i950 splotchy output

Darth

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My printer has started to leave dark blobs (smaller than a pin head but
visible to the naked eye) in all of the darker areas of my photos. It
is much more evident in photo paper, but still visible with a magnifying
glass on plain paper.

It is like the darker areas are using very course dots (black?) to
darken the colors instead of fine dots.

Could this be the print head, although the nozzle check and head
alignment appear to print normally?
 

fotofreek

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What brand and type of paper? OEM or aftermarket ink? Old cartridge? Very dry environment? All of these can come into play.
 

Darth

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As I mentioned, this is evident to varying degrees on many different papers including plain paper. Right now I am trying Office Depot Premium High Gloss, but I just went through a whole package of Kodak Ultima trying to sort out the horible color matches with different color profiles when I realized that part of the problem was these "splotches". I wish I could describe them better, but under a magnifying glass all the shadowed areas look like scabs.

I just tried cleaning my print head with hot water and then compressed air with no change.

I am using MIS inks.
 

fotofreek

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I had problems with Kodak Ultima paper with an Epson stylus 900 and with my Canon i960. In the dark areas the ink pooled and didn't dry. Also had some areas that had a bronze appearance. I didn't look under magnification, but I did try Kodak drivers and that didn't seem to help either. Try printing a purge file for six ink colors. You can download it from the MIS website. You will then see if it is isolated to one color. Might be a problem with the black cartridge only. If so put in an OEM canon cart and see if the problem goes away. Could be too much air coming in the vent hole or a slightly incomplete seal on the fill hole that lets more ink through than it should. I'm not an expert - write directly to Neil for a more difinitive answer.
 

Darth

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fotofreek said:
Try printing a purge file for six ink colors. You can download it from the MIS website. You will then see if it is isolated to one color.

Thanks for the idea. I couldn't see any problems until I reduced the intensity all the way down to -50 (all color management disabled to the best of my ability). Now I see this scabby output on both the black and regular cyan. Not quite ready to waste a new cartridge on those colors yet, but of course will do that if necessary.

Color on the Cyan looks to me to be way too dark (purple), so maybe some black is being added to it.

fotofreek said:
I'm not an expert - write directly to Neil for a more difinitive answer.

I tried sending an email to Neil (nslade at h2net.net) but it bounced.

I scanned a good example of my problem, but I don't know how to insert it into this message.:(
 

Nifty

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Upload pictures using this tool:

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/img/

then come back to the forum and use the "" tags to insert an image. If you need more help, post questions here:
http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=107#107
 

Darth

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I discovered the cause!!

First MIS suggested that my ink had separated even though it was not past the expiration date. I noticed that my bottle of black did indeed show some signs of separation. However, I inserted a new cartridge of black ink (also MIS) and I still had the problem.

I tried some older, less expensive paper again, and the problem went away. I know, I had tried different papers before. It must have been a combination of the the ink and the paper. I have since heard of other people having this problem with Office Depot Premium High Gloss paper. Evidently, the gloss is too slick and allows the ink to separate or pool before drying.

I am now using their Professional Ultrabright Mat paper, and it works fine.
 
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