Print issue with Photoshop (and Illustrator); yellow instead of red

Thanks for your answer, I'll try to do my best because I'm not an expert.

About my printer I just know that it is a Canon MG6850 with 5 colour reservoir: black, cyan, magenta, yellow and another black reservoit bigger than th first one.

I always use normal A4 paper, because I don't have to do professional print of photos.

I did a nozzle check, a print head Cleaning, a roller cleaning, a bottom plate cleaning and everything the manual recommended for maintenance and the level of colour in the reservoirs is ok.

[A little note: before the printer printed the red completely yellow, it did a couple of prints in a strange color, like a camoflage pattern with yellow, brown and a bit of red.]

I don't understand very well what does ICC mean and about the colour profile Coated FOGRA 39 in Illustrator and US Web (SWOP) in Photoshop, I always left the softwares settings as they were, I didn't change anything because, as I said, I'm not an expert about colour profiles etc.

I always printed document and images/photos (always on common A4 paper because they are simple text document or used as references for drawing) from Photoshop without any problems like this.

Maybe this time is different because the source of the file is Illustrator?

Excuse my ignorance but I didn't understand exactly what I have to do to fix the problem.

Long reply, I hope it helps you:

I think you have a printer ICC profile issue.

But also a misunderstanding of the process of making files and ICC profiles relating to that.

I'll explain:

For a desktop printer [unless you have a RIP] its best not to use CMYK.

Most inkjet printers use the "Quickdraw" pipeline which is RGB**, So, you restrict your colours by making your image as CMYK [a colour model mainly used for printing presses, which have reduced colour capabilities], BUT when you print - the print driver turns your CMYK back into RGB. 

[**The printer DOES actually use CMYK inks, normally with the addition a few other such as light inks and maybe even Orange and Green BUT unless you have a RIP to control the CMYK print channels you'll want to send RGB to it to get best gamut (colour range).]

When you saw that warning dialog opening the file it told you that your Illustrator file was made using the 'Coated FOGRA 39' ICC profile.

But you have Photoshop set to US Web (SWOP) ICC profile for CMYK. I wonder why?

IF you were to preserve the FOGRA 39 ICC profile on opening the image in Photoshop, you'd have a chance of carrying the Illustrator colour through the process.

IF you allowed the system to discard the profile [as per the default in your warning dialog] that's an error as it discards the colour information and, thus, changes the meaning of the colours in your file. When you discard, you are interpreting FOGRA 39 CMYK as SWOP reduces saturation noticeably. You proably saw that Photoshop displayed the colours differently to Illustrator.

SO discard is not a good default 'policy', it's really risky - you can change that option in edit / color settings - If you have set Illustrator to 'FOGRA39L' CMYK  why not do the same with Photoshop? The Europe Prepress 3 settings preset will give you that. AND get rid of the 'discard profile' default you seem to currently have.

Screenshot below

That’s some basic advice, now to your issue:

You'll need an accurate ICC paper profile for your printer (and ink).

[When printing, you select this ICC paper profile (by paper name) from a list in "Photoshop Manages Color", if you choose "Printer Manages Color" the manufacturers ICC profile is automatically selected within the printer's driver software depending on the 'media' name you select there. Whichever way an ICC profile is used].

You didn’t mention the paper you're using, that’s important.

To use the ICC profiles that came with the printer software installation you'll need to be using the manuafactuer's paper, Canon printer = Canon paper.

Test on that paper before getting into other manufacturers papers, to use those other papers properly, you'll need to install printer specific ICC profiles for them. 

Once all that is done right you'll also need to appreciate that because of the capability of ink and paper a red you see on screen may not be achievable on paper. Photoshop's gamut warning [with the printer's ICC profile selected as destination] will help you identify out of gamut colours. 

here is some reading on ICC profiles and how they work for you to provide accurate colour through the digital workflow: https://www.colourmanagement.net/advice/about-icc-colour-profiles/

One more thing? Red printing as yellow may mean the magenta print-head is blocked. Do a nozzle check.

And, of course, to get decent colour through the process your display screen should also be calibrated and profiled. 

Everything that’s happening to you now happened to me in the 90's when attempting to print my photographer's portfolio - and I spent months trying to solve it - which is why I've spent the last 20 years helping users with just the issues you have.

I hope this helps

thanks
neil barstow, colourmanagement.net :: adobe forum volunteer
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