First, go through the printer cleaning/realignment routines in the software
driver.
The Spyder is now less than $100. Part of its software setup routine will
help you bring your monitor, providing it is a CRT and has the needed
controls (most do), into a more neutral state in terms of color temperature,
brightness and contrast. Because you are used to what you see on your
monitor you may not realize what you are seeing.
However the monitor profile that is generated is of value only if you are
implementing color management in a photoprogram that supports it, like the
Adobes, PSP and Photopaint.
Even in these programs color management is not automatic and must be
manually implemented. There are a lot of sites on the internet and books
that can walk you through the basics but color management takes a while to
master. Color management eases the process of matching monitor to print but
is not 100% effective and because of differences in printer/monitor color
gamuts and paper surface reflectivity your experience and preferences are a
major part of the process.
Printer manufacturers implement color management differently in their
drivers. Epson is by far the best, easiest to use and most reliable for
formal color management in my experience. It has been my experience that if
you want to learn color management start with Epson printers.
Lastly, alas, you have a Canon printer. Canon printers are technically
capable of excellent picturemaking but are saddled with atrocious drivers
for color management and a limited choice of Canon paper surfaces with
profiles for those papers built into the printer driver. I have an i960 that
I mainly use for spitting out snapshot size prints. It is my opinion that
color management as implemented by Canon in the drivers for this series of
printers is unreliable and somewhat cripples these machines: Canon has two
methods for color managed printing, neither of which is very reliable.The
basic settings do not produce consistently predictable results and require
significant tweaking. However if you work your way through the color
management processes with Canon printers and see what works and what does
not you will get quite an education.
