Blue-ish color tint - Pro-100 and PC inks

[martincregg]

I have refilled all of my OEM cartridges using Precision Color (PC) inks. Produced around 30 13x19 images and the colors were great. Before I refilled any cartridges I did print out several reference images from digitaldog.net so I always had a sample of what the colors were like prior to using the PC inks. After about 6 weeks of no printing I came to print a landscape and it has a blue-ish color tint. I had previously printed this out and there were no issues with color. I have checked, double-checked and tripple-checked that I have my settings correct. I've tried printer manages and LR manage and I get the same issue - blue-ish tint. I have tried the reference print that I just referred to and that also has the blue-ish color tint. I have a Canon Pixma MP980 and have printed the reference images on that printer and it looks great perfect, indicating I have my print settings correct. I've used Canon photo paper plus glossy, Red River Satin and plain paper. Same issue... Blue-ish tint.

Is this because I have let too much time pass without printing and an ink or two has gone off. That sounds unlikely to me. Any suggestions as to what I can try are much appreciated. If I cannot get this sorted soon, I will probably buy a full set of OEMs again and see what difference that makes. That will not be too big an issue because when empty, I'll refill using the PC inks and have a second set of cartridges ready to go.

 

[jtoolman]

You answered yourself in your last paragraph. I just did a video on this very subject. The first thin you should after weeks of no printing is to do a nozzle check to see if there is complete full ink delivery.
So do a nozzle check. You should have a full band for each color with no gaps. That would be 8 bands.
Joe

 

[mikling]

Also print the attached test image. If the gradations run oddly in any color, then you can determine the problem very quiickly. The nozzle checks should also look similar to this on plain paper.

 

[mikling]

Also refer to this post as the patterns and behavior of these printers are very similar.
https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/diagnosing-color-problems-on-a-pro9500.11490/

 

[martincregg]

I've done the nozzle check printing on plane paper and everything looks normal. I did a deep clean just to be sure.
Here's what interesting:
When I print out the reference image from digitaldog on matt photo paper but select the paper type as plain paper the image looks great - no color cast that I can detect.
When I print out the same image on the the same paper (matt photo paper) but change the paper type to matt photo paper there is a color cast: In LR I am selecting Canon Pro 100 <MP> 2/3 Matt Photo Paper and in the Printer properties settings selecting Matching > Color Correction > None.

I must be doing something really obvious here that's causing this because the nozzle check seems fine.

 

[pharmacist]

Hopefully you did not put C in PC cartridge, causing a oversaturating of the PC channel ?

 

[The Hat]

@martincregg, please upload your latest nozzle check, so we can see if you’re having any issues with it... ?

It will stop us speculating and making the wrong suggesting as to the cause of your problem and get you back printing normal again...

 

[mikling]

Ink responds differently to different papers. You can use a custom ICC to correct this or just use a profile that works. Profiles are compensating files nothing else. Use whatever works in your case and situation. There is no must do. But as has been requested, do what is asked. Describing a color problem in words is no better than describing a picture that was taken. Like the use of "amazing" in today's culture...meaningless really.

 

[martincregg]

Here is the scan of the nozzle check. I printed it on plain paper on the Pro-100 and then scanned it using my MP980. Please let me know if I need to upload anything else. Thanks, everyone for the help.

 

[martincregg]

Hopefully you did not put C in PC cartridge, causing a oversaturating of the PC channel ?

I checked that all of the cartridges were in the correct locations and they are. Of course, it's possible that I topped up one of the cartridges with the wrong ink... but I don't think I will have done that - I have been very careful. But hard to tell, right?