Printing nozzle checks

[Grandad35]

I find the ink coverage on a nozzle check to be too light, especially when printed on plain paper. For some time now, I have been printing 2 or 3 nozzle checks on the same piece of paper to darken the ink to make any missing areas more obvious. It might be argued that the paper alignment on subsequent passes won't be perfect, but it's far better than you would first imagine.

 

[Roy Sletcher]

I find the ink coverage on a nozzle check to be too light, especially when printed on plain paper. For some time now, I have been printing 2 or 3 nozzle checks on the same piece of paper to darken the ink to make any missing areas more obvious. It might be argued that the paper alignment on subsequent passes won't be perfect, but it's far better than you would first imagine.

I have been doing the same thing for several years, which what I think are good results. I find the alignment (register) good enough to achieve workable results.

Also looking through a complementary coloured filter will enable the viewed colour to appear darker. IE: A blue purple filter to look at the yellow nozzle check.

In addition have some cheap coated photo paper to run nozzle checks which also helps give a visually more dense view of the nozzle check colours.

Disclaimer - I am a paranoid nutcase because I then examine them through a magnifying glass looking for faults.

Disclaimer number two - overprinting nozzle check images will mask any slight blotchiness or uneven results due to possible ink starvation. I nearly missed the "CLI-42 yellow problem" because of this factor.

RS
Time to make another print.

 

[martin0reg]

...
Disclaimer number two - overprinting nozzle check images will mask any slight blotchiness or uneven results due to possible ink starvation. I nearly missed the "CLI-42 yellow problem" because of this factor...

I support this. Especially the light magenta and light cyan color fields should indicate the proper function and ink flow of the two correspondent "fine" nozzles rows...if these appear too light you might have a problem

 

[Łukasz]

Hi,

it is also good to print test print from service mode - in most Pixmas it has grid-like nozzle check. Some inks are dual-channel, and if one "ink channel" fails to deliver ink, user mode nozzle check strip is lighter. But test print nozzle check will lose odd or even column of its grid pattern when one "ink channel" fails to deliver ink.


One clogged "ink channel" on Cyan should look similar:

Please note that missing pattern on 5 pl is "inverted" to 2/1 pl pattern.
But if for example 5 pl pattern is continuous and 2/1 pl pattern is dashed (or vice versa), electrical damage is likely rather than clog.

Also looking through a complementary coloured filter will enable the viewed colour to appear darker. IE: A blue purple filter to look at the yellow nozzle check.

Well, same thing may be done with scanned image in almost any (freeware) picture browser (IrfanView, FastStone etc) by extracting one of RGB channel (for yellow ink it is Blue channel). Then yellow is displayed in grayscale - max yellow is then black.

In addition have some cheap coated photo paper to run nozzle checks which also helps give a visually more dense view of the nozzle check colours.

But, if better photo paper is used, nozzle check would appear to be lighter. But (again but), it is better suited to expose faulty nozzles (most likely distorted by overheat or just clogged).

User mode nozzle print and it service mode counterpart printed on low weight super glossy photo paper (1200 dpi scan converted to grayscale):

Please note distorted nozzles phenomena:
- partially blured user mode nozzle print (1/4 from top and 1/8 from bottom end)
- vertical white and dark "strips" between columns of odd and even nozzles in grid-like service mode nozzle print

Disclaimer - I am a paranoid nutcase because I then examine them through a magnifying glass looking for faults.

Seems that I am also, cause I used to examine 1200 dpi scanned nozzle prints from time to time

Ł.

P.S.
If anyone wants scan high dpi nozzle checks, i recommend to save them in any lossless format: PNG, TIFF or JPEG2000. They are big files both in terms of pixel count and weight (over 50MB compressed, cropped only to "informative" part), but it is worth.

 

[martin0reg]

it is also good to print test print from service mode - in most Pixmas it has grid-like nozzle check. Some inks are dual-channel, and if one "ink channel" fails to deliver ink, user mode nozzle check strip is lighter. But test print nozzle check will lose odd or even column of its grid pattern when one "ink channel" fails to deliver ink.

View attachment 1703
One clogged "ink channel" on Cyan should look similar:
View attachment 1704
Please note that missing pattern on 5 pl is "inverted" to 2/1 pl pattern.
But if for example 5 pl pattern is continuous and 2/1 pl pattern is dashed (or vice versa), electrical damage is likely rather than clog.
...

Thank you for explanation of the "extended nozzle check"
This exactly happened to me: user nozzle check showed light magenta or cyan "too light" and the following extended check showed the damage.

 

[ghwellsjr]

Also looking through a complementary coloured filter will enable the viewed colour to appear darker. IE: A blue purple filter to look at the yellow nozzle check.

I use a similar technique except I shine a small flashlight through a section of blue color on a plastic shopping bag which makes the yellow appear more vivid in a dark room.