[ColourPhil]

Prints appearing 'Dark' is a recurring theme on almost all photo forums.
Most monitors are way too bright and are probably set up for gaming or videos, which are quite different to prints!
You can't 'calibrate' a printer to match a monitor, but you can, and should, calibrate your monitor to match your printer.
You should do this while viewing a 'Standard' image that you've printed with no adjustment. Do a search for one.
Photoshop and LR both have excellent 'soft proofing' which can match a well-calibrated monitor very well, especially if 'Paper Color' is checked. If you don't use soft proofing you're most likely viewing how the image looks in sRGB or ARGB colour space, which is very different from your printer.
Some references:
Why My Prints Appear Too Dark, Or Is It My Display?
Photoshop Soft Proofing & Viewing Images
Hope this helps,
Phil

[Bengan]

Have a look att these links.

Canon : PIXMA Manuals : iX6800 series : Adjusting Brightness

Canon : PIXMA Manuals : iX6800 series : Adjusting Color Balance

[house]

The dots the printer spray tend to grow as they soak into the paper. If your paper is unknown to the printer , or the printer fails to take this dot gain into account for other reasons, the print will look dark.

The print will have more dark ink surface than expected due to this soaking up of ink.

[Sidney Porter]

Thanks for the advice and links. I am probably in the "good enough" range comparable / better than the do it yourself stations at kinkos, FedEx, Wal Mart etc. As I print more I will continue to tweak the settings.

I like to periodically replace my printed photos so having the ability at home makes it nice