Matte Black V’s Photo Black...

[The Hat]

Here is a sample print I did using separate Matte and Photo black ink settings on Sihl Glossy paper from Aldi, and I used a Pro 9500 for each.

The two samples on the left were scanned in colour and the other two were scanned in Greyscale, this was done to show and not to hide the way that the black tints changed slightly between the Matte and Photo black inks.

This is just to demonstrate how you can use one black or the other to achieve the desired effect you want from your prints, it could be your own personal choice or signature.

It cant be seen on these two samples but the Photo black has less bronzing than the Matte black has and despite that there’s no differences looking at them head on, both are completely 100% black.

An overprint of Glop and the bronzing was almost totally eliminated on both prints and the Matte black showed no reflection at all it remained Matte and looked quite distinctive, and it’s better to wait 24 hours if you wish to use Glop.

Both samples were printed with no profiling added and the printer was handling the colour output, only the Media setting were changed from Plain to Photo paper, I didn’t bother to swap the cartridges on this occasion.

The one thing that has to be remembered is that these samples were reproduced using more than 95% colour coverage and very little black at all and were not coloured managed or printed in greyscale, and neither black nor grey are ever used as a colour on their own..

 

[martin0reg]

If I print MK on glossy paper with epson 3880 using OEM ink, the black would be easily rubbed off the print...so on glossy (and semiglossy) MK is not useable, at least after my quick tests. Would be surprised if MK in canon behaves different...

PS: PK on matte has a different downside: it's not black enough, at least for me, definitely dull and greyish compared to MK on matte. So I have to accept using (and switching) the PK and MK for each of the two paper sorts: matte - MK, all others - PK...

Advantage canon: no switching..!?..as far as I know..(having no canon pig, only epson)

 

[The Hat]

@martin0reg I don’t seem to have any problems use either blacks on the Lidl glossy paper, they both dry fairly instant..

 

[jtoolman]

Hat, what about the problem with the PRO 9500 driver using MK only when you choose Fine Art Media as the paper choice. Matte paper choice just continues to use PK as the black ink of choice.

Joe

 

[The Hat]

I do know that when setting your paper choice to one type and then using the complete opposite is not easy to do on the Pro 1 but on the 9500 this printer doesn’t react to it and will accept whatever input you set.

When I select photo paper the 9500 will use PK black and when I switch my selection to plain paper the printer will use MK black regardless of which paper that is actually loaded to print on, no questions.

But if I want to use the inks the opposite way round then I must first manually switch the cartridges by swapping the chips, but most of the time this is not necessary, if you remember the right Media settings then this will achieve the desired results.

The 9500 follows an exact pattern for each Media setting as to which ink to use and it’s easy to fool it but if your not sure which ink it’s going to use then just do a small test print before you commit to your final print, where as the Pro 1 uses some sort of automatic sensors.

When you try the same Media switching on the Pro 1, I tend to get all sort of mixed outputs and it’s a lot harder to get the right configuration on this printer, so when choosing your own setting rather that letting the printer do the choosing, it gets a bit argumentative and I end up wasting more time and paper on the Pro 1.

So to answer your question Joe the 9500 uses Photo black on Matte Photo Paper which all Canon printer tend to do anyway, and uses the Matte black ink on Plain Paper, the only time a chip swap would be required is if it’s imperative that the Media setting has to be set to Matte Photo paper..

 

[jtoolman]

Yes plain paper will do that but not Matte paper which most people would use "Thinking" the printer would then use MK ink which is not the case. But in your case using Plain paper will work.