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PinkSky80
Participant
November 16, 2024
Question

Printing from Procreate and Photoshop

  • November 16, 2024
  • 2 replies
  • 786 views

Hi! Just wondering if anyone could please point me in the right direction.

 

I'm relatively new to printing on Photoshop/my Canon printer, and I've been through stacks of paper and lots of ink trying to get this right.

 

I create illustrations in Procreate and want to print them for my customers. No matter what print setting I use, my prints come out a different colour to my screen. I have a Canon Pixma ix6850 and I'm printing on Canon Lustre paper. I've tried RGB (I know this isn't what you use for print so not concerned this doesn't work well) and every CMYK setting on there. I've tried printing from Preview on my Mac and played around with both ColourSync and Canon Print settings, with my correct paper settings selected, and neither work well. 

I took my work into photoshop using RGB profiles from Procreate and converted that to CMYK in PS, then printed using PS chooses colour settings as well as my printer chooses colour settings and got bad results for both. I've also tried taking CMYK from Procreate into PS and matching colour settings up on the print dialogue with my paper selected etc, and still the prints look bad in comparison.

 

My greys are coming out green and sometimes the warmth is way too much, turning my browns red. The most frustrating part is when my work is in full CMYK, it looks great on screen and I'd be happy with that reproducing to print. I don't know what way to edit it on PS so it prints in the correct way, as if I edit the colour on screen before hand it doesn't look right compared to my reference photo and the colours look off on my Procreate/PS screen.

 

Any help or suggestions at all would be very much appreciated, as I'm definitely not doing something I should be or am doing something wrong. 

Thanks in advance! 

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2 replies

davescm
Community Expert
davescmCommunity Expert
Community Expert
November 16, 2024

If you are printing on an inkjet printer, do not convert to CMYK. The print drivers for inkjets are designed to use an RGB input and convert that to the inks in the printer, which often have additional inks to the basic 4 colours of a printing press.

 

Next :

1. Look at your Photoshop print dialogue and set Photoshop manages colour.

2. Choose the ICC colour print profile that matches your particular printer and paper combination. That step is very important. Printer ICC profiles are different for every printer, and every paper type being used within that printer. You don't try profiles or guess them, you use the appropriate profile for your printer and paper.

3. Click on Print Settings (at the top of the print dialogue) which will take you to the Canon print driver settings. Look for colour management and turn it off. If you are managing the colour conversion within Photoshop, you do not want to convert it again within the printer driver

4. Set the printer to the correct media type, e.g. Plain Paper, Glossy photo paper ..etc

 

That should be it.

 

Note : You will see a change with very saturated colours that fall within the gamut (i.e range of colours) of the RGB colour space, but outside the gamut of the printer ink capability. You can spot those in advance by using Photoshop's proof set up and proof colour functions. In View > Proof  Set Up choose Custom and in 'Device to simulate' choose the same printer profile you selected in step 2 above. Then you can press Ctrl+Y  (Cmd+Y on Mac) to turn on and off a screen view simulating what your image will look like printing through that printer. As explained above, you may see very saturated Reds or  Greens or Blues become less saturated. You can choose whether to change those colours in your image and replace them with printable colours.

 

Dave

    NB, colourmanagement
    Community Expert
    NB, colourmanagementCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    November 20, 2024

    @PinkSky80 I agree with @davescm that" If you are printing on an inkjet printer, do not convert to CMYK. The print drivers for inkjets are designed to use an RGB input and convert that to the inks in the printer, which often have additional inks to the basic 4 colours of a printing press." 

    the only time an inkjet printer uses CMYK files properly is if it has a RIP (Raster Image Processor, usually a software RIP these days) - generally RIPs are used in environments where printing results are proofed - or for studios where graphics and text are important 

    @davescm "

    Next :

    1. Look at your Photoshop print dialogue and set Photoshop manages colour.

    2. Choose the ICC colour print profile that matches your particular printer and paper combination. That step is very important. Printer ICC profiles are different for every printer, and every paper type being used within that printer. You don't try profiles or guess them, you use the appropriate profile for your printer and paper.

    3. Click on Print Settings (at the top of the print dialogue) which will take you to the Canon print driver settings. Look for colour management and turn it off. If you are managing the colour conversion within Photoshop, you do not want to convert it again within the printer driver

    4. Set the printer to the correct media type, e.g. Plain Paper, Glossy photo paper ..etc

     

    That should be it"

    yep, exactly - output an RGB file from Procreate WITH and embedded ICC profile, open in Photoshop and proceed from step 1 above, as @davescm explained. 

     

    I hope this helps
    neil barstow, colourmanagement net - adobe forum volunteer - co-author: 'getting colour right'
    google "neil barstow colourmanagement" for lots of free articles on colour management
    Help others by clicking "Correct Answer" if the question is answered.
    Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here. "Upvote" is for useful posts.

    Monika Gause
    Community Expert
    Monika GauseCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    November 16, 2024

    Converting colors back and forth will not help.

     

    Generally on a desktop inkjet printer you get better results when printing RGB images. But still you will need to keep n mind what can be printed at all.

     

    Can you please share an image that comes out differently and also a photo of the print?

    Printers oftenhave color adjustments running in the driver - did you turn that off and let Photoshop handle it?

    How is your color management set up in Photoshop?

    And how do you handle colors when printing?

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