Hi Graeme,
I’m disappointed that the darkest blacks (D-Max) from my Canon iB4020 CMYK
pigment printer with Argyll-CMS profiles are darker. Am I doing something wrong?
I’ve been using the argyllcms utilities to make printer profiles for several
years now, mostly for Canon dye printers. I’ve been very satisfied with the
D-max (darkest black) from printer profiles from dye printers like the Canon
Pro 9000-2, iP4500, Pro 100, and others.
With the Canon iB4020 Maxify printer, it has CMYK pigment inks.
https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/support/details/printers/small-office-home-office-printers/ib4020
My practice is to build printer profiles from 4000+ patches with 4 pages of
patches using:
* Adobe ACPU to print the targets
* let dry for 3 days
* use an X-Rite i1iSis scanner to read the patches
* Per your guidance from several years ago, I use the X-Rite ColorPort utility
to control the i1iSis and get RGB and L*a*b values into a text file
* and then use colprof.exe to build the profile itself.
* read individual patch values with X-Rites MeasureTool and check De2k’s
After that, make a test print with that profile that has about 100 to 1000+
patches, and let the XRite MeasureTool determine some q/a values such as DE2k
overall, D-max, and mid-gray DE2k from a patch that is RGB(100,100,100).
The first patch in the upper left of the first page will be RGB(0,0,0). I check
that to get an idea of the D-max of the blackest patch that ACPU can print.
With dye printers, that will generally have a L* value of 2.5 to 5. Then I see
what the darkest black was from the test print using the printer profile.
With the Maxify iB4020 using Canon ink and Canon paper, the ACPU black (0,0,0)
patch and corresponding (0,0,0) patch from test prints made with that profile
have been:
ACPU PhotoShop
GP-601 Glossy: L = 10.77 L = (16.2 – 16.7)
Luster: L = 4.89 L = (9.2 – 9.7)
Plus Glossy II: L = 5.30 L = (11.8 – 12.7)
Platinum: L = 5.72 L = 12.8 – 13.1)
SemiGloss: L = 5.78 L = 11.3 – 12.7)
With the Maxify iB4020 using Canon ink and Canon paper, the ACPU black (0,0,0)
patch and corresponding (0,0,0) patch from test prints made with that profile
have been:
ACPU PhotoShop
GP-601 Glossy: L = 10.77 L = (16.2 – 16.7)
Luster: L = 4.89 L = (9.2 – 9.7)
Plus Glossy II: L = 5.30 L = (11.8 – 12.7)
Platinum: L = 5.72 L = 12.8 – 13.1)
SemiGloss: L = 5.78 L = 11.3 – 12.7)
With the Maxify iB4020 using Canon ink and Canon paper, the ACPU black (0,0,0)
patch and corresponding (0,0,0) patch from test prints made with that profile
have been:
ACPU PhotoShop
Luster: L = 4.89 L = (9.2 – 9.7)
Plus Glossy II: L = 5.30 L = (11.8 – 12.7)
Platinum: L = 5.72 L = (12.8 – 13.1)
SemiGloss: L = 5.78 L = (11.3 – 12.7)
Following are equivalent D-Max (0,0,0) values from Canon Pro-100:
Luster: L = 4.18 L = (3.3 – 4.0)
Plus Glossy II: L = 5.13 L = (5.8 – 6.3)
Platinum: L = 4.69 L = (5.4 – 5.8)
SemiGloss: L = 4.76 L = (4.4 – 4.8)
The above seems to indicate that the printer + ink + paper is capable of
relatively deep blacks when printing is done by ACPU with no profile, but those
blacks aren’t being realized with the profile in use.
Note that I have tried checking if there was a difference with the PS option
“Black Point Compensation” that that didn’t seem to matter.
Following is a representative command line inside a .bat file for invoking
colprof.exe:
SET LA_PROFILE_NAME=4020-Plat-SG_CanInk_170322-25-0944_4464cp
colprof -v -q h -A "Canon" -M "iB4020" -D "%LA_PROFILE_NAME%_Arg (iB4020
Plat-SG CanInk 4464)" -C "CanPrint.org" -O %LA_PROFILE_NAME%_Arg.icm CurTi3
