Datacolor User to User Support Group.

On May 5, 2010, at 12:32 PM, purtypitcher wrote:

> I've just received my Spyder3 Print SR for use with a Canon iPF8100.  
> Couple of questions:
>
> 1. In the Color Matching tab of the printer driver my choices are  
> Color Sync and Vendor Matching. I don't see anything like No Color  
> Adjustment (which is a choice with my Epson 9600 driver). Is Vendor  
> Matching the correct choice to give me the same thing as No Color  
> Adjustment?
>
>

If you're running either Leopard or Snow Leopard, (which I assume you  
are),
then Vendor Matching won't work as it should - there's an issue with  
the Canon
drivers that prevents their "off" control from show up, as it should,  
in their
own section.

Instead: you need to take a workaround. Follow these steps, and you'll  
get
a properly printed target that's not color managed:

- Choose ColorSync, instead of Vendor Matching

- Beneath that, you'll see controls to let you choose from the entire  
set of
profiles on your system. Use them to select "Generic RGB" as the  
profile. Once
you've done that, it will appear underneath ColorSync

- Choose the paper type, output quality/resolution etc in the Canon  
section
of the driver, but you don't need to make any other changes related to  
color.
Just leave all of the other controls alone.

When you later print from Photoshop: in the OSX Print dialog, you'll see
that ColorSync ends up being selected automatically (and disabled; there
won't be anything else you can do in the Color Matching section of the
dialog). That's fine, the "right thing" will be happening and you don't
need to worry about this. Just make sure that the Canon section of the
driver is set up with the same paper type, quality/res etc that you'd
used when you printed the target.
> 2. On the iPF8100, I normally print with the Canon-supplied  
> Photoshop plugin, one of the reasons is that it allows 16 bit  
> printing from 16 bit PS files. But it seems the only way I can build  
> profiles with the SR 4.1 software is by using the regular Canon  
> driver. Yet there are several references in the user guide on  
> printing the targets from within Photoshop. How do I get the targets  
> into Photoshop so that I may print with the Canon plugin?
>
>

You can open the .tif versions of the target images directly into
Photoshop, then print them through the Canon plugin in 16-bit mode.

The .tif files are stored in the Targets folder that's inside the
main Spyder3Print application folder. (To get there, go into
Applications:Datacolor)

To open the images: make sure Photoshop's Color Settings are set to
warn on missing profiles. (The .tif images are untagged). When you
open one, Photoshop will warn you about this; tell it not to color
manage the image while opening.

When you print the image, you'll have to make sure that that Canon
plugin is actually letting you turn off color management. How this
happens, or whether it will actually do the right thing, is completely
dependent on the behaviour of the Canon plugin and internals. If
it doesn't turn off color management properly, you'll end up with a
target print that has limited gamut.

What you might want to do is first: print the target from inside
Spyder3Print, using the standard Canon driver (as described at the
start of my reply) and then use this as a reference. It will show
you what a properly printed target should look like with the Canon
inks and driver settings.

Then print the same target in 16-bit mode through the Canon plugin.
Hopefully, what you should get will be very close to the other
target print, if not indistinguishable; that would be a good sign.
If you end up with a target print in 16-bit mode through the Canon
plugin that's noticeably lighter, "prettier", and more washed-out
looking, then that's not a good sign at all; it tells you that
a profile has been applied.

David Miller
Senior Software Developer, Digital Color Solutions
Datacolor