canon IP5200 PRBLEMS

[H-Pinkness]

Hi guys n gals!


was wondering wether any one is familular with the canon IP5200? i recently upgraded to this printer from the IP3000 and am very dissapointed with the results.

I am having problems with ink drying and thecolours are incorrect on print outs?

i have tried messing with settings but am still not happy with the results.

i want a professional finish but know to get real quality i need to spend alot more money, any advice is much sort after.

[yelvertoft]

Hi there,

I'm no expert, having given up on home printing a while back for this sort of reason, but, I'd hazard a guess that you are finding the colours on your screen don't match the colours on the prints, right?

This doesn't mean the printer is "wrong" or, even more imprtantly, it doesn't mean you "need to spend a lot of money". It could well be the monitor that isn't calibrated properly.

With a bit of luck, one of our experts will be along to explain how to get around this problem soon. One for robski?

[prostie1200]

Hi H-P

I am not familiar with your particular printer, but there are several things you could look at to see where things may be going wrong.

First, check whether your useing the Printer or the PC Program to determine the the color schedule to the print.

If the Printer is set as default change back to the PC Prog - PSCS or whatever your useing to post process.

If this fails, go to the Cannon site and download the .ICC file for your printer, install it and see how that pans out.

Let us know how you get on.

Regards

Brian

[Christine]

Brian,can I chip in with a quick question please?.We have just purchased an HP 8450 printer(main reason for purchase,easy to change cartridges-in spite of all comments re price etc),but ,the colours are not the same as the old printer HP 5552.Everything seems quite bland.But having said that,I sent off a Stonechat image to Photobox to be printed in A3 and the colours were almost identical to this new printer,but should the 8450 be set to Adobe RGB as opposed to HP,s own settings.I have tried using it,and slightly enhancing the brightness etc,and the pics seem okay,but one does not seem to be able to use the borderless prints unless one uses HP,s own settings.I find it all quite confusing,and I do not know how to calibrate this monitor,I have tried,but cannot find any settings.It is a Hansol H711.

[prostie1200]

Hi Christine

Gosh what a minefield this color management is.

I use PS for Post Processing and have an Epson printer, but this description of the way it is set up may help you with your problems.

In PSCS I have set it to use srGBiec61966-2-1 for color management (you can set this up in PS – Edit – Color Management, and I use North American General Purpose 2 defaults)

In the PS print with preview, which opens when you have a picture file open ready to print, click the pref box marked Color Management and select – Let Photoshop Determine Color Output.

Select Print and the Printer options box will open, go to Properties and select the options you want for paper type, size, etc., and turn off the printers ability to control the color, thus allowing PS to control it.

Have a go with the above method, it may work for you.

I do have the monitor calibrated so the colors I see are as near as dammit to the colors I get out of the print.

Best of luck

Brian

[prostie1200]

Christine

Just one other tip, maybe you belong to a local camera club, in which case there must be someone there with a Calibration Kit you can borrow, the actual calibration process is very simple and only takes about 20 minutes to complete, its completely automated.

Brian

[Christine]

Brian,thankyou for advice.Yes,I guess that was what I was doing when using the printer,changing to Adobe RGB.I just uses loads of ink,whilst trying to find the near enough exact colour one sees on ones screen.No,the nearest camera club is quite some distance away,and sadly my driving skills are nolonger up to driving along minor B roads late at night!!!.So everything I need to learn I have to pick up from either this Forum or BF.

[Stephen]

There are also a few other settings that can be applied in order to get a better print. Firstly, it is better to use the Adobe RGB 1998 colour profile, as this has a wider colour gamut which the printer can take advantage of. If however you want to have prints produced commercially then use sRGB. Secondly, even though you have selected to let PS determine colours, you should also select the printer profile in the box below. If you have a custom profile for a particular paper then it should appear here. Failing that you should be able to select the profile that came with the printer and was installed automatically when the printer software was installed. There should be the correct printer listed in that drop down menu. Finally when you go to the printer setup dialogue, although they are diffeent for different makes, I have always found it best to select the Automatic option in the Mode section. Do not go into the Custom settings and switch off Colour Controls.

Of course if you can't get a satifactory result, this could be because you are using different inks and papers. It has to be said that in my experience the manufacturers own inks and papers give the best results unless you have the ability to create custom profiles for your own combination of inks and papers.

As a point of interest, I have for some time been using Olmec papers (I always use Epson inks) and they supply a custom profile for my printer (Epson 2100) on their website. The results using this have been markedly better than using the regular Epson profile.