Canon i9900 red color cast

[bcorson]

I have an i9900 that I have had for about 2 years and up until recently getting excellent results. Had a banding problem which I resolved (thanks to advice from posts on this forum) after several cleanings with alcohol and Windex. Now however when I print photos I get a red cast especially on yellows and lighter greens. If I print the same image on plain paper or even on photopaper using plain paper setting colors are OK.

Any ideas as to what might be causing this? Could I have damaged the print head during cleaning?

Thanks for help!

Bob

 

[Tin Ho]

If you are getting a redish tint your printer is putting out too much red ink or not enough Cyan ink. It's unlikly for any inkjet printer to print out too much of any color in any way. So it must be your Cylan which is not feeding enough ink. Check your Cyan cartridge or replace it with another one. You may still have a clog which is in Cyan. Check your nozzle check carefully especially on Cyan.

 

[bcorson]

Thanks I figured that it must be not enough of one color or another especially since red huge only happens when using glossy photo paper which uses a driver setting that puts out more ink. I just wasn't sure which color it would be. Nozzle test looks fine. No banding and colors are all there and uniform. I checked each pad where the cart deposits ink and they all look to have an ink drop on them except maybe the yellow which doesn't seem to have a drop there so may be not providing enopugh flow. I have a bunch of printing to do on high quality non photo paper and will try that to see if things get better if not I will try replacing the cyan and maybe the yellow. I guess it could also be the photo cyan cartridge as well or instead of the cyan.

Thanks for help.

Bob

 

[Tin Ho]

It's probably not Yellow that caused your reddish tint. If Yellow ink is reduced you should get a blue tint. If Magenta (or PM) is reduced you will get a green tint. And if Cyan (or PC) is reduced you will get a reddish tint.

If the printer printed fine before the banding problem but getting a tint after the banding problem was fixed I'll say the problem isn't really fixed. Again check your Cyan ink cartridge. If you have an OEM Cyan on hand you should use it and see if it makes a difference. If there is a clog in the print head (Cyan) using an OEM Cyan will not show an improvement.

Or, have you changed your color management setup by any chance that you do not remember now? It can toss your perfect colors into a total disaster.

 

[Grandad35]

Have you by any chance recently changed cartridge suppliers or received a new batch of carts?

 

[bcorson]

Thanks Tin Ho. I will check out cyan. I don't have an OEM cyan/photo cyan on hand but can get one but will try another one of the ones I have first. I checked all the settings and color management several times and unless I am missing something all is unchanged.

Grandad: no new batch of ink.

As I mentioned before colors are fine if I don't use the high output of ink settings so I assume that it is a "high" ink flow issue in that either cyan/photo cyan cartridge not putting out enough ink under high flow demand and/or some clogging still present despite no banding on test as Tin Ho suggested.

Will try all those things.

Thank you both very much for your help!

Bob

 

[ghwellsjr]

As I mentioned before colors are fine if I don't use the high output of ink settings so I assume that it is a "high" ink flow issue in that either cyan/photo cyan cartridge not putting out enough ink under high flow demand

I have observed this problem with non-OEM cartridges and is the reason I now refill Canon cartridges exclusively. The problem is caused by the single piece of foam (also called a sponge) in the larger compartment. Canon used to make their cartridges with a single piece of foam too, but they changed the design to two pieces of foam. The upper piece of foam is a denser material that does not readily accept ink. It's purpose is to allow air to get to the top of the groves located on the wall separating the top compartments so that the air can get down to the hole at the bottom of the compartment to replace the ink that is delivered from the supply tank.

 

[bcorson]

Thanks to everyone. I am up and running fine again. Did another thorough cleaning of the printhead and changed photocyan and cyan cartridges which were both getting low anyway. I will also replace my cartridges with the newer Canon with the double sponges. Thanks again for all the help. You guys are great!

Bob

 

[WhiteDog]

Thanks for all who contributed to this thread. I was going crazy with my Canon i9900. I would get pink prints on glossy paper and good prints on "plain" paper, all without changing the paper type in the preferences box. No other forum mentioned this solution, though Colorbat came close with the explanation of vacuum differentials between the nozzles of different colors. I washed the nozzles in the head in head cleaner and replaced the non-canon sponge cartridges with refilled Canon originals and all is back to like new. Banding seems to result from the same cause. One addition I would make is that I did not pop the ball out of the top of the reserve tank. I left it and drilled a hole just south of that to take an 8x3/8 screw, on which I fitted a 1/32" homemade neoprene washer. There is just not much plastic to take a thread if you pop the little ball, and I am finished with those horrible little black plugs and the nylon fine-threaded screws too. Thanks again.