Blacks are dark blue ?

[KnightCrawler]

I can't get my refill ink to give me true dark black. It comes out as a horrible dark blue. I test printed the gettyimages test pictures and anything that should be black or gray is blue.

 

[ghwellsjr]

Assuming that you have a Canon printer, here are two links that might help you:

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1275

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1447

If you need more help, please answer these questions:

What type of paper, plain or photo?

Are you doing duplex printing?

Are you sure your cartridges are in the correct positions?

Does the nozzle check show any clogs?

What kind of refill ink are you using?

What kind of cartridges are you using?

 

[KnightCrawler]

Assuming that you have a Canon printer, here are two links that might help you:

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1275

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1447

If you need more help, please answer these questions:

What type of paper, plain or photo?

A: Plain paper and High Resolution paper

Are you doing duplex printing?

A: NO

Are you sure your cartridges are in the correct positions?

A: YES

Does the nozzle check show any clogs?

A: I printed a nozzle check of the IP3000 with refill ink and IP6600D with Canon ink and they look almost the same.

What kind of refill ink are you using?

Some type of older Canon refill ink....I have so much I hate to throw it out.

What kind of cartridges are you using?

BCI-6 Carts made by Canon

The printer is a Canon IP3000 that does not have the memory chips on them. I wanted to try the older Canon high resolution ink since I had so much of it and at first it seemed to work ok but as soon as it needs gray or black I get blue instead.

 

[KnightCrawler]

Grayscale test

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/images/laserkey.pdf

I downloaded the grayscale test in pdf form and as you can see it comes out blue. I set the IP3000 to PhotoPaper Pro and Grayscale and printed it on plain paper.

 

[ghwellsjr]

When you tell your printer that you are printing on PhotoPaper Pro or any other photo paper, it will not use any black ink. The iP3000 does not have a dye black cartridge so the scans that I provided in the second link above do not apply. I don't know how the iP3000 mixes its three colors to produce different shades of grey and black but I think you can understand why it is not pure black. You should try the greyscale test on photo paper to see if it is any better.

However, if you tell your printer that you are printing on plain paper and select greyscale, it will use only the BCI-3eBK pigment black and that should look pretty good.

 

[KnightCrawler]

When you tell your printer that you are printing on PhotoPaper Pro or any other photo paper, it will not use any black ink. The iP3000 does not have a dye black cartridge so the scans that I provided in the second link above do not apply. I don't know how the iP3000 mixes its three colors to produce different shades of grey and black but I think you can understand why it is not pure black. You should try the greyscale test on photo paper to see if it is any better.

However, if you tell your printer that you are printing on plain paper and select greyscale, it will use only the BCI-3eBK pigment black and that should look pretty good.

I first printed the PDF file with plain paper selected and in draft mode just to save ink and it's definitly darker.



The question remains how do I print DVD covers and get black and gray when needed ?

I make them in Adobe Photoshop and the light and bright ones look pretty good but any ones with black or shades of black look aweful.

 

[headphonesman]

I first printed the PDF file with plain paper selected and in draft mode just to save ink and it's definitly darker.

Knightcrawler , I had exactly the same problem until recently with the MP 150. using Photo Paper pro setting at highest quality. (and cheepie refill inks)

I changed to plain paper setting at highest quality and the result was 90% better , quite acceptable. The color rendition may not be quite as subtle, but then the MP 150 is not a subtle printer!.

ghwellsjnr is correct, using the Photo paper pro setting makes black using the 3 colors alone.....you are better getting the black from the black cart.

If using this method the black is better (but still not right for you), you might consider using a couple of different blacks from other sources (pigment or dye ?), to see if this does the trick.
Many of my photo papers (not Canon) work better at the plain setting (on all my printers).

 

[ghwellsjr]

Apparently, the Canon printers use only dye inks on CDs. They appear not to use the pigment black which would give you the darkness you want. Your only hope is to get a printer with a dye black cartridge. There is still a printer available with the older non-chip cartridges on eBay that now includes the capability to print on CDs. Follow this thread for complete information:

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1533

 

[KnightCrawler]

I think I should explain that I was using the plain paper setting but with the borderless feature on since the DVD covers are 274mm and the paper is only 279mm.

It would seem that it automatically turns off the text black when you switch on borderless feature. Also using borderless and plain paper means that high quality mode is not available. Plain paper without borderless and the High setting is available again.

So now I have black again but the DVD covers are being slightly cropped, don't know what the default borders are with the printer but I wish they allowed you to set them at 2mm.

To bad it isn't one of the 5 ink models with a photo black cart so it would do deep black and borderless print.

 

[ghwellsjr]

Wow, I never knew that borderless printing prohibited High quality. I wonder what other interactions are going on between these settings.

You can adjust the borders slightly with the "Amount of Extension" control which appears whenever borderless printing is selected. Maybe one of the settings will give you what you want.

What software are you using to print your CDs and covers?