Andrew Mcvinnie

Q: Canon printer drivers in Sierra

Hey Guys,

 

Just reporting issues with the Canon Pixma printer line. Since upgrading to Sierra, PNG files with transparent backgrounds are printing with issues. They are usually stretched and appear to have a weird mask spread across them. Sometimes, the printer queue just errors out and doesn't print the PNG at all. I have tested this with multiple PNGs and Multiple computers. Sierra Macs printing to my Canon inkjet all print with this PNG problem. Same computers printing the same PNGs to HP or Epson printers work fine. So far, the Canons print TIFFs and PSDs just fine.

 

I am pretty confident this is a Canon printer driver issue.

Posted on Sep 22, 2016 12:54 PM

Close

Q: Canon printer drivers in Sierra

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

Previous Page 2
  • by Andrew Mcvinnie,

    Andrew Mcvinnie Andrew Mcvinnie Oct 5, 2016 9:12 AM in response to gaginker
    Level 1 (37 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 5, 2016 9:12 AM in response to gaginker

    Hi Nick,

     

    At the moment, using the printer driver "AirPrint" works for me. You can tell it does weird things with the color usage, but it does work. As for Canon drivers, I'm sure they will have them updated soon. Though they do post them on their website, they also give them to Apple to bundle with the OS, so I would expect to see them in the next .x release at least. Just seems like the recent Sierra update caught them with their pants down.

     

    For now, AirPrint driver gets the job done.

  • by gaginker,

    gaginker gaginker Oct 5, 2016 10:58 AM in response to Andrew Mcvinnie
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 5, 2016 10:58 AM in response to Andrew Mcvinnie

    Thanks Andrew. Hurry up and wait seems to be the watchword.

  • by gaginker,

    gaginker gaginker Oct 5, 2016 10:59 AM in response to Carolyn Samit
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 5, 2016 10:59 AM in response to Carolyn Samit

    Thanks Caro. Tried that, but no luck.

  • by amcpamcp,

    amcpamcp amcpamcp Oct 6, 2016 6:15 PM in response to Andrew Mcvinnie
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 6, 2016 6:15 PM in response to Andrew Mcvinnie

    I spent all day trying to fix this issue. I want to print printable CD for clients - which was easy and fast in the past. Is there a way around this problem so that I can print the cds?

  • by Andrew Mcvinnie,

    Andrew Mcvinnie Andrew Mcvinnie Oct 6, 2016 6:43 PM in response to amcpamcp
    Level 1 (37 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 6, 2016 6:43 PM in response to amcpamcp

    Yes, there is a work around.

     

    Go to the System Preferences > Printers

     

    Delete the Canon printer

     

    Press the + to add a new printer.

     

    Select your printer and when it defaults to the canon driver, change the popup to say "AirPrint"

     

    This will make it print correctly.

  • by SiHancox,

    SiHancox SiHancox Oct 7, 2016 1:10 AM in response to Andrew Mcvinnie
    Level 2 (248 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 7, 2016 1:10 AM in response to Andrew Mcvinnie

    Unfortunately if I select the "AirPrint" option it does not then give the options for "Print to disc" in the print dialogue - it's the reason I had to install Canon specific drivers and not rely on Apple's preinstalled in the first case.

     

    Not sure if that is just for my MG7150 or applicable to all of Canon's printers, anyhow, the long and short is that using Apple's supplied drivers appears to give you less functionality.

     

    The only work around I've found that still allows me to use the Canon driver is to export the image as a TIFF without the "Alpha" box being ticked (using Preview's "Export..." menu). Employing a program such as "Disc Cover 3 RE" then allows the modified image to be selected and printing to disc seems to be successful.

     

    One observation, from reading Canon's work around it also mentions not ticking the Alpha box when exporting to TIFF, but this "Alpha" option only seems to appear if you apply some form of image processing (Sharpen, Auto Levels for example) - if you don't process the image and export to TIFF the Alpha box seems to be missing (all you get is Format and Compression).

     

    Just a thought, but could this "Alpha" tag be behind the "Filter failed" issue and if it's not present all is ok?

  • by gaginker,

    gaginker gaginker Oct 7, 2016 5:21 AM in response to SiHancox
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 7, 2016 5:21 AM in response to SiHancox

    You've clearly done research into this glitch, SiH, and I hope we can all get software from Canon really soon.  Need both printing and scanning capability.

  • by SiHancox,

    SiHancox SiHancox Oct 7, 2016 6:40 AM in response to gaginker
    Level 2 (248 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 7, 2016 6:40 AM in response to gaginker

    With respect to printing the current Canon driver (for El Capitan - CUPS v11.7.1.0) if I make sure either the "Alpha" tick box is not present or not selected when exporting file as TIFF seems to work. The scanner has always worked fine, and that is what I would expect considering the "new" ICA driver posted by Canon for Sierra appears to be the same version as for El Capitan (ICA v4.1.3). You might want to try reinstalling that driver to see if it gets things working again (note that the scan driver is separate to the print driver so both need installing).

     

    Regarding how long we will have to wait for Canon to update the print drivers, below is a response to an email I sent yesterday:

     

    Screen Shot 2016-10-07 at 14.14.32.png

  • by gaginker,

    gaginker gaginker Oct 7, 2016 6:44 AM in response to SiHancox
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 7, 2016 6:44 AM in response to SiHancox

    Thanks again. I did try that ICA download, but for some reason , although appearing to install, it failed to appear in my HD. Will try it again.

     

    Thanks for your interest, sir.

  • by CaptainStu,

    CaptainStu CaptainStu Oct 7, 2016 6:52 AM in response to SiHancox
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Oct 7, 2016 6:52 AM in response to SiHancox

    There appears to be an additional problem beyond "filter failure".  When printing a WORD file with embedded JPEG graphics (thus a CGI file), printing fails during the CGITORASTER conversion.  I have the dump if that helps.

     

    According to Apple, Canon knew of this failure 6 months ago when the Sierra bata was released to them. I guess Mac customers remain second class to Canon.

  • by SiHancox,

    SiHancox SiHancox Oct 7, 2016 7:26 AM in response to CaptainStu
    Level 2 (248 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 7, 2016 7:26 AM in response to CaptainStu

    John has also said he believes more than one issue exists with respect to the Canon drivers, although thankfully I've not come across them yet!- not sure what you can do regarding embedded JPEG Word doc printing other than try converting the image file to another format (if that's possible) and ensure if the Alpha box is present it is not selected before embedding in the doc - but this is just a wild guess.

     

    Screen Shot 2016-10-07 at 15.08.49.png

     

    The "Alpha" box only seems to appear after the image is processed, for example apply auto levels and save the JPEG file. When you reopen and select export it appears as above - if the image is unprocessed and you just select export straight away no box is present so I assume no "Alpha" content is available, I believe that is why I can print unprocessed JPEG files without seeing the Filter failed error.

     

    But, as said above, it's all guess work - but others might be able to make some use of what I've found out with my setup.

Previous Page 2