Printer just refuses to print accurately

As a photographer I want to be able to get accurate prints all the time. I own a good photo printer, Canon IPixma 6700D, i'm using Photo Paper Pro, and Photoshop CS2 to print, and in all my time of printing I can never get the printer to print the colours I see on screen, sometimes it's so dull it's not worthy of looking at.

I've tried lots of different settings, using 'let printer determin colours', or 'photoshop determin colours', sometimes it gets better but it is never accurate. I would have thought the best option would be to select 'let photoshop determin colours', put the printer profile in the drop-down box below that option to Adobe RGB 1998, because as far as I know that's what I work with (I get so confused with colour profiles in Photoshop, I never really know what i'm doing), and then in the printer settings disable any colour correction, as it has a mind of it's own. This ends up in very dull printouts though, and I have to have colour correction for my printer on to get better, but still not accurate results. I sometimes find that letting 'printer determin colours', and then setting the profile to ICM works well, but when I print out another picture the colours are off again, and I go through the process of wasting a load of photo paper until I get the right printout.

Can anyone assist me?

Additional Spam:
Hmm, i've found printing the file from my laptop, which I do a lot of my photo work on anyway, gives better accuracy.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

You have to work with CMYK colorspace.

I work at a magazine---whatever we design is going to be on print in some shape or manner, so that is the only colorspace that we would think of using.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Thanks Megalith, but i've already tried using CMYK, I just get really dull results There are so many different options in Photoshop and printer settings, I just get so lost - proof setup and proof colours, colour settings and assign profile, and that's before I even get into the printer settings - printer profiles, colour correction (which for some reason if I don't enable in printer settings the results are very dull, so I have to set it to auto to get better results, even though the printer might alter colours).

I just want to be able to print what I see on the screen. Surely setting everything to the same setting (as in RGB or CMYK) and disabling any sort of correction in the printer settings will do that, but it seems not in my case

Perhaps a little advice?

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

What color profiles are you using? You should match your monitor with your printer. If you don't have any existing profile, use sRGB.

A caveat: even then it will not match perfectly. The monitor displays colors through an additive process - red+green+blue=white. The printer renders them through a subtractive process - white light-(cyan+yellow+magenta) = black.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I hope you don't mind if I enfest you with sreenies, but at least it will give you a better idea of what settings I would use now after following Megalith's advice, yet it still comes out dull compared to what I see on screen.

Here are the settings I have set -


My 'proof settings -






Colour settings -




Profile -




And the annoying printer settings - (where you see me select 'none' is where I always get dull results, even though i'd have thought it would just make it like it is on the monitor, the 'auto' option in the box you see behind has to be set if I was to even get good, but still not accurate results.)





Oh, and the printer settings in Photoshop -




This is driving me insane!!!

Additional Spam:
I've now tried setting colour handling to 'let Photoshop determin colours', then setting the printer profile to the paper type I use, but still, you guessed it, dull results. This is crazy. So the only way to get good results is to allow 'printer to determin colours' and putting the printer colour settings to auto, which gives me no control over what comes out.

How ya doing, buddy?

What are the results if you print outside Photoshop? IE, you pasted a picture in MS Word and printed it out?

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Just had a try printing it in Word, using different printer settings. Colour correction set to none in printer settings came out very dull, setting it to auto was better, and setting it to ICM profile ADOBE RGB 1998 was the best of the three. Neither appear like I see on the screen.

I've been told I need to buy a calibration device. When I set it to CMYK space in Photoshop, and then click on 'gamut warning', pretty much all of the red colour is greyed. It is a very rich red, maybe it simply can't be printed? (the photo only has black and white, and rich red colours, nothing else)

FELIPE NO

I assume both your display driver and your printer are both set to the exact same ICM profile right?

In any case, I'm not very picky about accurate color representation, so I got nothing this time. Maybe you will have to buy that calibration device.

(With that said, I am quite interested in seeing this picture that you are trying so hard to print.)

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

My gallery is here - www.iamphoto.deviantart.com It's the fourth shot in 'recent deviations' on that page. You'll know which one because of the pain in the arse red

And I think they're set to the same. Urm, how would I know?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

You stated your printer was set to Adobe RGB.

Right-click your desktop wallpaper, select Properties -> Settings -> Advanced button.

This will differ according to your setup, but there *should* be a Color Management tab where you can specify a suitable monitor profile to use. I recommend you use a profile provided by your monitor manufacturer, and use that for your printer as well.

Most amazing jew boots

Couldn't find anything there unfortunately, but...

I used Adobe gamma on my CRT monitor, thought I may as well try this method before splashing out on the fancy device, calibrated it best I could and then changed settings in Photoshop, using a helpful colour management article on the net.

I went into custom proof settings and set my 'device to stimulate' to my photo paper type (6700D PR1), and set 'rendering intent' to relative colometric, and then checked proof colours.
I then went into colour settings, changed 'RGB' to 'Adobe RGB', and left the other settings the same (CMYK US Web SWOP2 something or other, etc).
I then went into 'assign profile' and set it to 6700D PR1

In Print Preview, I set it to 'Let Photoshop Determin Colours', set the printer profile to 6700D PR1, and Rendering Intent to Relative Colometric.
I set the printer to disable any colour correction.


Results were maybe slightly better, but they were still not what I saw on screen. Do the settings sound right? Should proof be set to my paper type rather than Working CMYK etc? Why do I have to keep colour correction on in printer settings (not PS settings) to get decent colour, where as if I disable it it's very dull? Surely disabling it just means there is no editing from what I see in Photoshop, which is surely what I want?

God, i'm tired of this

Additional Spam:
Oh, also I tried printing 'proof' rather than 'document', and colours were better but still not exactly what I see

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.