Forum Rants

[The Hat]

I’ve no use for Professional profiling.

Whilst most if not all you guys who frequent this forums like to enjoy printing their excellent photos at a substantial cost reduction to OEM inks without comprising on their colour print quality, but I don’t print photos.

When you change or alter any of these set conditions that the printer manufactures have laid out, like your ink or paper then you’re in a whole new ball game, the new Pro printers are a prime example of this.

To reproduce professional prints faithfully when you have deviated from these standard setting you are going to need help from some external sources, and this is where the likes of Colormunki and friends come in and rightly so.

But I learned over time how to reproduce the colours that I need from these small printers by just using their own built-in colour management drivers without having to purchase and install professional profiling software.

My output is done mainly on the same plain and semi gloss copier papers, so I reckon I don’t need the help of a profiler with this type of work, because I mostly print text and graphics, and work in Illustrator or QuarkXPress which don’t use profiles.

I work with the Canon Colour driver adjustments which enables me to use all the same inks and if I need to deviate from one set colour to a particular PMS colour then it’s much easier than switching to professional profile equipment.

I stock two type of ink sets, a set of dye and a set of pigment inks, all dough my printers are very different they will print much the same with a little bit of help from the Canon print driver and a lot of patients.

Now if I cared to print photos for commercial purposes then I definitely would have the Colormunki hardware and anything else that helps make things easier, maybe even Adobe Light Room.

I did in the past use some profiling software to get a particular PMS colour that I required, but that was before I learned how to use the printer driver itself, so it is possible for me to use such professional profile equipment but not very Practical in my line of work..
End.

 

[The Hat]

This is a follow up of this post: http://www.printerknowledge.com/thr...-and-b200-in-printers-canon.11113/#post-93369

All of the above errors can and are usually given when your printer hasn’t got a clue what the hell is going on exactly, usually there is some sort of problem with the print head, but your guess is as good as the printers.

A quick tip: Turn off the printer and leave for 24 hours, then turn it back on and hope the issue has been resolved, at the end of the day it’s just another way of telling you to get a new print head.

If any of these errors were in anyway accrete, then one would be sufficient like “print head malfunction” that would work just as well and not leave you in the dark guessing, but hell no Canon always wants to make a serial out the saga.
Rant over...

 

[Emulator]

Yes, it's the commercial response to anything they don't like. Rather like the response I had from Talktalk today when I wanted to modify my telephone/internet package by an on line request, (they don't seem to have telephone enquiry lines). You get many questions before you can ask your question. The first question "do you want to upgrade or downgrade your account".

In my case it was of course "downgrade".

The web site suddenly seemed to become totally confused, with no logical next step other than to disconnect.

 

[The Hat]

.............................Does my Bum look big in this.... ?

This rant is about leaving your printer on and doing nozzle prints periodically to try save your 3rd party inks and hopefully your print head... (Specific to Canon Printers)

There is a big misconception that many have about their inks been wasted cleaning and or their print head getting all clogged up and then dying, if they don’t print regularly.

Yes folks, I'm sorry it’s true, you do need to print almost daily to keep you printer in perfect working order, but leaving it on to run nozzle checks, seriously are you really saving anything by doing that, it's certainly not doing your print head any good.

If you’re not a regular user, then you printer will do a big cleaning cycle before you start to print after turning it on again, but so what, 99% of the time your using 3rd party inks anyway, and the printer is only using the ink to clean the head, but not to waste it...

If you calculate how much you think your saving against what you’re really saving, then the answer is going to be none, you can’t save money using this method, it’s all smoke and mirrors.

Your leaving your printer on day & night so it can preform a nozzle check every two days or so, and your endeavouring to save the cheapest commodity you have (Ink), but when measured over say six months, the saving amount to nearly nothing.

Because your printer will still carry out normal periodic cleaning cycles whether you like it or not, you may not be there to see them, but it still goes on, and have you ever taught what leaving the printer on 24/7 does to it exactly.

I honestly reckon its a fools errant to try and save ink after you've been away on a break (Holliday) you can easily start up the printer and allow it to clean, then you can do a nozzle check and ninety percent of the time it will be perfect, and the other times it may need a couple of extra normal head cleans.

Another misconception is that pigment printers will clog worse when left un-used than dye printers do, no that’s not the case at all, pigment printers are far more forgiving that dye ink printers, and “it’s better if you clean the print head outside the printer”.

Again, the printer is far better at caring for the print head than you are, and if you allow it to perform its regular cleaning maintenance routine it can usually get the nozzles all working again, but don’t be tempted to run more than one deep head clean cycle yourself, that can be fatal mistake.

P.S. If you go away on a break, the best thing you could ever do for your printer is to cover it with a plastic covering, say...(Big Garbage Bag)

I could go on all day on this subject, but I’d be flogging a dead horse, so.
Rant ends...

 

[Emulator]

I haven't got any fixed ideas about leaving a printer (9000 II) on, but I turn mine off when I am not actually printing. It is often off for 6 to 8 weeks.

When I switch it on I initially do a nozzle check print and "touch wood", it has behaved itself for at least a couple of years. It occasionally gets a "parking pad" clean with a few cc's of Lidl window cleaner and dusted when I notice it needs it.

 

[Emulator]

Incidentally, we have not seen the originator of this thread for a long time. @3dogs, hope you are OK???

 

[The Hat]

Incidentally, we have not seen the originator of this thread for a long time. @3dogs, hope you are OK???

That was nice of you @Emulator, yes it would be good to see him make his triumphant return... We’ve missed you mate...

 

[stratman]

.S. If you go away on a break, the best thing you could ever do for your printer is to cover it with a plastic covering, say...(Big Garbage Bag)

Don't be so chintzy. Get yourself a proper dust cover for that cherished printer!

 

[GrantCee]

I don't care about the money being wasted...I care about that stupid waste ink sponge at the bottom of my Canon printer getting soaked and effectively shortening the life of my printer!

If it takes printing at certain intervals to keep it from doing a sponge-filling cleaning cycle, I'll do it!

 

[Redbrickman]

Must admit my Maxify is on 24/7 with the energy saving sleep mode set up. I have never heard it do a clean on its own but it may well have done when I have not been around during the day, but at night it would wake the dead so pretty sure I would have heard it Every two days I print a tiny colour test strip just to keep the head clear. Of course it does its usual wipe after the print and cleaning after a cartridge swap but so far so good.