Pixelated prints?

[ozarkcdn]

I'm trying to get a better handle on judging printing errors - one problem I've noticed with printing on 3rd party (old kodak ultima glossy from Sam's Club) is that the prints are 'pixelated' compared to prints on Canon OEM paper. The pixelation is hiding fine details, so I'm guessing the drops are too heavy or too light. I'm wondering what setting to try to change to fix it - does lowering the quality setting in the win7 driver decrease the ink put to paper? IIRC I printed on the 3rd party paper at the 1 quality (top) setting in the driver.

Thanks!

 

[jtoolman]

You are using the wrong term. Pixels are what composes the image. Has absolutely nothing to do with the printer ink and or paper.
Maybe what you are seeing is puddling of the ink droplets which is very common on Kodak Paper. Do not use it. The Surface coating is not at all compatible with Epson or Canon inks. You Canon paper is. So you do not get the droplet puddles occurring on the Kodak paper.
That is the problem here.

Joe

 

[ghwellsjr]

EDIT: Sorry, I thought you were copying, not just printing. My post was irrelevant.

I'm trying to get a better handle on judging printing errors - one problem I've noticed with printing on 3rd party (old kodak ultima glossy from Sam's Club) is that the prints are 'pixelated' compared to prints on Canon OEM paper. The pixelation is hiding fine details, so I'm guessing the drops are too heavy or too light. I'm wondering what setting to try to change to fix it - does lowering the quality setting in the win7 driver decrease the ink put to paper? IIRC I printed on the 3rd party paper at the 1 quality (top) setting in the driver.

Thanks!

I'm wondering what you mean by "pixelated". Someone once asked me a question why some copies he made from a glossy print had tiny little dots randomly placed all over the copy, like someone sprinkled salt on it except the dots were yellowish. It turns out the original glossy print had a crinkly texture to it (it must have a term) which cause the reflected light to focus little spots of intense light from the scanner and produce the annoying effect in the copy. It probably was intentional on the part of the photo studio that produced the original.

 

[ozarkcdn]

I wish I had a macro lens to show you - it's kind of like when you look at an old RGB monitor too closely - you can see the individual RGB cells. It's most apparent on uniform color areas that don't look 'smooth' - ie, choppy / pixeleated rather than a 'yellowish' shift.

 

[jtoolman]

As I said earlier, it's your KODAK paper causing the problem!!!!! The Canon inks do not work well T ll with your KODAK paper.
Ink does not PIXELATE anything!!!! So it is NOT pixilation. Your ink is puddling!
If you get smooth results on Canon OEM paper and grainy results on the KODAK paper with the same printer driver settings then guess what the problem might be?
Instead of microscopic individual dots creating a smooth tonal transition, the KODAK paper causes the individual droplets to puddle together producing that grainy look you are experiencing. Have you noticed that the KODAK paper prints take much longer to dry that those on the CANON paper?
Some HP papers show the same incompatibility with EPSON inks.

Joe

 

[ozarkcdn]

Sounds good - I'll look for new paper... thanks for the help!