Canon ip3000 and Kodak soft gloss double sided picture paper = faded blacks and wet ink

[Steve]

I just bought the ip3000 and I have to say I'm very disappointed in
how it handles black on 'kodak soft gloss two sided picture paper',
which is the paper I currently have tons of. It comes out much
lighter/greyish than on my previous Canon s830d and cannot handle fine
text print very well when the text is on an all black background. The
text looks washed out and I usally have to increase its size to
compensate, which is a ridiculous solution. Any other color background
is okay, but not black. I don't understand this. Why does one canon
printer work well with kodak paper and not the new generation
pixma3000? I've tried all paper settings. The best setting, to get
blacks dark like they should be, is 'plain paper' at highest quality.
But then, the ink is wet and takes a day to dry. I also get these
weird rows of white dots spaced out every inch, going down the 5x7
print, like the rollers made contact with it. These dots don't appear
on any other setting. It just ruins the print. I've already wasted
about 20 sheets of two sided kodak paper trying to fix this problem by
trying all the settings. Remember, these are not photos I'm printing -
they are graphics. Usually a a few solid colors with text.

I can get dark black, sharp text, by using 'plain paper' setting. But
then I have wet ink and these rows of dots! If I use the next best
setting, 'other paper', the blacks are really light and the text very
dull, but at least the ink is dry right away. If you hold up both
prints side by side you'd think they came from printers from opposite
ends of the cost scale. It's really obvious that one looks infinitely
better than the other and it's drving me nuts. Some of you may say
'it's the paper, try something else.' Well, I just bought 500 sheets
of this kodak picture paper, so I'm not about to throw it away. And
besides, 'blacks' worked fine on my old Canon S830D on 'all settings',
so there is no reason why this paper should not work on the new line
of Pixma printers.

I've already been in contact with a kodak rep and he referred me to
kodak's site where they have 'recommended' printer settings for the
ip3000 when using kodak papers. Get this. When I used their
'laboratory tested' settings for the Canon ip3000, which were,
amazingly, 'matte paper' setting for 'kodak soft gloss double sided
picture paper', the ink looked like it had been painted on with a
brush! The paper was soaked, and the text completely washed out by the
excess ink. Absolutely the worst possible setting for this paper. I
don't know how they came up with this setting, but it is nowhere near
correct and I warn anyone using this paper with the ip3000 to ignore
that 'matte paper' setting. It doesn't make sense. Matte paper is
supposed to be able to soak up a lot of ink, so why would they use
that setting for a soft gloss paper that obviously cannot even dry
with a minimal amount of ink?

Has anyone been using Kodak soft gloss two sided picture paper with
the IP3000? Any hints at getting proper dark blacks without drying
time? I'm at the point now where I am going to either dump Kodak or
Canon or both of them for some other brand. If I could buy the Canon
S830D again, I would, just to solve this problem, but the printer is
out of print. Help!

 

[Martin Trautmann]

Why does one canon
printer work well with kodak paper and not the new generation
pixma3000? I've tried all paper settings. The best setting, to get
blacks dark like they should be, is 'plain paper' at highest quality.

Why / how should Canon know about any other paper manufacturer anywhere
on the world?

Personally, I feel you need some kind of calibration support to get the
best from this printer. However, you should have considered the iP4000
which got 'black color', while the iP3000 got 'black text' only and has
to mix colored black from CMY.

But then, the ink is wet and takes a day to dry.

I once had this problem when I used the wrong side of the photo paper -
and I guess both of us are talking about a printer setup for color
print!?

Taking the wrong side of a paper while using two-sided paper should not
be possible - but I don't know your paper.

Did you try the printer setup options for calibration yet?

Regards
Martin

 

[Ron Baird]

Greetings Steve,

Do you have a friend Jennifer that is doing the same thing? I did get
another request and review from someone doing an identical project.

I think the source of the problem here is that you and Jennifer are trying
to print on Picture Paper Soft Gloss: an all black 5x6 graphic with some
white and blue small text. This type of reverse-font image is a very
challenging one to print successfully on a porous, non-RC paper,
particularly while trying to simultaneously meet her requirement of very
dark blacks. In addition, the Canon iP3000 is a four-ink printer using a
pigment black ink. I suggest you contact Canon about this issues for more
details. If I recall correctly, this printer does not offer a dye-based
"photo black" ink, and thus has limited ways to create high-quality,
high-density blacks as you want to create them.

The most important point is that the recommended printer settings, which you
seem to be applying correctly, are created to give the best results when you
are printing digital photographs at home. They are not optimized for
printing graphics as you describe. Therefore, you should do some
experimentation of your own and with the help of Canon to create the best
settings for you application.

I do have some tips or suggestions, however, that might help.

1. If plain paper is giving the best blacks, but is also giving lines across
the print, this is because Canon wisely does not make their highest quality
setting available for plain paper. An alternative is to use a media
selection of "high resolution paper". This will allow you to then set the
quality to High or Fine.

2. Under the Color Adjustment> Manual settings, there are two things which
should help: 1.) Setting the print type to Graphic will better match the
print mode to your application. 2.) Setting the Intensity slider lower (try
a setting like -10) will help limit the ink being applied, and will help
with the problem of the black ink flooding the text.

3. Anything that can be done in creating the input file to allow the printer
to call for less black ink will be helpful. All inkjet papers have an "ink
limit" above which you can add more black ink but not get any increase in
color density. All this excess ink just floods the paper and causes puddling
or spreading of the ink into adjacent areas or colors.

4. Certain types of media are better suited to high-density graphics
printing. For example, the Kodak's Premium Picture Paper is a paper that
uses a resin-coated support and has excellent black densities. However, it
does not meet your requirement of two-sided printing, and I am actually not
aware of any two-sided inkjet papers that have a resin-coated support.

Hope this helps you and Jennifer, Steve, let me know if you need more help.

Talk to you soon.

Ron Baird
Eastman Kodak Company