Mac OS-X, PS-CS5 and Canon printer problem.

[Graham Serretta]

Does anyone here use a Canon printer, preferably an i9950, with a Mac pc running OS-X 10.6?

I have just "graduated" from a Windows 7 PC to an iMac.with OS-X 10.6.  I still have my Canon i9950 printer.   I have a problem with the colour management in the printer driver.  When I set "Photoshop manages colours" in the print dialogue of PS CS5, and set a printer paper profile for the paper I am using, I cannot tweak the colours in the printer driver - the sliders for adjusting the colour and intensity are greyed out.  With Windows 7, these adjustments were still available for fine-tuning the colour.  Now, unless my printer-paper profile is spot on, I have no way of adjusting anything.

If I set "Printer manages colours", then the colour and intensity sliders in the printer driver are available, but the printer-paper profile is not used, and I can't find a way of saving the various settings for future use.  Even though I click on the "save" button, the sliders are back at zero the next time I open the printer colour adjustment dialogue.  In Win 7, they would remain where I had set them and were saved as presets.

Any advice?  The Canon help files make no reference to OS-X, and the Mac help screens make no reference to Canon drivers.  I never thought I would ever find myself wishing I was back with Windowzzzzz!

[P C Headland]

I can certainly understand the first issue - if you set "Photoshop Manages Colours", you should really be able to tweak the printer settings, otherwise you're not really letting PS manage the colours.  This can lead to very odd results.  If you ever needed to do this, you really need to get a custom paper profile.

The second one is more difficult.  Have you made sure you have the latest driver (10.30.3.0 as far as I can tell)?  You may also want to run a permission check / fix (through the disk utility).

[Graham Serretta]

Thanks for the help, Paul.  Yes, that is the driver that I have.  Since I posted this, I may have a partial answer - If I set "printer manages colours" and then manually tweak the colour settings and save the result as the "Standard" pre-set, this preset remains in place when I set "Photoshop manages colours".  I haven't had time to do any tests yet, but I will do so this weekend. 

[jake]

The transition from individual manufacturers managing their own printer drivers to Apple managing printer drivers has not been a smooth one. If the Canon driver is not written specifically for Snow Leopard (Apple's current OS,) then you may find its operation to be erratic. I have an Epson 2100 that is now quite long in the tooth, as it were, and I had to relearn how to use it after installing Snow Leopard. Part of it, I think, is Apple's longstanding feud with Adobe, which a lot of people find very tiresome.

However, the best place I know for getting a handle on things and finding ways to make what feels erratic into something predictable is the Computer Darkroom site. It has been invaluable for me over and over again. http://www.computer-darkroom.com/

[br1078lum]

Kinda ironic, don't you think?  Back in, what was it, '84 when Apple made their big splash with the advertisement (that ripped off the book and movie '1984') introduced during the Super Bowl, extoling how they were going to set you free in the computing world?  Now, if you don't want to do things Steve's way, you're just not going to do it.  He even looks like the talking head character that was on the screen in the ad!  My, how time changes people.

PF

[Graham Serretta]

Thanks for the input guys.  I'll let you know of any developments.......