Canon printer too fond of black

[Tommy Trussell]

On Wed, Jan 26, 2011 at 2:18 PM, Leo Noordhuizen
<leo.noordhuizen at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
> Im using a Canon Pixma Ip4500 printer on Ubuntu 10.10 and the
> color-reproduction is disastrous.
> It seems that its using way too much black in printing everything, and
> everythings comes out very dark or black.
> As a consequence the 'liquid gold' (that expensive printer ink) is
> disappearing much faster as when using that other Operating System.
> I am using the standard "Canon PIXMA iP4500 - CUPS+Gutenprint v5.2.6"
> printer drivers.
> I did have a look at the Canon website, but the drivers they have are from
> 2007.
> Any suggestions ?
> Thank,
> Leo Noordhuizen - Netherlands

A few years ago Canon didn't support linux well at all, and the
open-source drivers were not often very good because Canon wouldn't
release the information needed to support their products. I hope that
has changed, though I don't have a Canon printer anymore.

There IS a commercial driver called TurboPrint
http://www.turboprint.info/ -- I used to use it very successfully with
an old wide-carriage Canon printer, until the printer finally died.
TurboPrint worked MUCH better than the Gutenprint drivers, and last I
looked you can try TurboPrint for free. If you want to use it at full
color and resolution you will want pay the reasonable price they
charge (to remove the watermark).

Check the support information and give it a try...