Help with Canon color output

[dvdit]

I printed many pages of photos of myself wearing black suit and the wife wearing a white and cream colored dress. In all my attempt using many different profiles, the black suit I am wearing comes out grey when printed with MG6120 but black when printed with IP4700. Another thing I noticed is I ran out of grey and magenta ink, low on cyan and yellow, but the black ink tank is full. Is there any test I can do to make sure the printer uses the black ink when it is supposed to ? Nozzel check is good.

 

[turbguy]

My experience is that many Canon printers do not use ANY black ink during photo printing, but mix the other colors to acheive a sort-of "black". Send a greyscale image to your printer instead and see if it comes out with a color cast. If so, it's probably mixing the colors for "black", and the Black ink is used only for text and graphics.

Wayne

 

[stratman]

My experience is that many Canon printers do not use ANY black ink during photo printing, but mix the other colors to acheive a sort-of "black".

It depends on the printer, turbguy. Dvdit's printer has a dedicated Black dye ink cartridge that is used for Black, although other colors may be used simultaneously.

 

[dvdit]

My experience is that many Canon printers do not use ANY black ink during photo printing, but mix the other colors to acheive a sort-of "black". Send a greyscale image to your printer instead and see if it comes out with a color cast. If so, it's probably mixing the colors for "black", and the Black ink is used only for text and graphics.

Wayne

What would be the purpose of having two black ink tanks in the printer then? One pigmnet black and one dye based black ?

 

[Grandad35]

You might want to read this post from ghwellsjr where he showed which colors are used to print various grayscale levels:
http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=29498#p29498

 

[PeterBJ]

dvdit wrote:
I printed many pages of photos of myself wearing black suit and the wife wearing a white and cream colored dress. In all my attempt using many different profiles, the black suit I am wearing comes out grey when printed with MG6120 but black when printed with IP4700. Another thing I noticed is I ran out of grey and magenta ink, low on cyan and yellow, but the black ink tank is full. Is there any test I can do to make sure the printer uses the black ink when it is supposed to ? Nozzel check is good.

Did you refill the CLI-226 BK for the MG6120? The ink demand when printing photos is very high, whereas printing a nozzle check demands very little ink, so the problem could be caused by an ink flow issue with the CLI-226 BK cartridge, even if the nozzle check is perfect, so I suggest to try another cartridge. If you have another CLI-226 BK, you could try to refill that and check if the printer prints black properly. If you have no other cartridges you could buy an OEM cartridge for the test or you could transfer the CLI-226 BK chip to the working CLI-221 BK from the iP4700.(Less expensive) Apart from the windows and the chip the CLI-221 and CLI-226 cartridges are identical.

If the MG6120 prints properly with a known good photo-black cartridge, you know that the problem is in the cartridge. If the cartridge change makes no difference, the problem is likely a software- or set-up problem.

If the cartridge is the problem you could try these tests suggested by ThrillaMozilla:

You can check the cartridges up to a point. Take one out and touch the outlet sponge with a tissue. It should transfer ink to the tissue with just a touch. You can blow into the vent at the top, and you should get a few drops of ink out the outlet. If it fails those tests, there may be some things you can do to fix it (I think).

BTW your refilled CLI-226 BK is an OEM? Compatible cartridges may work well, but only if used once. They often cause problems with ink flow if refilled.

 

[dvdit]

I called Canon support and I was told that the problem is that, for whatever reason, the printer is seeing grey rather than black in those particular photos I was printing, taken on same day on at the same event. I didn't buy that explanation since all photos came out perfect when printed at CVS photo. They made me print a photo from Powershot and the photo came out very, very good and it is exactly as I see in on my monitor. So I printed many more and all come out excellent. But if I try to print a photo stored in my hard drive, then the red cast will show it ugly face again. I printed over 200 photos, went through a lot of ink and photo printing from hard drive remains poor. I can't expalin why I am getting to totally different result. All ink cartridges work fine. I did a print test for CYMK that I found on the internet and all print fine. I will continue to investigate fuhrer.

 

[stratman]

I will continue to investigate fuhrer.

The fuhrer is dead. Cyanide in a bunker, weasel shite that he was.

It makes no sense where the images are stored in how they are printed on how that would affect results. Digital data is digital data wherever it comes from. What matters is the printer and all the software used to print the images. What application are you using to print the photographs? Is it different than the one used when you printed from your Powershot?

Why you would continue to print over 200 photos while obtaining poor results? Or were you misstating that some of the over 200 photos were poor and others were not?

What you need to do is sort things out properly.

1) Are you using the proper inks in each cartridge?
2) Is there a malfunction with the printer?
3) Is there a problem with the image software - corrupted files or improper settings?
4) Are the printer settings OK?
5) Are you using the wrong printer profile?
6) Is it your paper?
7) Is there something else in the computer augmenting/altering the process.
8) Is your vision affected?

If you have been successful, one way or another, in printing out relatively accurate colors then most of the list above can be crossed off as the problem (unless there is a freakish intermittent problem).

I suggest you completely uninstall, reboot and then reinstall the printer and its drivers. Do not change anything at all. Leave everything at default. Do not try different printer profiles yet. Try printing again. If the print is still poor, try a different application to print the photo. You could try uninstalling, rebooting and then reinstalling that application as well. But, it might be worth it to try a different printing application.

You could also copy a known "problem" image or two onto a disk or flash drive and try printing them on a different computer/printer at a friend's or at a big box store that sells printers. Take your paper with you too.

 

[mikling]

I have been in my bunker programming scripts and HTML for my revised web site which is partly up and under construction.
I've been buried in that so in taking a break. In quickly going over what is happening, it sounds like it could be a color space issue. Are the pictures being captured in Adobe RGB and printed as sRGB or vice versa?. If the pics are coming out ok in powershot direct printing then it manages the color space itself and bypasses the color settings on the PC. So it sounds like there is a color setting that was set up somewhere on the PC that manages or adjusts the digital information on the image. To correct this, can be cumbersome if you don't know where to look and sometimes a reinstall of the OS is as easy as trying fixing it.
check the settings and report back.

 

[stratman]

To correct this, can be cumbersome if you don't know where to look and sometimes a reinstall of the OS is as easy as trying fixing it.
check the settings and report back.

This is why I suggested he first reinstall the printer as well as looking at the application he uses to print. Start with the easy things first.