Newb silly question PSE5 & Canon Selphy ES1

[GeoffT]

As a newb user of PSE5 (previously PSP) I have been trying to find the driver for my new Canon Selphy ES1 (little Dye Sub printer) in my options in Print. However, none of the printer drivers appear to be for ES1 as far as I can tell.

I use XP and am trying to set up a work flow for printing but - but - I have lots of printer drivers in the drop down in PSE5 - Print - more- drop down, but none seem to be the one for Canon Selphy ES1. The printer works with all the printer drivers that are there. But of course there are variations in the printed output in colour and B&W. I would just like to know what the supposed correct printer driver for the Canon ES1 is called.

I have emailed Canon and they said may get back to me in a few days!!

I have searched all the forums here and found nothing that seems to help. Forgive me for starting a new thread.

Would someone - who knows what I am rabbiting on about - please help!

Thanks in anticipation of a reply,

Geoff (old frt)

[genevh]

I think what you are seeing aren't printer drivers, but printer profiles for the various printers that show up in that drop-down. As long as you can choose your printer to do the printing, you will be OK. Those profiles are tailored to give PSE more control over the printing process for that particular printer. Think of them as "custom" setups for the printer.

In most cases, though, to get the best results, you will most likely want to tell the printer to use the color management from PSE itself and not let the printer decide for you. But then, this sometimes requires some experimentation to get it completely right.

And believe me, this is not a silly question as there has been a lot of discussion on the forums regarding color control in your work flow. Getting the colors to match up in your printing from what you see on the monitor can be challenging.

Welcome to the forums!!

[TonyW]

Geoff: Hi there and welcome to the forum. I think you might be looking in the wrong place. If you are trying to find it in Printer Profiles then you likely won't find it as I doubt that that printer has a printer profile. Just go to the top of the list and choose Printer Color Management. If you want to get at the driver you go Print>Page Set Up>Printer>Pick your printer in the name box if there's more than one and click on Properties. That should get you into the driver to change things.

And don't worry about rabbiting on - there are quite a few old frts that hang around here including me :D

Tony

[GeoffT]

Gene and Tony,

Thank you for the very prompt replies. I have done as you have both suggested and yes - I found the Printer Colour Management. Actually I had found it, in retrospect and had been in careful in labelling the test prints. However, I thought it was a generic term - (as it is) - and that is what I have ended up with.

However, as you said there is a lot about Colour Management - I have read the thread started by Marie (I think) - last year and found that it was very informative. I am trying to enable the PSE5 colour control dialogue and disable the Printer Color Management, but to no avail on the ES1. There are no options on the Page set up - printer properties - to disable the printer drivers and use PSE5 options.

Looks like the dye sub printers are bit unfriendly to having the printer colour control turned off.


Thanks to both of you,

Geoff

[GeoffT]

Just had a BGOTO - realised that I can set the parameters of the proflle to "same as source", in Printer profile. That should (maybe) change the control to PSE5 - but as I can't disable the preferences in the printer under page set up perhaps I am only halfway there.

I must admit that the output in terms of prints are very similar.

But again thank you for pointing out that there is a difference between profiles and printer drivers - silly me!

Geoff

[genevh]

Not being familiar with your printer, I wouldn't know exactly what to tell you here in regards to setting up your printer preferences. Some allow you to turn off its color management and use the ICC profile, which would then come from PSE assuming you set printer color management to same as source in the PSE printer page.

And on my printer, an Epson R220, when I set it to use the profile supplied by PSE5, I found it printed too dark. So I had to dial up the brightness setting in the printer preferences until I got it to where I wanted it.

And the only silly question is the one that doesn't get asked! So, after that, I am going to admit you got me with your BGOTO. What the heck does that mean? Never heard that one before. :confused:

[GeoffT]

BGOTO - Blinding Glimpse Of The Obvious; as you can see from what I realised. Have been fiddling furiously - not yet happy - will have to spyder the screen in due course and I have just loaded MS Color Control Panel Applet for XP.

As yet I cannot see any differnce in results or in the screen.

Geoff

[genevh]

BGOTO - obviously! I should have known. :)

OK...went to Canon's website and took a look at your printer's manual and the settings for that printer's color controls are done right on the printer via the Menu button on the printer. The settings you will want to change are Auto Optimize - set it to OFF, and My Colors - also set to OFF. This will turn off all the printer's photo enhancing capabilities, and force it to print just using PSE's settings. This would be where you would want to start from, and then tweak from there as necessary. Unless you've already done this...... :D

Calibrating the monitor also would be very helpful.

Hope this helps.

[TonyW]

Just a word of caution. I'm not familiar with dye-sub printers like that but unless you have specific printer/paper profiles (and I doubt they exist for that printer) then you can get into trouble by using anything other than Printer Colour Management or Same as Source as the Printer Profile. If you turn off color management in the printer then PSE5 has to have a printer profile that matches the printer and paper you are using and you don't. You may or may not see a difference between Same as Source and Printer Color Management. The difference is that one sends the embedded profile (probably sRGB or AdobeRGB) to the printer and one doesn't. I don't know if that printer does anything with an embedded profile. Again I'm guessing but if it does I'm sure that it will prefer sRGB.

I guess the other question is what aren't you happy about with the results your getting?

Tony

[GeoffT]

Gene and Tony,

Thanks for your continued support. I just have to try what Gene suggested and see what happens. (Been out of commission for a day - getting car serviced and all).

If I st**f the printer then maybe I'll have to get an Epson 2400 (like I wanted in the first place). Just thought it would be nice to have happy snaps of dye sub in the photo album.

Will let you what happens.