Re: [Gimp-user] Color mismatch between display and printer

[gimp-users mbourne spamgourmet com]

James Moe wrote:
> On 09/27/2016 02:38 PM, gimp-users mbourne spamgourmet com wrote:
> > Your printer probably has a feature to print a test page, usually
> > accessed from the printer properties, which will print some patterns in
> > various colours to check for blockages.
>    Yes, it does. And I have. The test patterns look normal and are
> complete. Initially the patterns had missing segments; after a number of
> cleaning cycles they finally became complete.

That sounds like any blockage is probably cleared now.

> > One other thing I often do when
> > having problems with colours is to create a page of text in LibreOffice
> > consisting of the following in a large bold font:
> >     RED
> >     YELLOW
> >     GREEN
> >     CYAN
> >     BLUE
> >     MAGENTA
> >     BLACK
> > Each word formatted in the corresponding colour. Print that and see how
> > it comes out. I suspect the magenta will come out faint if at all, and
> > the red and blue will be off-colour (the red appearing more towards
> > yellow and the green more towards blue).
>    I have created such a test document, cool idea. All of the colors
> print normally AFAICT; the magenta *may* be a bit light, I have no way
> to be certain. All of the colors are solid, and look like the color they
> claim to be. The test document was created in Libreoffice.
>    I imported one of the images from Gimp and printed it. The result was
> the same: an off-color green tint. This implies the problem is the
> printer, not Gimp or Libreoffice.

I wonder if something is slightly off, but not enough to notice with the 
solid blocks of pure colours. Maybe the magenta is coming out slightly 
light, which may be either a hardware or software problem...

> While there a few processing steps
> between an app and the printer, I would expect them to treat the output
> data as sacred.

Not necessarily. That's where the colour profiles others have mentioned 
come in, transforming the colours sent by the application with the 
intention that they print correctly on a particular printer - but if set 
incorrectly they'll produce incorrect output.

Apart from specifying a colour profile, there may be other settings in 
the printer preferences which might affect the colours. For example, my 
Epson printer allows me to specify:
- Quality: Draft, Text, Text & Image, Photo, Best Photo
- Paper Type: Plain, Matte, Gloss, Photo, etc.
- On an "Advanced" tab, there's a colour mode settings button to adjust 
brightness, contrast, etc. and even nudge the colours in a certain 
direction - which can give everything a green (or any other colour) tint.

It may be worth going through the printer preferences checking each tab 
of options and/or resetting to defaults, in case they've been 
accidentally changed.

>    Do the apps reference some common system values for deciding the
> output color balance?

On Windows, the initial settings in the printer preferences usually come 
from those set in Windows' Control Panel. Anything set incorrectly there 
will affect most applications. If you find something wring in the 
printer preferences, you should be able to correct it permanently by 
finding something like "Printers" (exact name varies for each version of 
Windows) in Control Panel, then right-click your printer and select 
"Printing Preferences..." from the menu.

--
Mark.