NEW CLUE? -- Canon iPF 5100 Printer Puzzle -- Driver Versus PS Plug-In
2009-02-26 by John Broski
One new development:
Playing around, I noticed that soft-proofing the image in Photoshop CS2
with "Preserve RGB Numbers" checked yields the same ugly result (onscreen)
that printing thru the Plug-In yields. As I understand it, checking this
box simulates what you would get by sending the image to the printer with no
output profile applied. I tested this idea by printing thru the DRIVER
(which has good color) after selecting "no color management" in Photoshop's
"print with preview" screen and also insuring that Color Matching was set to
"None" in the driver. Result: Exactly the same ugly colors I get by
printing thru the plug-in (with any profile selected)!
SO... it seems like the plug-in (latest version, 3.13) is NOT APPLYING
any ;output profile to the image. (Or is applying it, and Windows
is stripping it off enroute to the printer. Or voodoo witch doctors are
cursing the data stream. Or ???) This explains why I can choose
any output profile from the dropdown list in the plug-in -- Canon profiles
or my own -- and they all seem to print the same. (Only exception, "Auto"
mode... which works great but is only for Canon media, not for the papers
and canvases I use.)
My ICC profiles are in the correct Windows folder, and they are properly
installed. I have uninstalled and re-installed the printer, its driver,
the plug-in, and all related Canon software. (Latest versions of
all.) I have run the Canon Media configuration tool after re-installing
everything, so the printer, plug-in, and driver all have the same list of
available media. My usual color space for images is Adobe RGB 1998.
I have the Windows XP "Color" applet available for looking at profiles.
Any ideas?
Thanks!