Canon S520 Print Quality Problem

[Chris M]

I have a weird problem with my Canon S520. For some reason, it has decided
it won't print at full photo quality... not very often, anyway.

I print single prints from Photshop on photopaper at high quality, but most
of them seem to print at standard quality for normal paper, and as a result,
the colors aren't very nice. If I change the printer settings back and forth
between some other settings, do a print with those and then go back to high
quality photo printing, sometimes it will work, but more often than not, it
won't.

It's 100% consistent, in the sense that once it does print correctly, there
are no variations throughout the print. I have tried all the obvious things,
like re-installing the drivers, cleaning the heads, new cartridges, etc, but
it makes no difference whatsoever.

Like I said, I have only managed to get it to work when I have gone back and
forth through the settings, and even then it only works once in a blue moon,
so it could just be random. If anybody has any ideas, or have had this
problem, I would really appreciate some help, as it's driving me insane, and
I have wasted a fortune on photo paper now.

TIA,

Chris

 

[Ron Cohen]

It sounds more like the application setup than a problem with the printer.
Photoshop could be using its own printer profiles resulting in double
profiling. Have you tried using a different application for printing such as
the one supplied with the printer, Easy Photo Print? If so were the results
any different?

 

[Chris M]

It sounds more like the application setup than a problem with the printer.

Photoshop could be using its own printer profiles resulting in double
profiling. Have you tried using a different application for printing such as
the one supplied with the printer, Easy Photo Print? If so were the results
any different?

Yep, tried that too. No difference. They all use the same driver/setup. It's
very strange.

 

[imici]

Yeah, I have the same printer and the same problem. There's a known
problem with this printer's print head. That was the problem with mine.
The printer printed fine one day, then the next day, all the colors
were distorted. If you want to buy a new printhead from Canon, it'll
cost you around $70-80. If you were smart, and DIDN'T buy a box of 50
ink cartidges online (like me), just replace the printer...i would
recommend laser because they save WAY more ink and run into less
problems. So far...I've got a laser printer but I've also gone printer
hunting because I didn't want my ink to go to waste. Seems like Canon
decided to make a new line of printers and the printers that are
compatible with the ink I bought, are no longer in making.

*also, I've heard that if you take the printhead, and soak it in warm
water...most of the dried ink that have clogged on it will come off. I
did that and it worked for a while, before the printer itself broke
down.*

Hope this helped, and best wishes to all of you.