Canon printing dark/dull on linux (mint)

milesoneill

Hello,

Recently installed linux mint on my laptop and am having a problem with dull prints.

I have a Canon ip4600 printer attached to the computer and tried to install the linux drivers from the canon site but it came up with discrepancy errors. No big worry, cos I found a suitable CUPS driver and it's happy to print.

But initially all the test pages were printing very dark, a blue-gray. I solved that problem, in the same manner as described here:http://www.codeunit.co.za/2010/06/29/dull-colors-when-printing-on-my-canon-ip4500-in-ubuntu/ Now the test page prints beautifully.

But when I try to print anything else it still comes up dull. Eg. I've been trying to print a photo from GIMP, and from Firefox but both print dark. I've installed print with Gutenberg and made sure all the settings in the print option are to CMYK, but everything is still dark.

Tried another test page - perfect!
Tried to print a webpage - dark.

Cannot figure out what's going on, any ideas?

Miles.

PS. Have also tried the printer hooked up to a laptop running XP and no problems with any of the printouts.

milesoneill

Ok, finally got to the bottom of this problem

Open Synaptic Package Manager
Use the quick search and locate "libcupsys2"
{My understanding is that this is a virtual printer driver library which can, in some cases, allow better transition to packages with new names - i.e. "libcupsys2" to "libcups"}
Install this package.
Go to Canon site and download linux driver(s).
Install Canon driver(s)
Plug in printer via USB.
Printer should get autorecognised.
{It's worth noting that in the properties box of the printer it is showing up as RGB despite it being a CMYK printer - this is no big issue, and I put it down to the virtual lirbary doing its stuff!!}
Print a test page and also print an image, just to dounle check the colours.

I've also got it running wirelessly through my Orange Livebox.
Add printer - netwrok printer - find network printer
Type in host location (usually 192.168.1.1)
It'll search and find the printer
Next you'll be asked to select the driver - be careful here.
My printer is a Pixma IP4600 but since doing all the above a new driver is also visible in the list, simply called IP4600. USE THIS ONE! {note: drivers are listed alphabetically, so don't go down to the Pixma area on the dropdown menu}
Finish adding the printer and away you go.!