Canon IP4600 Black Print Issue

[mastermindmark]

Hi guys, first post on this forum. I have a problem and I was wondering if you could solve it:

I just bought 2 brand new Canon IP4600's

I've set them up and I'm pricing onto:

A4 ICE PRO-DUO MATTE PHOTO PAPER 220GSM (Basically double-sided matte photo paper/card)

I am using the media type "Matte Photo Paper" on "High Detail" when printing, and the print results are awesome.

However ...

The areas of block black or black text look blotchy and overrun the areas they should be printed on.

As a result I also tried printing on "Plain Paper" senting, this fixed the black issue however now the colours look faded.

The question is ... what Media Type setting should I use?? I want to fix this black issue but keep the colour and detail.

I'm printing from a MS Publisher file and this situation occurs on both IP4600

Thanks in advance for any assistance you can give on this issue

 

[mastermindmark]

Even if this is a stupid question please can someone set me right

 

[embguy]

Welcome to the InkJet Printer Forum. I do not print photo with my printers. But someone knowledgeable will assist you soon.

 

[on30trainman]

I have the ip4500 which is probably an almost identical printer to the ip4600 except for the ink cartridges numbers. I have never seen the problem you mention, but again, I haven't printed your file or used your paper. For matte paper I use one from Staples - only for photos and not with black text or black blocks. It is possible that the black text and blocks are being printed with the pigment based ink and are not being absorbed into the paper. Does your matte paper have any kind of coating on it? The Staples matte paper looks like a fine grade of cardboard - no visible coating. The plain paper probably does absorb both the dye and pigment based inks, but I agree that colors will look drab.

One possible check would be to set the paper type in the printer driver to one of the glossy settings (Photo Paper Pro or another) but still print onto the matte paper. The glossy paper setting should force all printing to be done with the dye based inks. Try this and report back. It may not be a usable solution but should tell you if the matte paper you are using can't handle pigment based black ink very well.

Steve W.

 

[ghwellsjr]

When you specify any photo paper (that is, not plain), the printer will use only the dye inks, including dye black. That is why when you specified plain paper, the printer used the pigment black which works fine on matte paper. (You don't want to do this with any other photo paper.)

I do not have one of the newer printers like you have so I don't know if your printer will work the same way as my iP4000, but on my printer, I have noticed a significant difference in the quality of color on matte paper when I use the Print Advisor and select between "Print tables and charts" and Print a composite document". The first one produces "washed out colors" while the second one is much better. I think when they say "composite" they mean a combination of text and photos. By the way, I tell the printer I'm using plain paper even though I'm using matte paper.

If this doesn't work for you, is it possible for you to print your color pictures telling the printer to use matte and then print the text telling the printer to use plain?

 

[on30trainman]

Interestingly I do not see the Print Advisor in my ip4500 driver. It is there in the ip4200 and ip6000D setup. I never had any need for it since all my quality photo printing is done with QImage - printer profiles in QImage and turned off in print driver. Never had any problems when printing manuals or other text printouts, but good to know it is there. So I am not sure that the Print Advisor will be available in his ip4600 print driver setup.

 

[EdwardM]

Hi.
I had a similar problem with Epson r200 & (believe it or not) Kodak Ultima paper. Problem solved by raising the black point (in Qimage) before printing. BP can also be adjusted in Photoshop, but save result as a separate image. It won't look right on screen (too light), but will print fine.
Try this - Find, or make for yourself in a GFX program, a greyscale gradient bar - just a strip ranging from RGB 0,0,0 to RGB 255,255,255. About 1/2 inch wide x 8 inch long is about right. Print this on your preferred settings, and see at what point at the bottom end of the scale the black changes from ok to oversaturated. This is the black point to set.

Hope this helps,
Best,
Ed.

 

[mastermindmark]

Hi Edward your solution worked a treat, thanks!

 

[Manuchau]

Edward - very innovative solution...welcome to this board.!!

 

[EdwardM]

Hi, and thank you for your warm welcome.

Glad to hear it worked.
Seems some printer/paper combinations don't work too well straight out-of-the-box. My problem only occurred with Kodak paper, Epson & Ilford were fine. I can only speculate that, in their search for rich saturated colours, some papers may go a little OTT - soaking up more ink than need be. Raising the black point doesn't alter the colours/grey shades in any way, it just moves them up to within the gamut of the paper.

Best,
(Ex-Lurker) Ed.