HP Smart Tank 610 (615 in Asia) grainy prints

[Toonick]

Hi,
I run my own sticker shop and for that I need high quality prints with no grain/noise. Before this printer I had the HP Envy 6010 which worked perfectly.

When I print the sticker page there will be a lot of grain and the image looks pixelated and not as clear as when I drew them. I've tried the following things:

- Clean printerhead (10+ times)
- Allign printerhead
- Quality reports
- Different kinds of paper
- Printing with different programs

Then I tried printing with a Windows laptop instead of my Macbook and the images where a bit more clear, but only on the 'max-dpi' setting which takes 10 minutes to print and should not be necessary

I've included some pictures so you can see what I mean with grainy on both Windows and Mac

https://imgur.com/a/HjgAF0d

Is there anyone that know how I can fix this?

 

[stratman]

Welcome to the forum, Toonick.

What ink did you use with the Envy?

Are you using OEM HP ink specific for the 610?

What Paper have you used. Be specific.

Is there a specific Paper setting for that specific sticker paper in the 610, ie what Paper Type are you using to print?

Print a nozzle check, scan, crop and post.


As you've guessed, certain ink and paper combinations do not provide as good a result as other combinations. While both the Envy and the 610 use Dye-based inks for the colors and a single Pigment Black for text, the ink used in the HP Envy is probably a different formula than the ink used in the HP 610 so what worked well with the Envy may not with the 610.

 

[Toonick]

Hi Stratman,

Thanks for your response.

For the Envy I used the HP Ink subscription, so it was always the original cartridge.

Yes I'm using the OEM HP ink for the 610 (it was included in the box).

I'm using matte white sticker paper, I've included a picture of the paper. For the printing setting, there are a few settings, I've also included a picture of that. I'm using the matte paper option.

I've also included the nozzle check, I hope it's the correct one.

I understand that different printer (ink) and paper combinations give different result. But the colours are actually pretty similar to my 6010. However, the 6010 doesn't have any noise / grain. It also doesn't seem normal to me that there should be any noise / grain when printing something, but I could be wrong. All the DPI settings in my programs are maximum, I've tried 300, 600 and 1200, all the same result.

 

[Toonick]

I see that the copy quality is not that good. The right colour is mostly pixelated / grainy, the left one is smooth.

 

[stratman]

Thank you for the images and further details.

Two things immediately come to mind.

1) The paper is "universal" for laser and inkjet. A paper made for laser printers may not produce pleasing results on an inkjet as their are different coatings on the paper. Using a paper designed specifically for an inkjet printer may resolve your issues. However, you may need to try more than one inkjet sticker paper to find acceptable results. This is the nature of printing - one paper may give significantly better results.

Even if the paper worked well with your last printer, your new printer probably uses different inks and therefore may give different results.

2. The Print Quality Diagnostic Page you posted appears to be HP's version of a Canon and Epson "nozzle Check. It does not look good. You can compare what the Diagnostic Page should look like from the one in the HP 610 printer's user manual.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c06301281

Resolving these Diagnostic Print issues may fully resolve your sticker print issues. One thing for sure is your printer is badly misbehaving for unknown reasons. (There is sufficient ink in all the tanks?)

The best thing to do if the printer is under warranty is call HP technical support / warranty support.

Until then, you can try the suggestions from the above link if you have not already.

 

[Toonick]

Hi Stratman,

Thanks again for you response.

1) I've tried a few different papers and this one gives the best result (colour wise) the other papers had worse/different colours, but they all had the same thing in common: grainy/pixelated printing

2) My scan looks really bad, I've attached a picture of the nozzle check. I do think that the colour on the right looks very pixelated, but that might be intended.

I will be calling with HP tomorrow morning to try and resolve the issue. I think I would prefer to return the printer because I feel this issue is going to be hard to resolve. Maybe I'm wrong, but I never had an issue like this with any other printer I owned, especially the different quality's in printing on different OS's.

 

[stratman]

The photograph of the Diagnostic Print looks very good compared to the first scanned one. However, I do not know for sure what your printer's Diagnostic Print should look like. Note that the one I posted is quite different than yours in the amount of "stuff" printed. Maybe it is a regional variation - you in Asia me in North America. Check your user manual to determine what the Diagnostic Print should look like. Is there one on the CD that came with the printer or installed with driver when you first installed the printer?

I didn't ask, but, are you the only owner of the printer or was it used?

Did the issue with pixelated prints happen form the very first print or was it initially not a problem. Did the problem develop suddenly or over time.

Have you noticed any other defects in prints, whether text or images? Do images printed on appropriate Photo Paper and using the proper Paper Type settings look good?

Have you tried any other Paper Type settings besides Specialty Paper, Matte?

Were any of the other papers you tried specifically labelled only for inkjet paper and not laser printer too?

 

[Toonick]

Hi,

Last week I went to Canon and tried their printer to see if it was any different than my HP printer. We (me and the Canon staff) noticed it has the same issue (pixelated/grainy). We tried their own Canon matte paper, but that didn't resolve it either.

The Canon staff tried multiple things, like changing my CMYK file to sRGB (not sure it matters?) and they used a different program to print (I'm using Silhouette Studio). Now the colour quality was better when printing with a different program and it was a bit less pixelated, but the problem was still there. We couldn't fix it entirely, but at least it was a bit better.

Back home I tried it on my HP printer, but I got the same results as before and thus I'm going to return the printer. Now I'm facing a problem, I'm running a business for which I really need a printer, but I'm not sure what to do anymore. There doesn't seem to be anyone who knows how to fix this problem. I just want the same quality prints as on my Envy 6010.

Is there a difference between cartridge and ink tanks in quality? Could the problem come from using an Ink tank and will it be fixed with a cartridge?

 

[stratman]

Please answer the questions in my post and then we can move forward with your questions.

 

[Toonick]

Apologies for not answering the questions, I'm just a bit frustrated by this problem.

I'm the only one using the printer.

The problem started right from the beginning.

I've tried printing multiple different images on different kinds of paper (plain paper, photo paper, matte paper, sticker paper) and they all give the same results. The Canon paper I've used is specifically designed for inkjet printers.

I've tried all the paper settings. Colour wise paper matte gives the best result for the paper type, also it is representing the colours nicely to my design.

Thanks again for your help, I really appreciate it.