B/W = Blue

[Larry]

I have an Epson Stylus C86. Prints great in colour but when trying to print
B/W, the photo comes out with a heavy blue cast to it. Doesn't matter if
the photo was shot in B/W or adjusted in Paint Shop Pro - they all come out
blue. Any ideas or suggestions? Many thanks

Larry

 

[Davy]

The first question is what inks and paper are you using?

The colour cast could be due to the type of paper you are using an
the brand of inks

No doubt this effect is varying with different brands of ink and pape
and no doubt other printer brands as well

I think the only real test is using OEM ink on OEM paper, once yo
establish the printer is not at fault then you a free to experimen
with various inks and papers, I guess a lot depends on the phot
content

Dav

 

[Arthur Entlich]

Some Epson printers give you an option in the driver of using just the
black ink to print black and white images.

Do a nozzle test and make sure your yellow nozzles/head is operating
correctly.

If your driver doesn't have this option, it's a color management issue,
and it probably means that all your prints, even the color ones are not
producing neutral colors correctly, (too much blue)

To correct it, other than buying an expensive system (both software and
hardware) to calibrate your monitor, and printer for correct color
rendition, you may just prefer to go into the Epson driver and move the
yellow slider up to compensate to neutralize the blue. If the prints
are actually coming out too cyan (blue-green) you need to raise the
yellow and the magenta equal amounts. It will take some trial and
error. Print thumb nail size images until you get it closer.

Art

 

[Larry]

(e-mail address removed) (Davy) wrote in @fe09.news.easynews.com:

The first question is what inks and paper are you using?

The colour cast could be due to the type of paper you are using and
the brand of inks.

No doubt this effect is varying with different brands of ink and paper
and no doubt other printer brands as well.

I think the only real test is using OEM ink on OEM paper, once you
establish the printer is not at fault then you a free to experiment
with various inks and papers, I guess a lot depends on the photo
content.

Davy

The problem exists with Epson glossy photo paper and ink as well as
generic glossy photo paper and inks.

This one has me scratching my head.

 

[Larry]

Some Epson printers give you an option in the driver of using just the
black ink to print black and white images.

Do a nozzle test and make sure your yellow nozzles/head is operating
correctly.

If your driver doesn't have this option, it's a color management
issue, and it probably means that all your prints, even the color ones
are not producing neutral colors correctly, (too much blue)

To correct it, other than buying an expensive system (both software
and hardware) to calibrate your monitor, and printer for correct color
rendition, you may just prefer to go into the Epson driver and move
the yellow slider up to compensate to neutralize the blue. If the
prints are actually coming out too cyan (blue-green) you need to raise
the yellow and the magenta equal amounts. It will take some trial and
error. Print thumb nail size images until you get it closer.

Art

Trial and error it is then......

 

[Arthur Entlich]

OK, two other thoughts...

If you haven't done so, see if converting the image to greyscale
improves color rendition (in your photo program),

Make sure the image is in RGB NOT CMYK. Epson printer drivers use RGB
as their usual source for color images.

A dirty approach to color management: Adjust the image on the screen so
it looks like the printed image using whatever tools you need (color
balance is usually the easiest to work with because it usually has three
sliders, Cyan to Red, Magenta to Green, Yellow to Blue.

Move these sliders until the image has the same hue (color cast) as the
print does. Make written note of the numerical positions the sliders
are at. Now starting with the image back as it was prior to these
changes, move the sliders the same amount in the opposite direction.
The image on the screen may look too yellow or orange, or sepia or
whatever, but don't worry about it. Now try printing it with the
printer using the same settings as the first print that was too blue
had. It should be much closer.

Art

 

[Davy]

How does the print test strip look..

If you are using OEM ink and Paper I would assume it to be right, yo
shouldn't have to fiddle about the hue controls which I clean forgo
to mention, thanks Art for bringing it to attention

With the C62 I couldn't notice any colourising when printing i
colour, funny I could never print greyscale though it always wante
to be either greenish or magentified and that was with OEM ink, bu
wasn't noticed on photos oddly...

Or was it the eye's playing tricks

Dav