SC-P600 suddenly a blue color cast

Ink stained Fingers said:

The lightness of the paper with your nozzle check is not uniform - darker on the left side than on the right side, this makes judging the differences between C and LC difficult.

Do you have another cartridge set - using at least a different C and LC would show if it's really a printer/driver/ whatever or an ink problem.

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I printed out some color patches designed to mimic the ink set for the SC-P600. Even though I don't have QTR to guarantee I actually only printed the individual cartridges, it looked like all colours print beautifully, but the LK seemed a little bluish. So I renewed LK and LLK for good measure (both were running low).

I do not have another C or LC laying around.

Here is what the color swatches looked like. (The last row is only YMC-YMC)
Excuse the horrible, horrible scan. But the colours do look excellent.

I re-printed the above image and bleh, the entire image has a blue shade again. Not even close to neutral.

Thanks for the further suggestions.

I printed and scanned a new nozzle check. Please Note: The nozzle check has been scanned with a standard office scanner. Colours may not be represented correct and the saturation is not right due to scanner but they do look similar to what I see with my eye.

I have taken out all cartridges and gently shook them for at least one minute.

I have used default paper profiles, way back from when I purchased the printer.

Thanks for the new nozzle check. What a difference.

Still, your nozzle check looks different than the one in your manual. Maybe shake the cartridges for 1-2 minutes and retry?

Have you tried printing the B&W image again since changing out cartridges?

stratman said:

Thanks for the new nozzle check. What a difference.

Still, your nozzle check looks different than the one in your manual. Maybe shake the cartridges for 1-2 minutes and retry?

Have you tried printing the B&W image again since changing out cartridges?

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Sorry for not providing a proper scan in the first place, it was late at night ^^
I am due to have my first instalment and exhibition on Thursday and haven't printed my images yet. But I am not panicking yet.

I have indeed shaken all cartridges multiple times now diligently but without "ketchup-bottle" ferocity.
There is no way the ink is not homogenised by now. However, I do understand there is some ink in the feeding lines, correct? I have no idea if I have used that up by now. After the second shake of every cartridge I have performed two cleaning cycles. No change.

I also have printed my original full B&W image exactly like I have done for the past 3 years. It still comes out with a blue tone.

I do not think the nozzle check is off. Here is a random nozzle check (without issues) from a sister model the p800 from the internet (source: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4269006). The p800 uses similar or identical ink but bigger cartridges. Looks the same to me

Lesslemming said:

I have indeed shaken all cartridges multiple times

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The DPReview OP, IIRC, states he shook the cartridges initially a bit, but it wasn't until he shook them 1-2 minutes was there resolution of his cast issue. You have to read until the second to last sentence of the last post to find that tidbit.

Did you shake for this long in a single shaking?

Lesslemming said:

Here is a random nozzle check (without issues) from a sister model the p800

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Yes, I saw that in my initial search for a P600 nozzle check image. If they use the exact same cartridges then it is applicable. I'll leave that to you to determine. My goal was to find an exact match - a P600 nozzle check. Inexplicably, Google did not seem to find one, at least in my superficial scanning of results.

Comparing your latest nozzle check with the P800's still look different than the other.

You either have an ink problem, a paper problem, or something internal to the printer's electronics problem.

Ink stained Fingers said:

So the question remains what has changed at the time you observed this color shift the first time - e.g. using a different program to print - hardware changes like a different monitor on which you do color adjustments etc.

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I'm not sure yet about the cause of the problem - a swap of all cartridges could show whether there is an ink problem - or is it one of the more hidden adjustments in the driver with the advanced B/W Photo printing option. You may try to print - a small print on a 4x6" sheet should suffice - with the grayscale mode - you probably have to change the paper selection - e.g. normal paper or quality ink jet paper, this mode does not give you any toning option and should print with the matte black ink. I don't know if you have a paper selection for glossy papers which give you the grayscale mode at all in the driver.

Which type of paper are you using at this time showing up with the problems - matte or glossy or ?

Please post a screen print of those driver settings causing the current problems.

Ink stained Fingers said:

I'm not sure yet about the cause of the problem

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Change 'book' to 'post' (and everything else)...

I shook all cartridges multiple times a minimum of 1 minute, yes. I re-did the procedure for a third time now.
All cartridges out, shake this time actually really shaking them. Not so much as to create foam, but not just gently back and forth. I shook them. ALL!

Afterwards a head cleaning cycle and A4 print size for every color cartridge.

No changes whatsoever. My print has a blue cast.

I do not have the ability to switch to MK. My MK has never been in use, not once. Switching now would surely kill the valve.

Here are my settings (Epson Print Layout as example).
I have printed with different settings (ICC or Printer manages color or ABW, different Papers in the media setting, all similar in result)

• Switched cartridges since problem occurred: LK, LLK, Cyan
• 4 different, well known papers that I have used for a long time. This can not be a paper problem.
• premium luster and semigloss as paper type. It shouldn't be a profile problem, either.
• AWB (neutral, light and neutral, darker)
• Printer manages color
• Application manages color with ICC profile (color management off)
• A different machine with an entirely newly installed driver. It is also not a driver problem on the PC side

You checked already for quite a lot of options what could cause the color shift, I'm a kind of puzzled at this time that it is so difficult to isolate the cause - printer - ink or software/driver etc, all settings are set on neutral as I see it. Was there any update by Epson for the driver or the Epson print layout software ?
You should be able to compensate the blue tint via the Color Settings to neutral with some horizontal/vertical offset as a work around