Yellow color too dark/orange on ET-2750

[stratman]

There is much going on and too many complicating conditions to make an easy determination.

First, the image of printed page against the monitor is next to worthless for diagnosing for a number of reasons. The environmental light is of such a warm brightness that against the very bright and probably uncalibrated monitor who know what colors are accurate or not.

Second, who knows what customizing is done with the current settings of printer/monitor/application?

Quicksand.

time to get back to basics so we all have common footing.

I recommend you either completely reset the printer to Default settings, as if factory fresh out of the box first time installation, or, uninstall every software and driver that came with the printer, reboot, and install again as if the first time.

Follow the instruction in your User Manual to print a Nozzle Check (or whatever it is called for your printer) following the instructions and recommendations of the User Manual exactly. For Canon a simple sheet of Plain Paper and the setting of Plain Paper is used. Whatever your Epson manual says then follow it. Make ZERO alterations to settings otherwise. Use a virgin sheet of paper - nothing printed on it previously.

Print the nozzle check, scan it, crop it and post the image here. Then we can begin to figure out what is going on.

 

[VikingPhotoGeek]

Here is a nozzle check from a Canon MP800. After printing it I touched a Q-tip to the ink outlet of the yellow cartridge. After having wiped off most of the ink in the Q-tip I made a marking close to the yellow stripe in the nozzle check. Notice that the colour match is very good. Click to enlarge:

View attachment 11997

I don't know much about Epson printers but when Canon printheads get old an internal leak can cause cross contamination. Often the yellow is contaminated with black. Cross contamination can also happen when the print head is parked on the purge unit/parking station. If a cartridge is leaking the ink will pool under the nozzle plate and leaked ink might be wicked up in nozzle sets for other colours and cause cross contamination.

If nothing went wrong when filling the printer with ink, then I think something must be wrong with the printer or the yellow ink. Could you make a nozzle check and compare the yellow print to the yellow ink in the tank and the yellow ink in the bottle?

Even if the printer is not a photo printer but intended for office use I think the colour error is not acceptable.

Thanks for showing me, and for the tip! I did the same, wiping off some ink from the bottle with a Q-tip on a paper next to the printed yellow square, and the colors matched very well as far as I could tell. So I think we can rule out printer or software errors, as well as contamination, as the ink in the bottle looks exactly like what is printed.

Unless the ink is suffering from some weird manufacturing error (which seems unlikely), I guess it must be just how it is supposed to be. I guess I'll find out in a couple of years, when I run out of ink and have to refill...

 

[PeterBJ]

You don't have to wait until refill is needed to compare the yellow in the printer to another bottle of ink. I suggest to buy a new bottle of yellow ink now and do the comparison to the discoloured(?) ink in the printer while the printer is still in warranty.

 

[VikingPhotoGeek]

You don't have to wait until refill is needed to compare the yellow in the printer to another bottle of ink. I suggest to buy a new bottle of yellow ink now and do the comparison to the discoloured(?) ink in the printer while the printer is still in warranty.

That's a great idea, I'll definitely try that. Thanks again for all the good tips and suggestions!

 

[PeterBJ]

Using Irfan View I made a test image like yours with the same RGB values of colour. I printed and scanned it for comparison using a Canon MP800 with OEM ink on plain paper with default settings. The result is not perfect, there is a little reddish or magenta cast to the print which is typical of many Canon printers.

I also think the problem might be caused in translation of colours from RGB values used by the monitor to CMY(K) values used by the printer.

Here is the image. The screen picture is to the left, the scanned print is to the right. The scan is not perfect but close to what the print looks like. But comparing screen and printed images is difficult:

 

[stratman]

But comparing screen and printed images is difficult:

It's not just difficult, it is often a fool's errand with low end printers, uncalibrated monitors, non-standardized ambient lighting, and paper not matched by the ICC printer profile. Holding the print up against the monitor adds a layer of perceptual errata as well.

 

[VikingPhotoGeek]

Using Irfan View I made a test image like yours with the same RGB values of colour. I printed and scanned it for comparison using a Canon MP800 with OEM ink on plain paper with default settings. The result is not perfect, there is a little reddish or magenta cast to the print which is typical of many Canon printers.

I also think the problem might be caused in translation of colours from RGB values used by the monitor to CMY(K) values used by the printer.

Here is the image. The screen picture is to the left, the scanned print is to the right. The scan is not perfect but close to what the print looks like. But comparing screen and printed images is difficult:

View attachment 11998

Thanks for taking the time to do this!
This looks very much like it does on my prints. I guess it speaks to the hypothesis that there is nothing "wrong" with my printer, this is just the way printers, especially low end, work. And of course, comparing monitor and paper makes little sense, as many others have mentioned.

And there is nothing that is plain "wrong" with the prints I get either. I have now printed many different kinds of images, on different paper, with different settings, and it is not that they look horrible (I take back some of the things I said in the beginning). In fact, many of the prints look great, especially "simpler" stuff, like artworks, vector based images and other things that are not photos. But also photos generally look "good", especially if you just see the printed image without anything to compare.

I still refuse to think that this is something totally in my imagination, though, for two reasons:
1.Forget comparing monitor to print - Instead compare the yellow on the label on the ink bottle with a print of pure yellow. This is noticeably different in my case
2.I also have the aforementioned print I ordered from a print shop, which I did print again, and they look completely different. The one from the print shop looks like you would expect, the one from my printer has a blue cast.

I will attribute this to the difference between high end photo printers and low end multifunction printers, and instead of complaining, I will simply adjust my expectations and accept that the differences between those two were probably bigger than I thought.

And no matter what, I am sure my ET-2750 will produce lots of decent prints, for a much lower ink cost, which is also important.

Thanks again to everyone who answered!

 

[pha3z]

I have The EPSON ET-2720. I found this forum because I also cannot get true yellow from my printer.

TLDR: Manufactures make junk drivers for their inkjet printers and won't let you print true colors.

The long:
I was trying to print CMYK documents as I make vector artwork, which is awesome because you get exact control over your colors -- unlike a photograph where your source material is RGB and the best you can do is some conversions and cleanup.

I noticed I couldn't get yellow to look yellow and I thought "How strange.. it should be just yellow ink." So I created a pure Y yellow square, made sure all color conversion in the document and print drivers was off. Then I printed. I use a magnifying glass (you need to do this part) and notice there are dots of non-yellow ink in the yellow. Wow. Horrible.

So then I dig around on the internet and found this post:
https://graphicdesign.stackexchange...-c-m-y-k-color-using-a-regular-inkjet-printer

One of the answers mentions that inkjet drivers (most/all?) convert documents to RGB even if you give them CMYK (WOW TERRIBLE) and then run their own color profile on it to send CMYK to the printer. I've also seen another claim that the printers themselves receive RGB and translate it on-the-fly(though I'm more skeptical about that, because its cheaper for manufacturers to pay programmers who do OS programming than embedded systems programming.). Either way: the point is, YOU CAN'T PRINT CMYK, and if your print driver sucks (as apparently the EPSON does), you're stuck never being able to print yellow. I tried a dozen combinations of different profiles and source documents and its just impossible.

Honestly, I'm very heated about it. I bought a printer knowing it prints CMYK and thinking "Oh sure I'll print CMYK documents." Nope, denied.

I searched the internet for "hack drivers" or "epson driver hack" or "custom epson driver" and all kinds of ilk trying to see if anybody has a way to send CMYK data to the printer. Unfortunately I've come up empty handed.

I would bank the original OP can't get true yellow because Epson won't let him print yellow.

If anybody knows of a tank-based printer that will let you actually send CMYK data to the printer, please let me know.

 

[ClarenceL]

I have The EPSON ET-2720. I found this forum because I also cannot get true yellow from my printer.

TLDR: Manufactures make junk drivers for their inkjet printers and won't let you print true colors.

The long:
I was trying to print CMYK documents as I make vector artwork, which is awesome because you get exact control over your colors -- unlike a photograph where your source material is RGB and the best you can do is some conversions and cleanup.

I noticed I couldn't get yellow to look yellow and I thought "How strange.. it should be just yellow ink." So I created a pure Y yellow square, made sure all color conversion in the document and print drivers was off. Then I printed. I use a magnifying glass (you need to do this part) and notice there are dots of non-yellow ink in the yellow. Wow. Horrible.

So then I dig around on the internet and found this post:
https://graphicdesign.stackexchange...-c-m-y-k-color-using-a-regular-inkjet-printer

One of the answers mentions that inkjet drivers (most/all?) convert documents to RGB even if you give them CMYK (WOW TERRIBLE) and then run their own color profile on it to send CMYK to the printer. I've also seen another claim that the printers themselves receive RGB and translate it on-the-fly(though I'm more skeptical about that, because its cheaper for manufacturers to pay programmers who do OS programming than embedded systems programming.). Either way: the point is, YOU CAN'T PRINT CMYK, and if your print driver sucks (as apparently the EPSON does), you're stuck never being able to print yellow. I tried a dozen combinations of different profiles and source documents and its just impossible.

Honestly, I'm very heated about it. I bought a printer knowing it prints CMYK and thinking "Oh sure I'll print CMYK documents." Nope, denied.

I searched the internet for "hack drivers" or "epson driver hack" or "custom epson driver" and all kinds of ilk trying to see if anybody has a way to send CMYK data to the printer. Unfortunately I've come up empty handed.

I would bank the original OP can't get true yellow because Epson won't let him print yellow.

If anybody knows of a tank-based printer that will let you actually send CMYK data to the printer, please let me know.

I have some application similar like yours, the similar model as ET-2720 called L3150.
After calibrate by colormunki via i1studio, it's acceptable and much similar to what should be seem on Illustrator after apply the printer profile for specific paper type/driver settings.
BTW, the plain paper usually don't have enough gamut volume.
I would suggest to get inkjet paper(EPSON 720dpi photo quality inkjet paper, or from other 3rd party) or matte paper as a start point.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I'm not clear about the issue - which 'yellow' are we talking about in the first place ? As long as this is not clarified e.g. via the color space used - there is not much which can be talked about. Just trying different profiles for papers you don't use won't fix the problem, and not a firmware hack either, and the 'problem' is definitely not a software/firmware issue of Epson printers and resp. drivers.

What are you aiming for - a colorimetrically correct print of colors ? You would need to use the absolute colorimetric rendering intent with a profile specific for your printer/driver settings , inks and paper type, an you then can check if your specific color - yellow or whatever - is within gamut at all. And yes - the paper type defines the overall gamut you can acheive at all - plain/uncoated paper is just not usable for useful color printing.

Are you giving your layouts away for print externally ? They can tell you how they need the data files - e.g. color space etc.
But if you don't there is no need to use CMYK in the first place - yes, the standard drivers all take RGB input and convert it internally to the actual inks used by your printer which may be more than CMYK inks and may include red or green and a light gray etc.

If you don't like that just get a large format printer and RIP software with it which replaces the standard driver altogether.