Canon IR3100C - Trouble printing greens & cyans.

**20YRSEXP** · 06-08-2010, 04:02 PM

Hi Penelope, I hope your 3100 has been treating you well. It is tough to troubleshoot color over the internet even if you sent pictures due to so many factors such as lighting, display and perception. First I want to ask if you were ever able to print these colors the way you wanted? And if the answer is no or you have never tried them it may just be a limitation of the machine. This is were the 3220 ( I think that's the other machine you were looking at ) would come in handy, far truer colors. The 3100 is only what is called "business color" it does ok, but when you start getting picky between red and maroon or say how yellow a gold should be there can come up some diferences of opinion. Now if you have done these colors before or they are waaaay out it could also be a maintenance issue. If it is a setting issue I am afraid I am not much help there. good luck.

**20YRSEXP** · 06-08-2010, 05:08 PM

I just noticed you are looking for a Cyan cartridge. You are having trouble printing cyan and green? hhmmmmm if I remember correctly Cyan is required to print both of those colors.

**Penelope Wakeham** · 06-08-2010, 06:27 PM

Canon IR3100C - Trouble printing greens & cyans.

[QUOTE= were ever able to print these colors the way you wanted? [/QUOTE]

Hi, Good to hear from you. Yes I have printed cyans reasonably ok. I usually have to fiddle with them before I get anything like near. Green is prooving more troublesome though. As you noticed all my trials have used up my cyan and now I need a new cartridge. I don't think it was that - maybe running low for a while?.
You may be right and it is the limitations of the 3100. I will order a new toner cartridge tomorrow and then continue with my trials.

I'm sure it is making up colours but I can't seem to see how to influence its choices.
Regards, Penelope

**alex@wocltd.com** · 06-08-2010, 08:51 PM

have you run a full autograd?
also do you have the ufr or ps driver/option as using pcl to print graphics is a) gonna make the file massive b) pcl by it's nature is font driven i.e text whereas ps(post script) is far superior to render graphics & colour - although very subjective to the beholder(colour always is as comparing an rgb monitor to a physical cmyk output is pointless just hold a piece of white paper up against your monitor with white as the background colour)

**collme** · 06-08-2010, 10:22 PM

you say "large areas of vivid colours" this is a smart colour machine which means you need to think of it as a black and white printer with small colour coverage.you need a canon clc version ie clc3220 if your wanting to use it as a main printer for large areas of colour. the ir range was not built to do what you are asking from it i am afraid.

**mrfixit51** · 06-09-2010, 02:22 PM

To add to the conversation here,,, both the 3100 and the 3200 series are considered to be "business color" which means they will give you a reasonable approximation of the colors you are trying to produce. The 3100s are a color enabled black and white copier, whereas the 3200s are a true color box that have a far better chance of keeping up with the toner demands of your "large areas of vivid colours" printing. As was pointed out, be sure to run auto gradation "full" on your copier often.

**Penelope Wakeham** · 06-09-2010, 06:02 PM

Thanks for your comments Alex and Collme. I am aware of the limitations of the IR3100 but as an impoverished artist I was dead chuffed to get it. This is what I have and quite honestly it works very well. Apart from this problem with greens.
As 20yrsexp says, it is more a matter of the inconsistency with what can be done with other colours. I have been able to print full page, A3, images that match my screen very well. Reds, dark blues, yellows can be a bit acidic. Cyans I can also handle with some fiddling with lightness and saturation. But greens are causing me grief!
Yes, Alex & Mrfixit, I've run a full gradation and do so regularly.
So I shall persevere will my greens until I sell enough work to afford a better machine. That won't be any day soon then!

Regards and thanks, Penelope

**Tricky** · 06-09-2010, 07:58 PM

Originally posted by Penelope Wakeham

I'm sure it is making up colours but I can't seem to see how to influence its choices.
Regards, Penelope

It does make up colours but there's nothing (as far as I know) you can do about it. Take a look at this test chart

test chart..pdf

Notice the grey bands at the sides, well if one takes a colour copy of the chart the machine uses all four colours to reproduce the grey! yes I know it sounds daft.

I remember being told on a training course that the colour photocopiers were weakest at is green.

**Herrmann** · 06-09-2010, 09:37 PM

I remember being told on a training course that the colour photocopiers were weakest at is green.

Except nearly all ricoh business models, they produce nearly perfect green, but have problems with blue tones, there is always magenta shining through

**collme** · 06-09-2010, 09:48 PM

to be honest, is there any make of machine that is perfect? mrfixit if my memory serves me right, the 3200 had both irc and clc versions with the clc being better for heavy colour and irc being beter as a medium colour coverage machine.

**SCREWTAPE** · 06-09-2010, 09:58 PM

Developer play's a big role in why color are off.
Developers are good for 40K, based on a coverage of 5% ratio on a LTR sheet.

You can tweak up your color balance in service mode.
But this should be done by a technician.

Most likely your developers need to be replaced. That would be. Cyan,Magenta,Yellow.

**Herrmann** · 06-09-2010, 10:02 PM

at the canon side, you can distinguish between the irc (business) and the clc (real color maschines). The main difference is, that the clc series has a fiery rip attached which makes real color management foremost possible.

**mrfixit51** · 06-09-2010, 10:09 PM

Originally posted by collme

to be honest, is there any make of machine that is perfect? mrfixit if my memory serves me right, the 3200 had both irc and clc versions with the clc being better for heavy colour and irc being beter as a medium colour coverage machine.

To the best of my knowledge, (pretty weak some days

), they are the same machine. I have never seen a CLC3220. Different model numbers are used throughout the different regions of the world, and I believe that the CLC3220 is the same machine as the iRC3220, just different regions. For me a true CLC takes me back to the real deal, like the CLC1180, which is a full on color copier, not "business color". CLC's are much better at producing a wider, more accurate gamut of colors, they also required a fair amount of service to maintain them...

There is no such thing as the perfect machine, at least nothing ever built by man...

**Penelope Wakeham** · 06-10-2010, 12:13 PM

Skynet - Cool test card (what is she wearing?) I shall run it through the machine as soon as I get the new toner - see how it handles it.
No it doesn't seem daft at all. How the pigment is mixed to create colours is not that different from mixing colours on a palate. Additive and subtractive colours and all that stuff.
Interesting what you say about photocopiers and green.

Herrmann - Also interesting what you say about Richoh. Looks like it is either one or the other!

Incidentally, while I have your attention. How do I get it to say 'Artist' after my name instead of 'Technician' which I am not?
Thanks all, Penelope

Canon IR3100C - Trouble printing greens & cyans.

Canon IR3100C - Trouble printing greens & cyans.

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