Can't print correct colours from Illustrator (and photoshop)

[neilh87817824]

The colour output on my printer from Illustrator and photoshop is just plain wrong. I seem to have read everything on line and tried changing every setting but none of the changes have an effect. If I output a file as a jpeg and print from preview the colours are correct.

I am printing from a macbook pro (Catalina) to a canon ip8750

I am working entirely in CMYK without any imported images

My colours are synced through bridge to Europe General purpose 3 and have all the standard Working Space and Color Management Policies settings.

On the printer I've tried Colorsync and Canon Color Match which differ slightly but both are similarly wrong.

I would try "let ps printer manage colors" but that option is greyed out.

Specifically Cyan appears pale blue, Magenta slightly purple, yellow is pale. An emerald green appears pistacchio and rust appears purple.

There is probably something fundamental I'm missing but I can't find anything so any help would be gratefully received.

Thanks

[Abambo]

What about saving the Photoshop file as a JPEG or a TIFF and using a macOS app to print for a test?

[neilh87817824]

Hi Abambo

As I mentioned in the post, I have tried converting to jpeg and printing from preview which does deliver the correct colours. As the problem is the same with Photoshop this indicates that the issue is with the Adobe settings.  

Thanks

Neil

[Monika Gause]

That Canon printer is a photo printer. It probably doesn't make a lot of sense to work in CMYK if you want to just print it on that printer. Photo printers are optimized for RGB input.

If the final goal is to print offset, then of course you'd rather work in CMYK.

[neilh87817824]

Hi Monika

Yes I'm working for print but use the printer for photographs as well. But given that all injets are CMYK and in my case CMYK+ this shouldn't be an issue, and given that jpegs are printing out the right colour the Adobe suite should be able to manage this. I'm sure I'm not the only one working in CMYK who needs to print on an inkjet printer. The issue is clearly with the Adobe settings and I would really like some constructive help on this.

Thanks

Neil

[Monika Gause]

Probably you trust the guys from Stackexchange more than me?

https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/99829/why-would-home-printers-work-better-with-an-...

Anyway: is the printer calibrated?

Can you show photos of the print and tell us the exact CMYK values they are supposed to represent? Not that this would be accurate at all, because of the several steps in between and possible differences in monitor calibration ....

If you compare printed samples of the colors (from a CMYK swatches book such as the TRUMATCH) to the printout: do they match?

[neilh87817824]

Hi Monica thanks for your response. I really don't doubt your point about printers being designed for RGB and appreciate you taking the time to reply. My point was that the printer is clearly capable of printing the correct colours so I just need to understand how I can get my Adobe settings to do this rather than having to output jpegs to a third party programme and actually to understand if this is a common problem or is there something uniquely wrong with my set up.

Thanks

Neil

[neilh87817824]

Sorry, I forgot to include this scanned image which has obviously adjusted the colours in its own way but the difference is at least clear (The jpeg with the correct colours is at the bottom). In reality the Adobe yellow is paler and the jpeg emerald green much richer but I think is outside the RGB gamut.

 

[Monika Gause]

Thank you.

From your description I actually expected result and source colors to be wildly different, but from what you are showing this aberration can actually be due to the CMYK/RGB thing.

Some desktop printers support PostScript and then they also take CMYK input better. But your printer might produce a better result when you feed it RGB. Especially since it has the additional colors.

[neilh87817824]

When you say "feed it RGB" How would I do that from the CMYK file? 

[Monika Gause]

Convert the project to RGB: File > Document color mode > RGB

Check if all the colors still look fine and adjust them if needed.

Then print.

And of course: make a copy of the file first.

[neilh87817824]

Hmm....  I did that but the colours print out the same.