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I have just purchased a Canon Pixma Pro 100S which I'm using to print black and white images. I'm finding the prints have a variety of colour casts, depending on the paper used. My monitor is calibrated correctly, and there is no colour information at all in the images (duotone or gradient tint etc). In trying to understand what is happening I first need to understand the message I am getting in Lightroom's Print module.

In its Print Job Panel, I am using the following settings to print:

  • Print Resolution: 300 (Printer's native resolution)
  • Print Sharpening: Unchecked (I've sharpened manually)
  • 16 Bit Output: Checked
  • Profile: Canon PRO-100S 1/2 Photo Paper Pro
  • Intent: Relative

With these settings, I get the following warning at the bottom of the panel:

When selecting a custom profile, remember to turn off color management in the Print dialogue. Black Point Compensation will be used for this print.

Note: I'm using OSX with Yosemite.

My questions are:

  1. How do I turn off color management?
  2. What 'print dialogue' is it referring to?
  3. How do I control Black Point Compensation?
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From the Lightroom PRINT Module, click the Printer TAB at the bottom and NOT the Print TAB

This will then popup the Print Dialogue Box.

The 3rd drop down menu will give you access to color matching.

Here you can choose between Canon Color Matching or Colorsync. Color matching is auto selected by default as the standard color management.

Choosing Colorsync will open a further drop down menu where you can choose the custom profile that matches your printer, Paper and Media type

Regarding the Black Point Compensation which maps the Black Point of the original image with that of the printer profile so that dark shadows do not fill in, is by default turned ON and cannot be selected for alteration via Lightroom.

Additional content

In Lightroom when you are preparing your print job, you will be promoted with either;

“Remember to turn on color management” when selecting Managed By Printer or

“Remember to turn off color Management” when selecting a custom profile based on your printer.

Unfortunately, there is no option to turn ON or OFF the color Management when using a Canon printer on a Mac in the printer dialogue box and these messages can be, somewhat confusing. It could be something to do with the option being available on Windows and I believe was also available pre OS X7. There maybe someway of turning it off completely via the device drivers, but that is for a techie to look at.

By default, Apple prefers its users to use auto color management option offered by the printer to calibrate with the screen profile being used, better known as Color Matching.

However, if you decide to choose color sync, then you have the option of selecting your custom profiles and as a result, rendering the printer color matching options, as obsolete and discarded.

I consider these 2 options as On and Off.

Please Note, Black Point Compensation can be ticked off in Photoshop

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Thanks for this. I didn't realise that select box contained so many options. But I'm a little confused. Lightroom is telling me to turn off color management, but you show me how to select color matching. \$\endgroup\$ Nov 3, 2015 at 17:51
  • \$\begingroup\$ I can see why this sounds confusing, I spent endless days with Canon, Apple and Adobe about this as I could not get the profiles to match the screen and print and could not understand the prompts and all the menus! it took a while, but I got there in the end. I use the Canon IP8750 printer - \$\endgroup\$ Nov 3, 2015 at 19:12
  • \$\begingroup\$ Thanks. So in your opinion, if 'ColorSync' is selected, this is equivalent to turning off color management, and if 'Color Matching' is selected (and the correct paper profile is selected), this is equivalent to turning on color management? \$\endgroup\$ Nov 3, 2015 at 19:46
  • \$\begingroup\$ I've actually sent the printer back for a replacement (due to an issue with its wifi connectivity), but I couldn't get a good print out of it. Tried multiple types of paper, but for each paper / paper profile, there would be a colour-cast (different in each case). Hopefully I'll fare better with the replacement, but I'm really confused as to what it could be. Monitor is properly calibrated with a Color Munki, and no color in the images at all to shift. \$\endgroup\$ Nov 3, 2015 at 20:02
  • \$\begingroup\$ Have you tried it straight with Canon Color Matching yet with no additional tweaks? \$\endgroup\$ Nov 3, 2015 at 20:05

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