Canon Pixma Pro 100 - worth buying at this time?

[billtils]

My thanks and appreciation to all of you for your helpful feedback.

I ordered the printer today and will most likely post an update after using it for a bit.

[DanK]

Bill,

Enjoy the new printer. That model really does produce gorgeous prints. I found the process of learning to print a bit of a chore, but once I had it down, I have really enjoyed printing my own.

I don't know whether you have printed enough to know all of this, so ignore if you do, but in case you don't:

1. If you haven't calibrated your monitor, start there.

2. Most paper manufacturers will provide free ICC profiles for that printer and all of their papers. Be sure to install the profile for every paper you use. The manufacturers should also specify what type of medium (it will be the name of a type of Canon paper) you should tell the Canon software you are using.

3. It's essential to give control of color to either the software or the printer, not both. Assuming you will print from good photo editing software, you should give control over color to software when you are printing in color. This involves two steps: telling the editing software to take control (In lightroom, by selecting the relevant ICC profile in the bottom of the right-hand panel) and telling the printer's software not to do color matching. For B&W prints, tell the editing software to let the printer take control, and tell the Canon software that you want a B&W print. I had read the latter in several places, so I finally did an A/B comparison, and it is definitely correct. If you let the software take control, you can get color casts in B&W prints.

4. Some paper manufacturers specify which papers are for dye and which for pigment. There is some basis for this because the two types of inks spread differently. However, I have always ignored it, and I haven't encountered problems yet.

5. I don't know what papers are readily available in Scotland, but several that sell here have sample packs that allow you to experiment with a wide variety of papers. Early on, I bought sample packs from both Moab and Red River, and two of my primary papers ended up coming from those packs. It's a lot of fun trying them out, and the differences are in some cases quite striking. Hahnemuhle also has a sample pack of their fine art papers, which I bought some time ago and will work through this winter when my workload lets up.

Please post questions if you run into difficulties.

Dan

[billtils]

Dan, thanks yet again for your assistance. Here's where I'm at re your questions and advice:

1. If you haven't calibrated your monitor, start there.
Yes, that's been in place for quite some time, and is partly to blame or thank for all this, as I was finding too many instances of where the print did not do justice to what was on the screen.

2. Most paper manufacturers will provide free ICC profiles for that printer and all of their papers. Be sure to install the profile for every paper you use.
Yep, I'm fine with that, and the availability of these profiles ready made for the Pro100s was another of the reasons for change.

3. It's essential to give control of color to either the software or the printer, not both
Again, that's a 'yes' including the different procedures for mono and colour.

4. Some paper manufacturers specify which papers are for dye and which for pigment. There is some basis for this because the two types of inks spread differently. However, I have always ignored it, and I haven't encountered problems yet.
Was not aware of that, and hope that the fickle finger of fate leaves you in peace after "haven't encountered" .

5. I don't know what papers are readily available in Scotland,
I haven't seen Moab or Red River over here, but know about Hahnemuhle. I have used the printer manufacturers' papers for Canon and Epson, but mainly use ones from a UK source (Paper Spectrum) and PermaJet.

Please post questions if you run into difficulties.
Indeed I shall, but hope it won't be needed.

Bill

[Donald]

I found the process of learning to print a bit of a chore, but once I had it down, I have really enjoyed printing my own.

And that is why to do it. Sure, it can be more expensive than getting the occasional print done externally, but the satisfaction and excitement of watching the print emerging from the printer ........ it's almost as good as watching it appear in a developing dish.

You then know that you have made this image from start to finish. And that sense of achievement is worth the extra money, I think.

[Manfred M]

I was finding too many instances of where the print did not do justice to what was on the screen.

That is primarily related to the printer / ink / paper gamut versus what you see on the computer screen

This is why Photoshop and Lightroom users that print take full advantage of the Soft Proofing functionality as it does a reasonable job of emulating what the final print will look like. At a very high level glossier papers, especially ones with optical bleaching agents (OBA) generally do a better job of printing pictures that have more saturated colours whereas matte papers work well with more muted tones. B&W images generally work on well on all finishes, although my personal taste is to print B&W portraits on matte papers without OBAs. The baryta papers are quite nice for some work; I've been quite happy with Canson Baryta Photographique paper. That should be readily available your way as Canson is a European paper maker.

The other issue may be your screen brightness. If your screen is too bright, any print will look dull. As I do a lot of printing, my screen is set to an output level of 80 candela / square meter. If you check the sRGB spec, it specs that screen brightness.

[billtils]

Thanks for chipping in Manfred.

As mentioned in the reply to Dan, the screen is calibrated - I'm typing this on the MBP and the calibration data is not to hand but it did not appear to be an issue when I was doing all the cause debugging, and a big part of the printer change was to simplify and improve exactly those factors that you mention. Not mentioned earlier, but relevant, is that I have used proofing and also a range of manual adjustments but the root cause does seem to be exactly what you say in the first sentence above.

[billtils]

Delivered. Installed (big, heavy, less than stellar documentation), and working.

Wow! My grin is about as wide as the printer .

[Donald]

Brilliant.

Have a great time with it, Bill.

[Manfred M]

Enjoy Bill. I went through a similar experience when I brought my Epson P800 home. Somewhere around 50 lbs / 22kg in a box that just barely fit through the doorway to the house. I was very nervous about dropping it, although with all of the padding it came with, I suspect it would have survived a bump or two.

I'm looking forward to reading about how you are getting on with it.