CUPS settings for best color reproduction are gone - how to recover?

[Jaqueline]

I have set up my brand new Canon Maxify GX4050 inkjet printer in CUPS in driverless version. This printer has default settings in color reproduction which will replace colors very hard, when ink coverage will exceed relatively high values.
In CUPS I found (translated from German)
Administration → printer options → default settings for Canon_GX4000 series
and I was very surprised about the amount of settings available to optimize color reproduction. Especially of interest for me are the settings about GCR (Gray Color Replacement). By this setting, I could hopefully make corrections to reduce the strong GCR default setting of the printer.

But at the time of installation of the Canon Maxify, I had no time for this optimization and I wanted to do this later. Actually I tried to get back to these settings again. But I could not access these settings anywhere! I tried hard, but I could not access these settings again, as you may see from the first screenshot below

But I was lucky, having taken some screenshots of the large amount of settings available, for example:

I hope, someone can explain, how I can access these settings again. Thank you.

[Teo]

Do i understand correctly it is the same printer but installed on a new machine (or after reinstalling the os)?
In my experience those available options are defined in the printer .ppd file. And if you just click install new printer in the print manager and let it autodetect on the network, it pulls some ppd from the online database. In my case i found that deep in the manufacturer website there was a driver with a lot more options. I actually extracted the provided debian installer and took only the .ppd file from it since it is all you need, i generally do not recommend running oem installers since they are not for arch/manjaro and may break things.

Pretty sure this is what happened with you. You just have to find the better “driver” .ppd file and put it in the right system folder (i have to check where) and restart.

[Jaqueline]

No, your assumption is not meeting my reality.

It is a well working desktop PC and I have installed my new color printer on it using CUPS and no proprietary driver from Canon or any PPD file. I simply have chosen “driverless” version for GX4000 series printers.

Immediately after having it installed successfully and having closed CUPS already, I did some successful printing on that printer. But I saw, that the driver would apply too much GCR and thus any darker parts of a picture will get too dark and too much very dark grey, replacing the colors.

I went back in CUPS and then to my surprise I discovered all these nice settings available. It was sheer overwhelming and I had not the time, to try it.

Actually I have the time but it seems, that I cannot access these settings anymore. Very strange.

Yes, I have downloaded a debian driver for the Canon printer and unzipped the package. There was a PPD file in it. But til now, I have not used it. – But why should I use it, when I have seen already the settings, I want to use now???

[musdus]

Hi @Jaqueline

Those settings were not CUPS options. They came from a temporary Canon IPP setup web page that is only shown during the initial driverless (IPP) printer installation.

Reinstalling will show the webui again.

[Jaqueline]

Oh thank you for your answer. This makes sense! It seems, those settings were available as long, as the CUPS server was “open” by user name and password immediately after the driver installation.
After restart of the PC, it was gone.

Even if I would reinstall this printer again, to get access to these settings, this would be no solution for me, as I cannot know in advance, which GCR settings will result in the color correction, I want. These settings would need an iteration process for optimization.

Do you think, that I could install the printer again by using the PPD file and then optimize color reproduction by doing some modifications in the printer PPD file? Or is the PPD file used by CUPS to assemble some binaries, which would then not be updated, when the original PPD file would be altered?

If nothing of those ideas would help, I will have to install Argyl colormanagement. I am lucky to be owner of a spectral color measure device, the iOne from GRETAG.

[musdus]

@Jaqueline

If nothing of those ideas would help, I will have to install Argyl colormanagement.

Probably yes — using ArgyllCMS is a good way to get repeatable, precise color control.

[Jaqueline]

I just found, that in the Canon printer driver package for debian a ppd file is contained. The content of this PPD is not compliant to usual PPD files. It contains two parts which describe the color reproduction in conjunction with the different paper quality, which is listed also in the PPD. These color reproduction parts are encrypted.
Even the listed paper qualities are not helpful as many of these are not representing market brands or even they do represent Canon’s own papers!

When I check for Argyl, I had to learn, that there is no GUI in an up-to-date status available! For Display calibration, you can get displaycal but its latest release is from 2019, although it is still available in official repo and the package is dated as uploaded on January 14 2026.

The more universal GUI (profiling displays, printers and cameras) is The Little Argyl GUI, but this is even more outdated. Even the KI warns, that there could be incompatibilities with recent Linux releases although it is a standalone solution, which has not to be compiled.

My last interest on color management solutions for Linux dates from 2018 and I wonder, that since this time, there is even less engagement than in these years! There is only Argyl-CMS itself, which is nearly up to date: On Argyl’s website, there is release 3.4.1 from August 2025 while in the extra repo we get 3.3.0 dated at september 2024.

At this point, I have to decide, whether to tweak around by re-installing the printer in CUPS and then tweaking the color reproduction and in result, I have optimized it for one paper quality only.

Or whether I am going to use Argyl and have to invest long hours, until I get a solid ICC-based workflow over all devices. And this is not the end: I will have to find printer drivers and scanner drivers which are implementing ICC workflow.

KI did not find any other GUI for Argyl. Does anybody know more?

[jrichard326]

It might not be able to be set to default, but can’t you achieve what you want through the System (Print) Dialog? This is for a Brother printer. I am not sure how it would look on a Canon printer.

[Teo]

Those options are only there if supported by the driver (ppd)

[musdus]

@Jaqueline

Does anybody know more?

The only alternative I found is displaycal.

[Jaqueline]

@musdus DisplayCal is for calibrating displays only.

@jrichard326 I have already had a look at these settings for my Canon printer. Those don’t have these settings. But it is remarkable, that Brother offers those very detailed settings!

I have proceeded my search in the web and finally I have to accept, that there are only the following CMS solutions:

1.) Argyl-CMS is the base for all, but has no GUI; operation by CLI only.

2.) The Little Argyl CMS by https://www.russellcottrell.com/ which will offer a GUI for the three device classes display scanner and printer. Although it seems to be outdated, it is based on GTK3 and might be compatible with all Linux editions.
As it works as a stand alone solution just like a script, it is worth to try it. It seems, the only reason, that it is not contained in the repos, is the license condition and the fact,that the user should pay at least 5 $.

3.) DisplayCal which is for display calibration / profilation only. This is available in the official repos extra and as flatpak. It is not only a GUI for Argyl-CMS but it also reclaims to offer some improvements in accuracy.

Concerning 2 and 3: Even if the last updates for these programs are old, that will not indicate, that these programs are not stable or even dangerous concerning safety.

I believe, there is another problem with printers and CUPS, when printing from programs, which are not able to use colormanagement:
As far as I have understood CUPS, I have to install the printer either as “raw” so that it ignores any PPD file or to install with “gutenprint” because only by this it is possible, to connect the installation with an ICC-profile file.
By this, it is not possible, to select another ICC profile, depending from different paper. I will have to install the same printer with different ICC profiles - for each paper one printer installation. grrrrrrr

Any program with colormanagement (like GIMP, Krita, Scribus etc.) will work together with a printer, installed without an ICC-profile in CUPS. But I don’t know, which kind of printer driver I should select, installing in CUPS: It could be “gutenprint” or “gutenprint simplified” or “driverless”. – Actually I have installed “driverless”. There is no “RAW” driver.

What would you choose in my case?

[jrichard326]

Have you tried the drivers that are in the AUR?

AUR (en) - cnijfilter2

AUR (en) - scangearmp2

[Jaqueline]

@jrichard326 Sorry, no I have not.
But now I have…
The scanner program is ridiculous simple, allowing only jpg and pdf as output file. My other scan programs do a better job.

After installing the cnijfilter2 and then starting CUPS, I let CUPS seek for new printers. The result is confusing me. I have simply chosen one of these and then I saw, that I have several options, which driver to choose. I have chosen the 6.05 version, as it seems, it could be the latest one.

After this, I had not the rich choice of color settings, as in the driverlesss version and there was no way to insert a ICC profile.
Then I did a test print. The print dialog was as before and no ICC profile could be chosen.

The resulting color reproduction was just as before with the driverless version.

I do not recognize any advantage from installing this cnij… driver.

[jrichard326]

Maybe to just see if the AUR driver works just connect via USB and test?

[Jaqueline]

The print was OK and it shows me, that the result was not dependent from the USB or WLAN-connection.
In between I have added another version for the GX4050 by using the PPD file, which came together with the installation of cnijfilter2. When trying to print, I got the error message:
printer Canon_GX4000_series_PPD cups-pki-invalid.

The PPD of the cnijfilter2 is located in /usr/share/cups/model/canongx4000.ppd
The PPD of the CUPS integrated PPD is located in /usr/share/cups/model/gutenprint/5.3/Global/stp-bjc-MAXIFY-iB4050.5.3.sim.ppd.gz. As I cannot find an extracted version of this file, it seems, that it is unused til now.

I just have found the CUPS+Gutenprint driver and changed the printer. Then I get the message “credentials are invalid”

That is really strange!

[Jaqueline]

After doing some further experiments with the printer and having installed Argyl CMS, I wanted to print linearization and calibration charts. But these make sense only, if I can print these charts without any profiling in the printer driver.
The best working printer driver is still the CUPS driverless for Maxify GX4000 series. But it already does contain a color correction and strong GCR, which I do not want. If I would try any profiling based on this driver, the result can only be less than this already limited reproduction.

I have attached a linearization chart which came from basICColor, printed and then scanned. The result seems to be impressive: Each color and black are very well linearized / well balanced.

But when I print a TC9.18-RGB chart, which comes from Xrite, the problems with big TAC and GCR are clearly visible. Not only the GCR is too hard but also the color balance drifts off in the dark colors.

I have not found any advice to this question in the Argyl documentation or in russellcottrell.com Little Argyl-CMS documentation.

What can I do or which printer driver should I use to print out my charts? Does anybody have some experience with this?

[Jaqueline]

I just got a hint from a friend, who is working in a print factory. He told me, that at home he had switched back to Windows, because until now, Linux has no professional color workflow integrated.
Actual the only way is to use DisplayCAL for profiling the display and buying a license for TurboPrint, when profiling a color printer.

He advised me, after installation of TurboPrint (full functional 30 days test version) and connecting to the printer, I should first create a basic setting for my preferred paper and print quality. After that, I could print any testchart with these basic settings and then measure / profile it by a spectro-photometer like 1one-pro etc.
Then I could generate the ICC profile by ArgylCMS and bind it to the basic paper settings in TurboPrint. After that, I have a printer driver, which is created by TurboPrint and not by Canon or by CUPS driverless. But CUPS will be used as print server only, managing then TurboPrint printer.

As TurboPrint is available in AUR, I have installed it from there. But this seems to be a mistake, because this is not the latest release and also it immediately starts, as if the 30 days test were already passed! Further the print daemon (systemd) is not running and cannot be started.

Til now, I can see, that I am on the right way. But I should install the TurboPrint software by downloading it from their website. And before that, I should carefully remove all installation residuals from the AUR version.

I will keep you informed here. But if someone wants to give me some hints, which will help me to get the task done more easily, I would be happy about!

Edit: It seems, that I am not asking here but writing down my experiences, how I manage to get color right in my printer.

I found, that the TurboPrint version from AUR is faulty and further it is clearly an outdated version of TurboPrint. While installation it fetches the version 2.44 from TurboPrint servers. And you cannot test all the features, because after installation, you are in a demo version and not in a fully functional 30 days test version.

The only usable, understandable and realtively short explanation, how you can install and use TurboPrint and then ArgyCMS in order to get to your ICC file for your printer, can be found on the website of https://www.russellcottrell.com.

Actually I have printed successfully my profiling charts and will measure it. Everything seems to work now.
When I have enough experiences with all this, I will publish a tutorial here.

[Jaqueline]

I have experienced a new problem concerning ICC-profiles, generated by Argyl.CMS and I will discuss this in a separate thread here.