New iP4200 less than I expected

[SonicIce]

Wow, this thing is fast. But whats up with the colors? My pictures look too noisy and the colors are way washed out compared to the screen. Noise reduction only helps a little. What am I doing wrong?

 

[13Gigatons]

What resolution are the pictures your Printing ?

Are you using Canon Software or another ?

What size printouts, 4x6, 5x7, 8x10 ?

 

[slpaulson]

Are you using Canon paper, and do you have the paper set right under printing preferences?

 

[SonicIce]

"Letter" is plain 8.5" x 11" white paper, right? I'm not using any special kind of paper, is there a certain kind I should buy? Is alot of ink wasted in High Quality mode? I'm not sure about the resolution, which is best? Can I shrink the picture to increase the detail?

Thanks for helping 🙂

 

[13Gigatons]

No wonder the pictures look bad, you need photopaper to get photo quality results. YOU CAN'T USE PLAIN PAPER AND EXPECT GOOD RESULTS.

1. Take pictures with the highest setting on your digital camera, some are 3.2, 4.1, 5 or even 8 megapixels. The more pixels the better usually. The Quality of the picture is important as well. Canon makes some very nice camera's as well. Good Example of a 4 megapixel picture

2. Use Canon Photo Glossy Plus or Photo Paper Pro = http://www.compusa.com/products/product...?N=200682+400753&Ne=400000&ref=froogle Comes in 4x6, 5x7 or 8.5x11 for various cost.

I prefer Photo Glossy Plus since it's affordable and the results are excellent. http://www.compusa.com/products/product...f=froogle&product_code=305558&pfp=cat3

3. Install Canon's Easy Photoprint, it came on the cd-rom that was included with the printer. It's a easy way for a new user to get excellent results.

 

[SonicIce]

Yikes, pricey. But about the resolution, could I shrink the image in photoshop and that would increase the dpi to make it smaller but more detailed? The printer did come with 5 sheets of 4x6 photo paper but the pictures on that are still washed out, I guess I have to bump up the contrast in photoshop before i print.

 

[SonicIce]

would it make a differance if it was HP brand paper? 😛 thats what my sister just bought

 

[jmagg]

I use Printasia glossy paper in my Canon IP3000 with excellent results. Very affordable.

 

[RKS]

Originally posted by: SonicIce
would it make a differance if it was HP brand paper? 😛 thats what my sister just bought

It did for me. HP paper for my Canon printer gave horrible results. I still have 48 4x6 sheets left. It was grainy and washed-out. Canon photo paper provided a large improvement.

 

[SonicIce]

Originally posted by: RKS

Originally posted by: SonicIce
would it make a differance if it was HP brand paper? 😛 thats what my sister just bought

It did for me. HP paper for my Canon printer gave horrible results. I still have 48 4x6 sheets left. It was grainy and washed-out. Canon photo paper provided a large improvement.

wow you are right, this HP paper is horrible. I thought my printer was broke until i tried the same image with one of the sample canon papers and it came out beautiful.

 

[13Gigatons]

Originally posted by: SonicIce
Yikes, pricey. But about the resolution, could I shrink the image in photoshop and that would increase the dpi to make it smaller but more detailed? The printer did come with 5 sheets of 4x6 photo paper but the pictures on that are still washed out, I guess I have to bump up the contrast in photoshop before i print.

Are you printing on the right side of the paper ?


Maybe you could take a scan of the picture ?


You can't increase the DPI, the only limitation is the megapixels of your digital camera. Printing a 4x6 with a 4 megapixels picture should look great. If your camera is cheap it might also lack the picture quality as well. Some of the cheap ones boast lots of pixels but ruin it by overcompressing the picture or having a bad lens.

 

[SonicIce]

I don't have a camera yet 😱 these are pics I find on the internet or people send me that they took.

Anyways, here I scanned 3 pictures that I printed. The top one is from "Canon Photo Paper Plus Glossy" and the bottom two are on "HP Every Day Photo Paper". I don't know why they two HP ones came out differant from eachother, I didn't change anything. I just printed it a second time. The Canon one looks stunning but the HP ones have ink blotches and lines through them.

 

[SonicIce]

dunno why the HP ones are so crappy

 

[13Gigatons]

The Canon ones look ok from what I can tell. Did you print on the right side though, the back should say Canon Paper ?

 

[SonicIce]

Originally posted by: 13Gigatons
The Canon ones look ok from what I can tell. Did you print on the right side though, the back should say Canon Paper ?

The canon one looks fine. I guess that cheap HP paper really is crappy. yes i printed on the right side :disgust: