B&W on Canon Printers

[Digital10d]

I am sorry but I have no access to an IX4000. My next avenue is the 6 color photo printer and then finally the 8 color Pro9000. Why? because they are all CLI-8 tanks. Conversion to B&W is easy on the Canon because just changing the tanks and rinsing the head under the sink and one or two head cleans is all that is required. No permanent changes are made.

The IX4000 also has the same carts CLI-8. The reviews I have read say its a good printer but for colour output the missing black makes a big difference. I would not consider this printer for colour because of this BUT as a 3 channel B&W printer it might well make a lot of sense. The big question is can YMC only make a good B&W or is the extra K cart really required. I wish there was a way of switching off the K cart in my IP4700 to try.

Mikling you know your inks is it possible for your B&W YMC inks to produce the same Dmax as KYMC or would the 3 ink set have to be reformulated. I am guessing that 3 inks would be sufficient for a smooth greyscale, maybe you could comment on this.

 

[The Hat]

For straight forward colour photos and black & white text printing it is indeed a great printer.
But ix4000 has four colours and can match anything printed on ip4700 for quality..

 

[martin0reg]

@digital10d
for testing a pixma IP3000 (or later c-m-y A4 models) would help. It is much cheaper than ix4000 on ebay.

 

[mikling]

Here is my experience with an MX700 using vs an iP4500 side by side using the same carts. I am going to go from this experience to comment.
Using the same color inks and paper and using the standard driver, there is a night and day difference between the 4500 and MX700. Even when you try and profile the MX700, strange things happen. It feels as if the printer is fighting the profile for some reason. The MX700 (CMY) models appear to be programmed to DECREASE contrast as well as brighten the image at the same time. Odd. But side by side I concluded , it would make little sense to try and tame the MX700. So my conclusion fully agrees with comment that it is a great little printer but do not think for a moment it is a "photo" printer contrary to Canon's claims.

Let me explain further. When generating the color patches for measurement in creating profiles, certain ink colors are used. Black is not used very much so there are a lot of colors that are generated without black. When comparing the colors that don't use black side by side, Logic would say that using the same inks and paper, they should be the same. Right? They are however not the same. On the MX700, the colors are way off as compared to the 4500. This immediately tells me that something is amiss and Canon does NOT want them to be close for some reason. So I doubt the CMY would be good.

Based on this I have doubts on the success but indeed someone with an iP3000-3500 may well try and see if it does work. We might be suprised.

You cannot try this on a CMYK model as the printer RIP is programmed to use all 4 colors.

 

[ghwellsjr]

Ilford Galerie CLASSIC is likely the most widely available as every Ilford Dealer probably has it. The next current one is HP Premium Plus.

Thanks for the info. Now I have a few questions:

The HP paper comes in High Gloss and Soft Gloss. Any reason to favor one over the other?

The Ilford paper comes in Gloss and Pearl. Is that just another name for High Gloss and Soft Gloss?

Ilford has a .pdf that warns "As with all nanoporous coated media, when used with dye based inks, a certain amount of fading can be seen after a short period of time." I was planning on doing some fade tests with different kinds of papers but it would seem pointless to do it on swellable paper, don't you think?

Contact me for Profiles for those for the complete Canon CLI-8 through to CLI-221 color profiles for those when using my inks. There still remains a Kodak product with those as well.

I have only used printers with cartridges up to CLI-8. I'm aware of the CLI-221 but are there other cartridges in between?

 

[martin0reg]

I become more and more satisfied with my results:

- the bronzing on my favorite glossy paper (aldi/sihl microporous): it was probably due to bad flushed cartridges and "contamination" with old color ink. After I have printed 10 pages of purging patterns the effect seems to be gone!
- Also after purging the grey is even more neutral, now I can see a very slight tint on the first prints due to the rest of color ink.

- the black on matte is still a little less deep than on glossy - but it is as deep as it gets with epson r285 "black only"

So by now I have no cons to report, only pros.
Good results on glossy microporous (although swellable might be more durable .. see explanations above) and on matte paper.

PS: thank you for the instruction to mix light cyan and light magenta, mikling. I will try it, if my S9000 can be activated...

 

[mikling]

I have not seen the soft gloss version of the HP Premium Plus. It is possibly a textured finsih like a pearl or luster. Paper textures more than anything else are also subjective as well. Especially when in come to Glossy, Ultra glossy etc. The gloss finish on the HP premium plus is to my eyes glossier than the Ilford Glossy but that could be batch variances. The Ilford Pearl is rather elegant with a silky finish and distinctly not glossy.

 

[Lothman]

Mikling you showed excellent BW Prints!

But is there any need for a special printing software? How can the grey shade be exact when the printer thinks to use Cyan but there is a grey ink in the cyan cartridge? So the grey ramp on your test print looks fine but I don't understand why.

 

[aaronthink]

Hello mikling! how do you do?

My name is Aaron and Im from Spain, Im quite new in this forum. I have read about your solution for a dedicated B&W printer. Im interested in convert my canon IP4500 into a B&W printer.

I have a question: which is the method to flush empty original carbridges for refill them with your black and white ink?

I have experience refilling by the german method, but i have never flushed a carbridge in my life. could you explain me or send me a link where I could learn the method?

By the way, if I get the ink pack form ebay (precitioncolors), how much will cost to send the ink pack to Spain?

Many thanks.
I

 

[martin0reg]

@aaronthink
for flushing or purging cartridges ther are many posts..example:
http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=4971&p=1

@lothman
...this seems to be miklings secret. The greys have to match the brightness/intensity of the colors.
As he said above: you have to convert color photos first to b&w, direct printing of RGB-files produce weak contrast.
But if you have a good b&w photo on your screen, the print will come out almost exactly. In the driver you can set brightness to "dark" but to me that is a matter of taste. You have NOT to adjust the color sliders.

PS: if you want to report for german users, I posted it on DC:
http://www.druckerchannel.de/forum....=schwarzweiss_mit_grautinte_in_canon_druckern