Let's talk printers. How is the Canon Pixma 9500 Mark II?

tonylong wrote in post #13604733
Without calibrating your monitor, you will always at best have an uncertain output. That's just the way it is. Even then, different monitors have different characteristics, but at least calibrating them can get them close to a "standard".

But, like you say, your prints can come out nicely. If they please you and others, well, that's what's important. Getting them to exactly match your monitor can be important for some types of photography, not so much for others. It does cost money to get a monitor that will "cooperate" and a calibrating system that will work well. it's up to you whether it's worth the expense.

One thing I don't see often addressed. When calibrating monitors, do the devices come with software to control what the video card outputs? Reason I ask - my monitor has no adjustment other than brightness on the actual monitor.

Well, I'm not familiar with your monitor. Calibration is about getting the colors "right", according to a standard "scheme". Some calibrators do help with brightness, some less so. But I'd look more into your monitor documentation as to what you can adjust.

And then yes, calibrators have software to guide you through the process and to do some things internally in the computer. The result of the calibration is to create a profile that your graphics card can use along with "color managed" software such as Photoshop, Digital Photo Professional and other apps.

JonK wrote in post #13604528
Correct I use photoshop to manage the color profile and chooce the canon ICC profile for the paper being used on the 9500.

And you are disabling color management in the printer, right? I have found that colors are usually fine between calibrations, but what is really important is the brightness. Usually, what's appealing on the screen results in dark prints.

Tony-S wrote in post #13605189
And you are disabling color management in the printer, right? I have found that colors are usually fine between calibrations, but what is really important is the brightness. Usually, what's appealing on the screen results in dark prints.

When you say "Disabling color management in the printer" what do you mean?

I just ordered a Spyder 3 Elite today should have it tomorrow - I guess I'll see if that helps me out!

Thanks for all of the input.

When you print from Photoshop and you have it set to "Photoshop Manages Color" and you click "Print", the printer's dialog box should appear next. In it, there should be a pull-down or some other setting that disables color management by the printer driver. In Mac OS X, this is called ColorSync. If you don't disable it, then the printer will reprofile the image and it will get screwed up in the final print.

Tony-S wrote in post #13606259
When you print from Photoshop and you have it set to "Printer Manages Color" and you click "Print", the printer's dialog box should appear next. In it, there should be a pull-down or some other setting that disables color management by the printer driver. In Mac OS X, this is called ColorSync. If you don't disable it, then the printer will reprofile the image and it will get screwed up in the final print.

Hrm - i guess that's confusing. So you set PS/etc to let the printer manage, then it opens a dialog and you tell it to not let the printer manage? Seems... counter intuitive. Why wouldn't I want to let PS/etc manage and pick an ICC profile?

Sorry, I should have said "Photoshop Manages Color". I have fixed that in the previous post. Since you're on Windows, have a look at this thread:

https://photography-on-the.net …ighlight=colors​ync+tony-s

I have been using the 9500 since it came out. It has performed flawlessly in sharpness and color rendition. That is without doing any color calibrations whatsoever. It is expensive to operate as a set of inks cost $120 (B&H) Results are truly professional if you give it a professional image. If the convenience/quality is important and frequently print pictures, then I recommend this printer. I received a $500 rebate years ago from Canon toward the purchase of this printer when I bought a 50D and I was offered another$500 rebate again when I purchased the 7D. (From B and H Photo). So keep that in mind.

I am looking forward to buying one of these in the near future, and am looking into CIS with pigmented inks...