New and hoping for some advice please

[Emt]

Hi, I own a canon pixma ts9550 and am desperately needing some help/advice.
I want to print images to colour in (like a colouring book) using watercolour pens. I would like to print on either smooth watercolour paper or Bristol card.
The issue I’m having is that once I start colouring the ink is smearing it doesn’t if I use normal copy paper but this isnt strong enough to take the water.
One of the black cartridges is (I think) pigment and I was under the impression that pigment won’t smear? Is this correct? If so is there a way to tell the printer to use only the black pigment ink? Or can anyone suggest some card that I can use instead?
thanks very much

 

[Artur5]

In all likelihood, if you select 'plain paper' in the driver's menu I believe that your TS9550 will use only black pigment ink. provided it's a strictly black and white image, with no color at all. if the image contains non black colors (including shades of grey), then you might convert it to pure black and white before printing.
Don't select 'print in grey scale' in the driver. That would use a mix of all dye colors to make it look like grey.
Not knowing the TS9550, I'm not 100% sure that it performs this way, but all the Canon printers I owned did it.

 

[The Hat]

In all likelihood, if you select 'plain paper' in the driver's menu I believe that your TS9550 will use only black pigment ink.

The issue here is not the printer setting, but rather the media type, it’s more likely not suitable for inkjet printing..

 

[PeterBJ]

I guess the images prints OK with both media types, but the ink smears on the watercolour paper when watercolours are applied? If so I would also suggest to select plain paper when printing on the watercolour paper.

I printed a sheet of millimetre paper with all inks and with pigment black only, and dripped five drops of "pharmacists cleaning solution" on both. The paper printed with pigment ink is at the left:

It is seen the pigment ink doesn't smear and the mixed grey from pigment and dye ink does.

 

[Emt]

Thanks for the replies, all the images are black and white (as far as I’m aware) they look that way. Ive tried setting normal paper but it still smears. I don’t know anything about printers but got the ts9550 as I wanted to be able to print 12”x12” patterned card, this printer is known for being excellent for crafters. How would I “make“ the image black before printing? Is there a special inkjet paper that will allow me to use watercolours?
Failing all this if I got a laser printer would this solve my issues?

 

[Emt]

I guess the images prints OK with both media types, but think smears on the watercolour paper when watercolours are applied? If so I would also suggest to select plain paper when printing on the watercolour paper.

I printed a sheet of millimetre paper with all inks and with pigment black only, and dripped five drops of "pharmacists cleaning solution" on both. The paper printed with pigment ink is at the left:

View attachment 12113

It is seen the pigment ink doesn't smear and the mixed grey from pigment and dye ink does.

Which printer do you have?

 

[PeterBJ]

Do I understand this correctly: Black ink printed on plain paper using plain paper setting doesn't smear, but black ink printed on the watercolour paper using the same plain paper setting does smear?

If so I think @The Hat is right and the watercolour paper is not suitable for this purpose.

But you could do another test to make sure your watercolour paper is printed with pigment ink.

The image I used as the test example is named millimeterpapier grau.pdf and downloaded from papersnake.de.

As it is a .pdf file in grey colour both pigment black and dye colours are used in printing this on plain paper. I got a print using only black pigment by making a black and white copy on plain paper. I guess you could do the same and check if the print still smears.

Another test would be to print a text document on your watercolour paper, for instance the "Windows printer test page" and test if that also smears.

Could you upload an example of your pictures or just a crop for testing? I could then test it using different settings and different printers.

 

[Emt]

Thanks for your reply again. Ive attached some photos, on the plain/copy paper and the rough watercolour paper it’s ok but not on the smooth?
That would be really kind of you to do some tests for me, I’ve also attached the image I’ve been using.

 

[Emt]

This is what they look like after colouring

 

[PeterBJ]

I just printed the jpeg image using a Canon Pixma iP4300 printer on plain paper with plain paper setting, The ink does not smear even if I tested it immediately after it was printed. The used ink was Canon OEM PGI-5 PGBK.

The millimeterpaper pigment ink test was printed using a refilled cartridge with IS 1128 pigment black ink. This ink also didn't smear on plain paper.

I think the problem is that the ink does not adhere perfectly to the smooth paper. Maybe reducing the amount of ink in the printer driver settings will help?

If you are using refilled or aftermarket ink cartridges, then maybe an OEM cartridge will behave better?