Washed Out Colors When Printing

[kimw18271815]

I have a printing problem that I haven't been able to solve for almost a year. I try to make prints of my artwork that uses Copic markers, which are very vibrant. The colors appear great after they have been scanned, but when I try to print they are incredibly washed out looking. The blacks are no where near black and the overall picture has a foggy tone to it. Currently using the Canon Pixma Pro 100 with canon ink and Hammermill cover paper (but this happens on every paper). I also have it set to "Photoshop manages colors" but I am not sure this is causing the problem. I know that I should calibrate the printer/monitor but the calibration programs are very expensive.

What should the settings be to try to get a nice vibrant print? I don't mind if the colors are not 100% exact but the black should print black at least.

[davescm]

Hi

It is unlikely that you will be able to get all the colors from marker pens from your printer inks - but black should not be an issue.

When you set "Photoshop manages colors" did you also set a printer profile for your printer ink and paper combination? You should be able to get that profile from your paper manufacturer.

At the same time turn off any color management in the printer itself i.e. in the Canon settings.

Printer profiling is optional (I do this but nowadays manufacturer profiles are usually pretty good) however a good monitor profile is essential, particularly if you have a modern "wide gamut" monitor (which display a wider range of colours). Without a proper profile these monitors will display many images as over-saturated. This can lead you to turn down the colour saturation so that when the image is shown on a profiled monitor (or printed) it will show, as it really is, which is under-saturated.

For a normal monitor, not wide gamut, you may get away in the short term with a manufacturer profile.  What monitor are you using?

Dave