[Pieter12]

I usually let PS manage color when printing, using the profile for the paper I am using. Profiles should be available to download from the paper manufacturer’s website.

A caveat: I dislike using most printers, there just seems to be too much hassle involved getting consistent good prints. Nozzle cleaning, calibration, finicky OEM cartridges. I usually use it for proofing purposes. When I need a serious print I outsource to a reputable local printer.

 

[koraks]

The problem you show seems to me to be a case of color management gone fantastically wrong with the printer misinterpreting the color data.

I generally let the Canon Printer manage colors, and I make sure to double check that setting is selected in the color management area when trying to print from Lightroom or Photoshop.

I'd suggests to change this and instead allow Photoshop/Lightroom to take control over color management. There are plenty of YouTube vids on how to set up Photoshop for a soft-proofed, color-managed print workflow; I'd suggest to start there.

If you really don't want to mess with color profiles in Photoshop for some reason, be sure to convert everything you print into sRGB upon opening and remain editing in that space. This is a default space and odds are that your printer will interpret it OK if you don't let the applications manage colors. It's likely what happens 'under the hood' in your successful example of using the photo viewer app on your mac.

Welcome to Photrio btw!

 

[EricTheReddish]

Are those three images the entire print? Or are there parts of the prints that aren't fuzzy?

 

[gary mulder]

With the larger Canon printer(s) you upload your color profile with the Canon Media Configuration Tool to the printer. After that you leave the printer to manage the color.

 

[koraks]

With the larger Canon printer(s) you upload your color profile with the Canon Media Configuration Tool to the printer. After that you leave the printer to manage the color.

I'm not sure about the 'Image Pro 100' mentioned by OP, but I was acting on the assumption that it's the somewhat older Canon PIXMA PRO-100. I'm not sure whether that one already supported the workflow you mention.

 

[MMH]

Hi, I have had very similar results when I have loaded the paper the wrong way round with a new printer.

Unfortunately I don't think that's the issue :-(

 

[MMH]

The problem you show seems to me to be a case of color management gone fantastically wrong with the printer misinterpreting the color data.


I'd suggests to change this and instead allow Photoshop/Lightroom to take control over color management. There are plenty of YouTube vids on how to set up Photoshop for a soft-proofed, color-managed print workflow; I'd suggest to start there.

If you really don't want to mess with color profiles in Photoshop for some reason, be sure to convert everything you print into sRGB upon opening and remain editing in that space. This is a default space and odds are that your printer will interpret it OK if you don't let the applications manage colors. It's likely what happens 'under the hood' in your successful example of using the photo viewer app on your mac.

Welcome to Photrio btw!

Thanks Koraks!

So I managed to successfully print out a much better version through Photoshop just now.
Printed onto Canon Photo Paper Pro Luster using the following settings:

Drilled down in the Print Settings up here:

Printer Options/Color Matching

Quality and Media

And got a successful result. It's weird because that's what I had been doing before and the only difference I can think of is that I did not open this file through Lightroom (selecting Edit in Photoshop and printing from there). Instead I just opened the file directly from my desktop into Photoshop. So maybe there's some weird handoff going on between LR and PS...

 

[MMH]

I'm not sure about the 'Image Pro 100' mentioned by OP, but I was acting on the assumption that it's the somewhat older Canon PIXMA PRO-100. I'm not sure whether that one already supported the workflow you mention.

Sorry - yeah I am using an older Canon PIXMA Pro-100 printer. I am not familiar with that Canon Media Configuration Tool

 

[MMH]

Are those three images the entire print? Or are there parts of the prints that aren't fuzzy?

No these were just the left side of the print, but generally representative of the color issues.

 

[EricTheReddish]

No these were just the left side of the print, but generally representative of the color issues.

OK, I ask because if the entire print looked like that (with no sharp portions of the image) it could be the aforementioned paper-put-in-backward.

 

[EricTheReddish]

Since no one else has mentioned it, I guess I will. But I don't know enough to provide an actual solution. I suggest checking the color mode (Image->Mode in Photoshop) and make sure it's RGB. Then check your color space (Edit->Convert to Profile or Edit->Assign Profile). If the colors look good in Photoshop then probably using Assign Profile to something reasonable might help.

 

[koraks]

So maybe there's some weird handoff going on between LR and PS...

Yeah, I think that's a perfectly reasonable conclusion!
Glad to hear you've been able to get it to work; the way you describe in your post looks good to me. If you want to further optimize, it would be a matter of calibrating your monitor and optionally also creating new ICC profiles for the actual paper(s) you intend to use. But I suspect that what you've got now is already close enough 'for government work' as the saying goes.