Color Cast using Canon i9900 with MIS Inks

[thunnus]

Hello,

I've been using MIS inks with my Canon i9900 for a couple of months now. All was well that first month but recently I've been getting a blueish color cast on everything other than plain paper. I used to be able to use plain paper settings on Epson Photo Paper to get acceptable color results but not anymore. I am attaching some scans to illustrate my dilemma. All print settings were default unless stated otherwise.

Original Photo:

Plain Paper Print (Paper=Plain Paper/Reso=Standard/Color=Auto)

Print using Canon Photo Paper Plus Glossy (Paper=Photo Paper Plus Glossy/Reso=High/Color=Auto)

Prints using Epson Photo Paper (Paper/Reso/Color)

The bottom left reads "Plain Paper/Standard/Manual: Cyan=-20 Yellow=+20)

Ink Nozzle Check on Plain Paper

Any guesses as to what's going here? I'm not real picky when it comes to this stuff and want to avoid overly complicated fixes such as profiling. Since I went straight into the MIS inks, I'm not sure what the results would be using OEM Canon carts. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Grandad35]

thunnus,

Your PC and C nozzle checks appear to be almost the same. My PC nozzle check is FAR lighter then my C nozzle check (just like your PM and M nozzle checks). I suspect that you have a cyan cart (or ink) in the PC slot. If you refill, it is easy to grab the wrong ink. Depending on how much ink is left in a cart when you refill, it can take quite a while for the new ink to work its way through the system and for the colors to change.

 

[thunnus]

thunnus,

Your PC and C nozzle checks appear to be almost the same. My PC nozzle check is FAR lighter then my C nozzle check (just like your PM and M nozzle checks). I suspect that you have a cyan cart (or ink) in the PC slot. If you refill, it is easy to grab the wrong ink. Depending on how much ink is left in a cart when you refill, it can take quite a while for the new ink to work its way through the system and for the colors to change.

Thank you Grandad35. I've determined that it is something to do with the inks. I plugged in OEM Canon carts and got prints that looked much better.

It's quite possible that I made a mistake in refilling cyan into the photo cyan cart. I will run a couple of tests to try and confirm this. At least I have a lead now. Thanks again for your help!

 

[Grandad35]

thunnus,

It takes at least (3) 8x10 pages to get a decent purge of a color through the print head. If you have only printed a few 4x6s, the color transition to OEM colors may not yet be complete.

Soon after I got my printer (when it was printing "normally"), I made a print of the nozzle check, the head alignment and the special printouts that are available by a series of non-obvious button presses. I keep these printouts in a box beside my blank paper, carts, etc. so that when I encounter a printing problem that I can repeat these tests and have a direct comparison to a time when everything was working normally. This makes spotting these types of problems much easier.