I have run into a small problem with producing black/white prints from
my inkjet printer, a Canon i9950 (same as i9900) when printing from
scans of older family photographs.

The scans are converted to grayscale in photoshop so there is no
suggestion of color shifts with the image, and when printed the results,
while not *exactly* neutral gray, are pretty close, bearing in mind the
printer is printing in three colors, but I have a client who considers
that the slightest shift from absolute neutral is unacceptable.

Short of going to a quad-black or equivalent printing system, I consider
the prints to be pretty good.

So, the question is, for those who do b/w prints from inkjets, how close
to neutral is close enough, and has anyone run into this objection from
a client, or even a family member?

Colin D.

"Colin D" <ColinD@killspam.127.0.0.1> wrote in message
news:43F0F870.221CB149@killspam.127.0.0.1...

> So, the question is, for those who do b/w prints from inkjets, how close
> to neutral is close enough, and has anyone run into this objection from
> a client, or even a family member?
>
> Colin D.

In the end the customer is always right.

Perhaps he wouldn't notice the loss of picture quality if you told the
printer to only use black? or is this one of those printers that never
really stops using colour ink no matter how you configure it?

You're in NZ aren't you? (me too)

Anything I can print for you on my Epson 7800 (legendary for B & W), and
send to you?

Cheers,

Colin

CMY is not really appropriate for professional work. Bite the bullet and get
a CMYK or even six-ink printer.

John

"Colin D" <ColinD@killspam.127.0.0.1> wrote in message
news:43F0F870.221CB149@killspam.127.0.0.1...
>I have run into a small problem with producing black/white prints from
> my inkjet printer, a Canon i9950 (same as i9900) when printing from
> scans of older family photographs.
>
> The scans are converted to grayscale in photoshop so there is no
> suggestion of color shifts with the image, and when printed the results,
> while not *exactly* neutral gray, are pretty close, bearing in mind the
> printer is printing in three colors, but I have a client who considers
> that the slightest shift from absolute neutral is unacceptable.
>
> Short of going to a quad-black or equivalent printing system, I consider
> the prints to be pretty good.
>
> So, the question is, for those who do b/w prints from inkjets, how close
> to neutral is close enough, and has anyone run into this objection from
> a client, or even a family member?
>
> Colin D.

John Rampling wrote:
> CMY is not really appropriate for professional work. Bite the bullet
> and get a CMYK or even six-ink printer.
>
> John
>
> "Colin D" <ColinD@killspam.127.0.0.1> wrote in message
> news:43F0F870.221CB149@killspam.127.0.0.1...
>> I have run into a small problem with producing black/white prints
>> from my inkjet printer, a Canon i9950 (same as i9900) when printing
>> from scans of older family photographs.
>>
>> The scans are converted to grayscale in photoshop so there is no
>> suggestion of color shifts with the image, and when printed the
>> results, while not *exactly* neutral gray, are pretty close, bearing
>> in mind the printer is printing in three colors, but I have a client
>> who considers that the slightest shift from absolute neutral is
>> unacceptable. Short of going to a quad-black or equivalent printing
>> system, I
>> consider the prints to be pretty good.
>>
>> So, the question is, for those who do b/w prints from inkjets, how
>> close to neutral is close enough, and has anyone run into this
>> objection from a client, or even a family member?
>>
>> Colin D.

OK, I'm confused. You say that the printer is "... printing in three
colors," but when I look up the specs on that model it says that it's an
eight-color printer. So, which is it? Does the printer have a true black
cartridge? If so, look in your printer setup dialog (it may be on an
advanced tab or somewhere else not obvious) for the option to use only
black. I have this on my Epson C84 (which is good, since I use it only for
BW printing), and I would think that it would be available on your higher
end printer ("Canon's No.1 photo printer in digital photo printing" - from
their Australian site Web page for the i9950). Look in your printed(??) or
online documentation for information on monochrome or greyscale printing.

Cheers,
Scott

C J Southern wrote:
>
> You're in NZ aren't you? (me too)
>
> Anything I can print for you on my Epson 7800 (legendary for B & W), and
> send to you?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Colin


Thanks for that offer, CJ, but the job, if it goes ahead, will involve
some hundreds of prints at 6x4, from a mixed bag of 127, 120, 116, and
other odd-ball size original in varying degrees of decay, all resized to
6x4 at 300 dpi. If the test runs dont' satisfy this guy, I won't be
doing the rest of the scans.

Colin D.

"Colin D" <ColinD@killspam.127.0.0.1> wrote in message
news:43F1940B.129EFC30@killspam.127.0.0.1...

> Thanks for that offer, CJ, but the job, if it goes ahead, will involve
> some hundreds of prints at 6x4, from a mixed bag of 127, 120, 116, and
> other odd-ball size original in varying degrees of decay, all resized to
> 6x4 at 300 dpi. If the test runs dont' satisfy this guy, I won't be
> doing the rest of the scans.

No worries.

Just a word of caution if I may - I've been doing a few 6 * 4 and 7.5 * 5
prints recently, but we've come to realise that they just don't stand up to
any degree of handling. We've even tried spraying them - but they're still
getting scratched very easily (even just the movement of one on top of the
other).

We've reached the conclusion that frame-mounded prints are ok - small &
sprayed oned may be OK in an album that's seperated by rice paper - but
hand-held stuff seems to be about 100 times more delicate than conventional
"lab" stuff.

And to make matters worse, this is on a printer that's renowned for
producing hardy prints.

Scott Glasgow wrote:
>
> John Rampling wrote:
> > CMY is not really appropriate for professional work. Bite the bullet
> > and get a CMYK or even six-ink printer.
> >
> > John
> >
> > "Colin D" <ColinD@killspam.127.0.0.1> wrote in message
> > news:43F0F870.221CB149@killspam.127.0.0.1...
> >> I have run into a small problem with producing black/white prints
> >> from my inkjet printer, a Canon i9950 (same as i9900) when printing
> >> from scans of older family photographs.
> >>
> >> The scans are converted to grayscale in photoshop so there is no
> >> suggestion of color shifts with the image, and when printed the
> >> results, while not *exactly* neutral gray, are pretty close, bearing
> >> in mind the printer is printing in three colors, but I have a client
> >> who considers that the slightest shift from absolute neutral is
> >> unacceptable. Short of going to a quad-black or equivalent printing
> >> system, I
> >> consider the prints to be pretty good.
> >>
> >> So, the question is, for those who do b/w prints from inkjets, how
> >> close to neutral is close enough, and has anyone run into this
> >> objection from a client, or even a family member?
> >>
> >> Colin D.
>
> OK, I'm confused. You say that the printer is "... printing in three
> colors," but when I look up the specs on that model it says that it's an
> eight-color printer. So, which is it? Does the printer have a true black
> cartridge? If so, look in your printer setup dialog (it may be on an
> advanced tab or somewhere else not obvious) for the option to use only
> black. I have this on my Epson C84 (which is good, since I use it only for
> BW printing), and I would think that it would be available on your higher
> end printer ("Canon's No.1 photo printer in digital photo printing" - from
> their Australian site Web page for the i9950). Look in your printed(??) or
> online documentation for information on monochrome or greyscale printing.
>
> Cheers,
> Scott

You're quite right, it's an 8-color printer, and I guess I really meant
5 colors used for b/w output, 2 magentas and cyans plus a yellow.
There's only one black cartridge, so the printer has to use color to
generate the lighter tones smoothly, I guess.

This client even pointed out that the paper itself in the whites was too
white. He apparently wanted a creamy paper to more or leess match the
silver prints I was copying. I don't think this job is going to fly.

Colin D.

"Colin D" <ColinD@killspam.127.0.0.1> wrote in message
news:43F1A620.5E2308FD@killspam.127.0.0.1...
>
> This client even pointed out that the paper itself in the whites was too
> white. He apparently wanted a creamy paper to more or leess match the
> silver prints I was copying. I don't think this job is going to fly.

Perhaps you could use a program like Irfanview to batch tint them a bit
yellow?

Does the Canon i9950 really print in CMY? I suspect otherwise.

Six color (CcMmYK) printers are no more likely, and maybe less so, to
produce neutral results across the entire density range than a CMYK or
even a CMY can. The drivers in a CcMmYK printer need to be even more
complex to get an image without some color casting.

Art


John Rampling wrote:

> CMY is not really appropriate for professional work. Bite the bullet and get
> a CMYK or even six-ink printer.
>
> John
>
> "Colin D" <ColinD@killspam.127.0.0.1> wrote in message
> news:43F0F870.221CB149@killspam.127.0.0.1...
>
>>I have run into a small problem with producing black/white prints from
>>my inkjet printer, a Canon i9950 (same as i9900) when printing from
>>scans of older family photographs.
>>
>>The scans are converted to grayscale in photoshop so there is no
>>suggestion of color shifts with the image, and when printed the results,
>>while not *exactly* neutral gray, are pretty close, bearing in mind the
>>printer is printing in three colors, but I have a client who considers
>>that the slightest shift from absolute neutral is unacceptable.
>>
>>Short of going to a quad-black or equivalent printing system, I consider
>>the prints to be pretty good.
>>
>>So, the question is, for those who do b/w prints from inkjets, how close
>>to neutral is close enough, and has anyone run into this objection from
>>a client, or even a family member?
>>
>>Colin D.
>
>
>