Printing In Grayscale Question

[BD]

Hi Group


I have been printing photographs for a number of years on an Epson Stylus
Photo 700 and am generally very happy with the results in respect of the
color photos. When I print off scanned copies of old "black and white"
photos the result is more "brownscale" than "grayscale" in other words they
result in shades of brown rather than gray. Sometimes they look like dark
sepia even though I have not selected a sepia option.

I have tried printing with "ICM disabled". "ICM handled by host system" and
"ICM handled by printer" the results are always similar - brownscale photos.
It is not a new problem - it has always been like this. It is just that it
has started to bug me.

I always use genuine Epson cartridges and photo paper.

Any advise would be welcome (except get a different brand of printer)

TIA

Baz

 

[Volker Greulich]

[Black and white turn out brownish]

Any advise would be welcome (except get a different brand of printer)

Use the manual print options in the advanced print settings. I guess you
have to fiddle with the cyan slider and push towards (+).
Of course in this case you must use the color option for printing.

regards
Volker Greulich

 

[CWatters]

The problem is that grey has to me made either by mixing colours or by using
a dot pattern that effects resolution. It's much better (but still an issue)
even on top of the range printers like the Epson 2100 that have a grey ink
cart to help reduce the need to mix colours.

One trick that can be used is to replace the colour carts with grey carts -
so called "Quad Black" systems eg....

http://www.graphicstar.co.uk/quad.htm

Quote: Instead of filling the separate compartments in a set of cartridges
with the normal colour inks, Lyson fills with four or six (dependent on
printer model) intensities of the same black ink. This enables the printer
to lay down more dots of ink for each level of grey in an image and so
greatly improves tonal graduation. And, because Quad Black uses only
different intensities of the same ink, the normal colour defects exhibited
by full colour inks when printing monochrome images are eliminated. Setting
up an image to print properly with Quad Black is extremely simple and full
instructions are supplied with each cartridge. End Quote.

But note that it's not something you can switch back and forth easily

Colin

 

[CWatters]

The problem is that grey has to me made either by mixing colours or by using
a dot pattern that effects resolution. It's much better (but still an issue)
even on top of the range printers like the Epson 2100 that have a grey ink
cart to help reduce the need to mix colours.

One trick that can be used is to replace the colour carts with grey carts -
so called "Quad Black" systems eg....

http://www.graphicstar.co.uk/quad.htm

Quote: Instead of filling the separate compartments in a set of cartridges
with the normal colour inks, Lyson fills with four or six (dependent on
printer model) intensities of the same black ink. This enables the printer
to lay down more dots of ink for each level of grey in an image and so
greatly improves tonal graduation. And, because Quad Black uses only
different intensities of the same ink, the normal colour defects exhibited
by full colour inks when printing monochrome images are eliminated. Setting
up an image to print properly with Quad Black is extremely simple and full
instructions are supplied with each cartridge. End Quote.

But note that it's not something you can switch back and forth easily

Colin

 

[Robert Feinman]

Hi Group


I have been printing photographs for a number of years on an Epson Stylus
Photo 700 and am generally very happy with the results in respect of the
color photos. When I print off scanned copies of old "black and white"
photos the result is more "brownscale" than "grayscale" in other words they
result in shades of brown rather than gray. Sometimes they look like dark
sepia even though I have not selected a sepia option.

I have tried printing with "ICM disabled". "ICM handled by host system" and
"ICM handled by printer" the results are always similar - brownscale photos.
It is not a new problem - it has always been like this. It is just that it
has started to bug me.

I always use genuine Epson cartridges and photo paper.

Any advise would be welcome (except get a different brand of printer)

You can probably set your printer output settings to grayscale which
will only use the black ink cartridge (assuming your printer has one).
Then you will get only shades of gray, but the tonalities may not be
as smooth since there are less color dots per inch printed.
You can also try converting back to rgb image and applying a custom
curve that neutralizes the color shifts in your printout. Either a color
profiling software package or a little trial and error printing of a
gray scale step wedge should work.
I have a tip on printing so that the image looks like a black and white
"toned" print on my web site. You don't get true gray, but a least you
get to pick the tint you like the best.

 

[Mark Herring]

Hi Group


I have been printing photographs for a number of years on an Epson Stylus
Photo 700 and am generally very happy with the results in respect of the
color photos. When I print off scanned copies of old "black and white"
photos the result is more "brownscale" than "grayscale" in other words they
result in shades of brown rather than gray. Sometimes they look like dark
sepia even though I have not selected a sepia option.

I have tried printing with "ICM disabled". "ICM handled by host system" and
"ICM handled by printer" the results are always similar - brownscale photos.
It is not a new problem - it has always been like this. It is just that it
has started to bug me.

I always use genuine Epson cartridges and photo paper.

Any advise would be welcome (except get a different brand of printer)

TIA

Baz

As some have already said, color inkjet is not terribly good for B&W.
Many people now sell B&W and "reduced gamut" inksets---the latter for
making "toned" B&W images.

MIS
Lyson
Mediastreet
Colorbat

Google search will find them in a flash. I personally lean towards
MIS, but I have not used their B&W inks.

Epson 2200 and HP 7960 are reported to be pretty good at B&W

**************************
Mark Herring, Pasadena, Calif.
Private e-mail: Just say no to "No".

 

[Cymbal Man Freq.]

I got a new Canon i960 and last night printed up my first photos. I may not have
read the manual all the way through yet, but when a picture came up of a model
wearing bright green and black checkerboard stockings while sitting on a brown
leather couch & chair: the print shows a much lighter shade of washed out brown
than the furniture actually is, and the black portions of her stockings were
light brown instead of black. I had this kind of problem on my Canon S600, dark
colors were just muddied up into the brown spectrum. Maybe I should just take
these pictures on cd up to Wal-Mart for printing? Some pictures are not
printable at Wal-Mart. A photo club says I'm not getting "black" colors in my
ink-jet prints and that they look "flat", whatever that means. These are with
the factory supplied inks, so I know it's not the refill orders that I haven't
ordered for yet that can cause a color shift.

Another picture I took of a lake and some dark purple clouds came out perfect
(compared to the monitor and my memory of the shot) when printed up, the
microscopic lines from printing that I saw with the Canon S600 are gone with the
i960. This i960 is more likely to show up the limits of the photo than of the
printing process as far as resolution goes. So I need to check the box in the
printer driver settings for "Noise Reduction" for any dcam pictures taken within
the digital zoom range of my optical/digital zoom digital camera.

 

[PJx]

You can slap me for this but my new printer is an HP 7760 and it has
2 optional cartridges you can buy. One of which is a grayscale
cartridge. So evidently, your problem is a common one.

If you plan on doing much printing find a printer that does uses
grayscale inks.
PJ

 

[KBob]

As some have already said, color inkjet is not terribly good for B&W.
Many people now sell B&W and "reduced gamut" inksets---the latter for
making "toned" B&W images.

MIS
Lyson
Mediastreet
Colorbat

Google search will find them in a flash. I personally lean towards
MIS, but I have not used their B&W inks.

Epson 2200 and HP 7960 are reported to be pretty good at B&W

**************************
Mark Herring, Pasadena, Calif.
Private e-mail: Just say no to "No".

I realize it's heresy to say so, but some printers actually do quite
well using the "black only" selection. In particular the Epson
2100/2200 is said to produce high quality B&W prints when set to the
2880 DPI mode (according to a recent Shutterbug article). What I have
found is that the black cartridge used barefoot like this can often
produce slight brownish or greenish casts, but this seems more a
function of the particular paper used than anything else. My favorite
paper for using black ink only (with Epson) is TDK Glossy Pro series,
but some others also work well and produce nearly neutral results.