Improving PRO-10 blacks on Canon matte PM-101

Questions on certain printers and applications
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tyinbw
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Joined: Fri Oct 12, 2018 2:02 pm

Improving PRO-10 blacks on Canon matte PM-101

Post by tyinbw »

I have used TurboPrint for the last 4 years on the PIXMA PRO-100 and have been very happy with the results on both Canon Pro Luster (LU-101) and Pro Matte (PM-101). 99% of what I print is black and white. On the PRO-100, I've been very impressed with the deep blacks on the matte paper, which frankly I was not expected, given the conventional wisdom that deep blacks are not possible on matte material. I'm planning to start selling prints, and due to concerns about longevity I decided to move to a pigment ink based system and just purchased a PRO-10.

Last night I made a B&W print on PRO-10 with the PM-101 paper and compared it to an identical print that I had previously made on the PRO-100, using the same paper. I used the same settings that I had successfully used in the past on the PRO-100: Fineart Paper Premium Matte, default quality setting (medium), and a slight adjustment to the color/grey tone sliders on the Color Tab (I've found that to get neutral tones I need to set +1 yellow and +1 red to avoid a bluish/green cast). The PRO-10 print tone looks very nice, neutral just as I'd hoped. However, the blacks are noticeably less black than in the PRO-100 print. It is a very pronounced difference.

It may well be that the Canon pigment inks do not give as deep blacks on matte paper as the dye inks. Or it could just be the lack of having a proper profile for this paper.

My basic question is: how can I determine if I am getting "maximum black" out of the PRO-10 on this paper? When I purchased an upgraded TurboPrint license last year it came with 1 free custom profile. I could obviously make use of the profiling service, but if my blacks are already as black as they are going to get, I'd rather use that profile on a different paper rather than waste it on a paper I'll never be happy with.

Thanks in advance for any guidance!
tyinbw
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Oct 12, 2018 2:02 pm

Re: Improving PRO-10 blacks on Canon matte PM-101

Post by tyinbw »

One correction and an additional clarification:

On the Color tab Color/Grey tone sliders, they are actually set at +5 yellow, +5 red (not +1 as stated in my previous post).

I also forgot to mention that I have Apple RBG set as the color space, as I always did on the PRO-100 (my prints were too dark without this setting).

Cartridge is set to GlossOptimizer Auto, but I'm assuming for B&W the optimizer isn't applied when matte media is selected.
zedonet
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Re: Improving PRO-10 blacks on Canon matte PM-101

Post by zedonet »

Hell & please excuse the delay,

I just compared the profiles that we created for the CanonPIXMA Pro-10 and Pro-100 printers and the Pro-100 can actually print a deeper black (except on plain paper, where the Pro-10 is much better).

The following table lists the L-Value in the Lab system (100=white 0=black),
I have added the values for Epson Surecolor P600 & P800 for comparison:

Code: Select all

Canon           Pro-10     Pro-100     Epson               SC-P600 / P800
Plain Paper     27           38        Plain Paper         25  (Matte Black)
Matte HR-101    20           17        Matte Inkjet Paper  23
Matte MP-101    21           18        Archival Matte      16
Fineart FA-PM1  19           16
Glossy PT-101    8            6        Premium Glossy      3   (Glossy Black)
The difference between Pro-10 and Pro-100 is not big but it is probably visible.

Creating an inidividual color profile would probably produce similar results but might be worth a try - if you send in a profile chart for Luster Paper you could add an additional chart print for the MP-101 paper.

Looking at the table above you could also try Epson's Matte Heavy or Archival Matte paper.
tyinbw
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Oct 12, 2018 2:02 pm

Re: Improving PRO-10 blacks on Canon matte PM-101

Post by tyinbw »

Thank you for the reply.

It's quite interesting. Based on the values you posted, I wouldn't have expected such a pronounced visible difference.

Since my original post, I have also experimented with Red River's Aurora Art White (using the profile I downloaded from the ZEDONET site), and am seeing the same results with the PRO-10 blacks on that paper. It's a lovely paper, but the blacks are perhaps even less black than with the Canon paper.

I'm probably just going to work through the rest of my Canon matte paper with the PRO-100 and continue to experiment with Red River's papers for the PRO-10. I will likely use my one profile on one of their papers. If I'm bothering to make a pigment print, it makes sense for it to be on a more archival paper.
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