Printer profiles

I have replaced my old printer with a Canon PIXMA Pro 200. When printing from Photoshop, I am offered over ten printer profiles. I have calibrated my monitor and saved a profile which appears in the list. Should I select that profile when allowing Photoshop to manage colors or one of the others. I have no idea which of the others I might select. Thanks in advance for any advice.

I use an Epson and for my options I have Photoshop managing colors. The printer profile box is where I select the paper profile that I have downloaded from my paper source.
In most cases it is a Red River Paper profile based on the specific printer I use and the specific paper I'm printing on.
Red River, and other paper manufacturers, provide this profile which is placed on your computer as directed.

Ccougar wrote in post #19522488
I have replaced my old printer with a Canon PIXMA Pro 200. When printing from Photoshop, I am offered over ten printer profiles. I have calibrated my monitor and saved a profile which appears in the list. Should I select that profile when allowing Photoshop to manage colors or one of the others. I have no idea which of the others I might select. Thanks in advance for any advice.

When printing color from a Pro 200, you should let the software manage colors, not the printer. In addition to setting this in Photoshop (or other software), you should go into the printer properties in the Windows print dialog and turn color matching to "none" to avoid double profiling.

Each profile you are offered matches the printer to a specific paper. If I recall, the Canon printer installation will automatically install profiles for a bunch of Canon papers. You need to identify which profile is for the paper you are using. If you are using a non-Canon paper, nearly all paper companies will have ICC profiles for that printer and their papers, so you can download and install the ICC profiles you need. They will then be available in Photoshop.

The only exception I have found so far--and I use papers from quite a number of companies--is Epson, which didn't provide profiles for Canon printers the last time I looked.

Ccougar wrote in post #19522488
I am offered over ten printer profiles. I have calibrated my monitor and saved a profile which appears in the list. Should I select that profile .....

No, that is so that the monitor displays the image properly. For printing you want a printer profile for the specific paper/ink you are using.

Dan Marchant wrote in post #19523666
No, that is so that the monitor displays the image properly. For printing you want a printer profile for the specific paper/ink you are using.

Dan, the OP said he was presented with "printer profiles", not monitor profiles.

The installation programs for Canon photo printers automatically install ICC printer profiles for Canon papers.

When you go to print in Photoshop, the print dialog first gives you a choice labeled "color handling". This is where you chose whether the printer of photoshop controls color. The choice immediately below that is labeled "Printer profile". If you have selected photoshop for color management, the drop down for printer profile will give you every ICC print profile installed on the computer. I assumed the OP was referring to these profiles. They have no impact on the monitor display, unless you soft proof.

Dan

I have a Canon Pro-100. When printing using PS using PS managing printer and using the profiles for the paper - ie Red River Blanco Matte Canvas the printer prints a lot darker - even the pine trees in the far background appear black. I have to listen the image almost a full stop - then the foreground subjects are too bright. Is there a better way to print - Thanks

If I remember rightly you can get Ps to show you all the profiles when in the print dialogue. So you get the screen profiles as well. When you do that I remember you do get a warning.

Ps is a piece of professional software, and as such you can make it allow you to do things you normally shouldn't. There might be a legitimate reason you want to, so they let you.

Alan.

In virtually all cases I have encountered, this problem is a result of incorrect lighting settings. I assume you calibrate your monitor. The calibration software should let you set the brightness. Most people edit between 80 and 110 cd/m^2, which is much darker than most monitors come out of the box. I personally use 100 or 110. However, what people often fail to tell you is that the critical issue is not just the monitor brightness, but the relative brightness of the monitor compared to the ambient light. You can see this very easily. Put the lights in the room as bright as they go, and put any image on the monitor. Then turn the lights off, and the image will appear brighter.

So, what one needs to do is this:

1. Set the monitor to a reasonable brightness.
2. Try moderate lighting as a starting point.
3. Softproof the image
4. Make a print and compare it to the monitor.

Adjust #2 as needed.

However, printed (reflective) and on-monitor (emissive) images never look exactly the same.

For the most part, this is separate from printer settings. However, I found that after all of my tinkering, I get the best results by adding a very slight (+10) brightness adjustment in the Lightroom print module, which is where I do almost all of my printing.

Dan Marchant wrote in post #19523666
No, that is so that the monitor displays the image properly. For printing you want a printer profile for the specific paper/ink you are using.

This is the correct answer. The profile the OP “saved” when calibrating and profiling the display is not for printing.

When you install software for a new printer, it will usually install printer-paper profiles. When you print, you usually specify the media to which you are printing and then select the profile associated with that media (“glossy photo paper” or whatever).

When Photoshop manages color, you need to specify the correct printer-paper profile for it to manage the color.

Kirk