My ip4000 has been like this for a couple years now. I mostly use it for personal things, so it hasnt been a pressing issue. On Plain paper Standard quality (the default settings), everything prints fantastic, Colors look good, b&w look good. The moment I switch to any other paper selection or change the quality setting, the colors all shift. There is a big drop in the magenta in any colors using magenta. It's especially noticeable in the gray shades of b&w areas. Blues & greens stay fine, but they have little or no magenta in them. The only other setting which prints normal is the Plain paper + High Qual + Grayscale.
I'm using the same refill ink I always have. It happened on my old XP computer with the original drivers that came with the printer. It happens on the new pc with the most recent drivers from the Canon website. It happens no matter which program I use to prin: Photoshop, Photopaint, Irfanview, etc. In one test, I examined a 30% gray area with a 20x loupe. It looks like the dots are smaller in the higher quality print settings (expected), but there aren't as many magenta dots laid down as it seems there should be. This happens on all types of paper, coated inkjet paper, glossy, matte, etc so I know it isnt a paper issue. I also figure it isnt the drivers or the OS because Ive changed both of those since it started and it hasnt gone away.
I can compensate to a degree by adjusting the colors in Photopaint or Photoshop, but the best I can do is reduce it so the range of grays that go wacky are reduced to just a small group in the midrange. I have to really jack up the magenta channel in the image so much it looks really bad on screen, to get it to print even close to what I want. It's like the printer isn't "translating" the mid grays properly or something.
A nozzle print comes out fine except for the two gray swatches next to the 6C and 6M line. Those also print with an olive hue, instead of a definite gray altho you cant see it on the scan. The ink lines themselves are perfectly fine. My apologies for the scan quality of the nozzle print. My scanner is old and simply could not pick up the ink colors no matter what I tried. So dont use this as an example--the actual nozzle print looks great except for those swatches that are greenish.
I've cleaned the head, soaked it, etc. I've slowly dripped distilled water thru it a drop at a time to make sure each port was clear and working. I've tried different magenta cartridges. This started while I was about halfway thru my previous bottle of magenta ink, and it stayed. It's still there and I just bought a new supply a couple months ago. The entire test is printed on a single sheet of HP hi-res inkjet paper.
In the scan you can see the color change that occurs. At least the scanner picked that up. The paper & quality setting is listed under each print. To me it seems that some magenta nozzles aren't firing when it's time to print smaller dots for higher resolutions. I wouldn't have a problem buying a new print head, it's a great printer. But if it's the logic board, a new print head won't help and I'd be out $100. I don't know enough about the electronics to know which one is the likely culprit, so Im hoping someone here might know.
I have a new printer coming, so if its the logic board I can keep using this for an everyday printer. It prints text beautifully and the default settings for color are fine. I would be willing to buy a new printhead tho, if there's a good chance that is the problem.
I did replace the printhead a few years ago. It stopped recognizing the printhead, telling me it wasn't in. The new printhead worked ok for abt 18 months then I started seeing this problem.
EDIT 03-10-12--it was 4am when I posted this originally. I totally forgot to actually attach the scanned image DOH. Sorry about that.
I'm using the same refill ink I always have. It happened on my old XP computer with the original drivers that came with the printer. It happens on the new pc with the most recent drivers from the Canon website. It happens no matter which program I use to prin: Photoshop, Photopaint, Irfanview, etc. In one test, I examined a 30% gray area with a 20x loupe. It looks like the dots are smaller in the higher quality print settings (expected), but there aren't as many magenta dots laid down as it seems there should be. This happens on all types of paper, coated inkjet paper, glossy, matte, etc so I know it isnt a paper issue. I also figure it isnt the drivers or the OS because Ive changed both of those since it started and it hasnt gone away.
I can compensate to a degree by adjusting the colors in Photopaint or Photoshop, but the best I can do is reduce it so the range of grays that go wacky are reduced to just a small group in the midrange. I have to really jack up the magenta channel in the image so much it looks really bad on screen, to get it to print even close to what I want. It's like the printer isn't "translating" the mid grays properly or something.
A nozzle print comes out fine except for the two gray swatches next to the 6C and 6M line. Those also print with an olive hue, instead of a definite gray altho you cant see it on the scan. The ink lines themselves are perfectly fine. My apologies for the scan quality of the nozzle print. My scanner is old and simply could not pick up the ink colors no matter what I tried. So dont use this as an example--the actual nozzle print looks great except for those swatches that are greenish.
I've cleaned the head, soaked it, etc. I've slowly dripped distilled water thru it a drop at a time to make sure each port was clear and working. I've tried different magenta cartridges. This started while I was about halfway thru my previous bottle of magenta ink, and it stayed. It's still there and I just bought a new supply a couple months ago. The entire test is printed on a single sheet of HP hi-res inkjet paper.
In the scan you can see the color change that occurs. At least the scanner picked that up. The paper & quality setting is listed under each print. To me it seems that some magenta nozzles aren't firing when it's time to print smaller dots for higher resolutions. I wouldn't have a problem buying a new print head, it's a great printer. But if it's the logic board, a new print head won't help and I'd be out $100. I don't know enough about the electronics to know which one is the likely culprit, so Im hoping someone here might know.
I have a new printer coming, so if its the logic board I can keep using this for an everyday printer. It prints text beautifully and the default settings for color are fine. I would be willing to buy a new printhead tho, if there's a good chance that is the problem.
I did replace the printhead a few years ago. It stopped recognizing the printhead, telling me it wasn't in. The new printhead worked ok for abt 18 months then I started seeing this problem.
EDIT 03-10-12--it was 4am when I posted this originally. I totally forgot to actually attach the scanned image DOH. Sorry about that.
