Output Instructions - Canon Driver in Windows
Canon Print Driver
The Canon driver is quite easy to profile. We need to turn off any automatic colour adjustments in the driver to ensure consistent printing results. The dye based epson printers like the I9950 A3+ printer featured here produce great colour but it is difficult to get them to produce good B&W. They only have 1 black ink meaning that lighter shades of grey need to be made up from combining different amounts of the coloured inks. This can result in colour casts or shifts accross the tonal range. If B&W is important to you consider an Epson printer from the Ultrachrome K3 range.
Illustrated below is the reccomended procedure for outputting charts to Canon Printers.
Open the Test Chart Pages in Photoshop
Locate the test chart pages (if you have not already downloaded them, get them HERE) Open these pages into Photoshop. These pages are untagged RGB, meaning they do not contain any embedded working space profiles. We need to leave them as untagged so we can send raw RGB data to the printer. If you have your Photoshop Colour Settings correctly set, you will be asked how you want to handle this untagged image (as shown below).
Note that under Colour Management Policies, we have Preserve Embedded Profiles turned on as well as ticks on Ask When Opening. This will ensure that the following Dialogue will show up.
It is very important that we choose Leave as is (don't color manage). This will open the test chart as an untagged RGB file.
Nozel Check in Canon Driver
The first step in printing the chart is to use the printing utility that comes with the printer to run a nozzle check on the print head. If there are blocked nozzles the resulting print will not be suitable for making a profile from. You can usually access the Printer Utility from inside the print driver.
In Windows select Print from the File menu, choose the correct printer and click Properties. From the printer properties choose the Maintenance tab.
Click Click on Nozzle Check and follow the instructions there.
Print Charts in the Canon Driver
Once we have established that the printer is working effectively, it is time to print the charts. Select the 1st chart and in Photoshop select Print with Preview from the File menu. You will be presented with the following. The first screen grab is from Photoshop CS2, the second is from Photoshop CS3:
Photoshop CS2 Print with Preview
If you can not see the options under Colour Management select the pop up menu that says Output and choose Colour Management. The important thing to note here is that in the Print section our Print source says Document (Profile: Untagged RGB). This indicates we have open the file in the correct way.
Under Options we select Colour Handling: No Colour Management. This ensures that no profile conversions take place when you print your test chart. If you are printing from Photoshop CS choose Same as Source from the Printer Profile pop up menu. This does the same thing as No Color management if the document is an Untagged RGB image.
Choose Page Setup to select your printer and page orientation which should be Landscape for these charts. Click OK.
Photoshop CS3 Print
Our Document Profile is Untagged RGB as it should be. We select No Color Management from the Color Handling pop up menu.
Choose Page Setup to select your printer and page orientation which should be Landscape for these charts. Click OK.
Canon print driver Settings
Click Print to select Printer Driver settings.
The settings we want to use will depend on the type of paper we are printing on. Generally we want to print at the highest resolution the printer can use without laying down too much ink on paper. If the ink pools or causes the paper to buckle and warp, there is probably too much ink being laid down Reduce the resolution or quality by one step or choose a lower paper type lower on the list. We also want to force the printer driver to pass the raw RGB data on to the printer so no colour space conversions take place in the print driver itself.
In Windows you need to set the properties of the printer. After clicking Print, choose the printer and click Properties.
Choose the Media Type you are using. If you are using a third party media see if they suggest a media type for their paper. If not choose a type that seems to best describe the surface of the paper.
Choose High for Print Quality
Choose Manual for Color Adjustment and click on the Set button.
Click Print Type: None
Click OK to exit the colour adjustment window.
From the Main Window choose Profiles. This does not refer to ICC profiles but is Canon's name for saved settings. Click on Add to Profiles and give your new settings a name. Click OK
When you next come to use the printer with these settings, you can go to the Profiles page and Double Click on the profile you created to select all the settings.
Click on OK to print your charts.