PIXMA 4000 Help please

[dlifesjrny]

I have this printer, it's brand new. The prints are looking crumby.
There are noise and overall poor quality, and I don't know what to do.
I have been printing on "high" quality, using correct size, tried with and without the optimizing features...I'm at a loss.

Here are shots before and after printing.
It mostly happens in the greens, like on grass or here on the shutters.
Here is the file before printing:

http://www.gourmetfortheday.com/photos/italy%20%28376%29pssmall.JPG

Here is the file after printing:

http://www.gourmetfortheday.com/photos/lastscansmall.jpg

[Harry1959]

Hello I've bought an ip5200 (brandnew). It gives good results when printing through the "Canon Easy Print"-program. But when I open my files in Photoshop, Picasa, The Gimp, whatever, it gives the same gritty, oversatured, overlighted, solarised looking prints. It seems to be a soft-ware problem, the printerdriver doesn't seem to understand any other language but his own. Quid?

[vjack]

I have a Pixma 4200 have have had no problems at all when printing from Photoshop CS2. I have not tried to print from other software. The only issue I've noticed is that my photos tend to get a bit brighter when printed. Fortunately, this can be corrected easily.

[snappa]

Having been tutored by UncleDoug I am now an expert....Joke !
There are just red crosses where your before and after should appear so it is difficult to tell you anything really. However what I did find out from UncleDoug, amongst other things, is that you must use the correct profiles for the paper you are using. You cannot just use any paper and expect it to work properly. I did and it doesn`t !
Harry, I have a Canon printer and, touch wood, it worked perfectly through PSE2 and now PSE3. I never use Easy Print. Again it sounds like you are not entering the correct profiles for the paper you are using. I think the printer driver relies on these profiles but I maybe wrong.
Perhaps if either or both of you give a little more info on the settings/paper you are using then an expert will come along and help you out.

[Harry1959]

I choose the right paper Photo Premium Glossy. I' ve ran through the settings time after time and find no flaws. Problem is that pictures are bad with any program other than Canon Easy-Print.

[dlifesjrny]

I think I remember what the problem was....I used Dell paper in the Canon printer. Bad move.
The prints are great with Canon paper.

[snappa]

Harry, I believe that Photo Premium Glossy is an Epson paper ? It would be much appreciated if you could tell me which profile you are using for this paper so that I can try it out too. It is cheaper than Canon paper. I am already trying both Ilford and Kodak Ultima with the latter giving pretty good results.

[vjack]

For what its worth, I use Canon's "Photo Paper Plus Glossy" in my 4200 and the SP2 profile. Print quality is outstanding.

[Harry1959]

I've tried all sorts of profiles it doesn't affect the picture. Epson or Canon paper it gives only minor, allmost inperceptible changes.

[snappa]

Harry, There are set profiles for Canon paper. There is PR1, MP, SP1, SP2 to name but a few. There are also the Perceptual and Relative Colourmetric settings that can change according to the paper you are using.
Canon Photo Paper Pro works perfectly using PR1, None, Perceptual and the diffusion set to 1. On the other hand Ilford paper needs the same settings except it should be set to the Relative Colourmetric setting for the best results I believe.
I have been to the Epson web site and it appeared to me that you have to pay for a paper profile to match the printer you are using. If I have got this wrong and this is not the case then I would be obliged if somebody could reply on this thread or pm me with any Epson paper profiles.
Maybe it works OK with Easy Print because it is Canon software, Canon ink and a Canon printer. Perhaps that is why they call it Easy Print ?
Basically Harry you have not chosen the right paper you have chosen Epson paper to use in a Canon printer. If you do not use the correct profile for this paper you will get crap prints ! If you would like to divulge the profiles you have used then perhaps somebody will come along and help you.

[vjack]

Other than a hardware issue, there are two possible culprits to your printing problems: (1) your PS settings or (2) your print driver settings.

Once you have your photo resized for printing, in Adobe RGB, and set to 300 dpi, go under Print With Preview. Your settings should look like this:

Of course, this profile is for Canon Photo Plus Glossy paper. Now, you need to set your print driver. The key here is to set the Color/Intensity to manual then click the Set button to turn off Canon ICM.

[vjack]

Here is where you turn off ICM:

[Harry1959]

Thanks Guys I've detected the problem: first of all I've installed a fictitious ip5000 printer. When I took a print-example on screen this was excellent. So I concluded that the driver file for my ip5200 had to be corrupt. (Remember I installed this driver with the delivered CD-Rom and when I encountered the first problems had this driver overwritten by the driver of the Canon internet-site) So now I desinstalled (removed) my original drivers en reinstalled again the internet driver. And yes, it worked, now I can print through PS7 directly a PSD file. Ouf and thanks everyone for helping.