Simple solution to Canon's washed black on inkjet duplex printing problem

[Panos Stokas]

It has been pointed in the past: When printing documents on plain paper
using the duplexer option (either manual or auto duplex), your black
text loses quality. (Canon thinks this is a "feature").

Until someone manages to hack the drivers to prevent them from mixing
other colors to pigmented black in duplexing mode, here is a solution:
use a software duplexing driver such as Fineprint. Not only you will
get more printing options, but your documents will look much better. In
fact you are going to ask yourself: "why the hell does Canon not give
an option whether I want the feature enabled or not?"

 

[Lou]

It has been pointed in the past: When printing documents on plain paper
using the duplexer option (either manual or auto duplex), your black
text loses quality. (Canon thinks this is a "feature").

Until someone manages to hack the drivers to prevent them from mixing
other colors to pigmented black in duplexing mode, here is a solution:
use a software duplexing driver such as Fineprint. Not only you will
get more printing options, but your documents will look much better. In
fact you are going to ask yourself: "why the hell does Canon not give
an option whether I want the feature enabled or not?"

Costs $49.95. How often will someone need it?

Lou

 

[Fenrir Enterprises]

It has been pointed in the past: When printing documents on plain paper
using the duplexer option (either manual or auto duplex), your black
text loses quality. (Canon thinks this is a "feature").

Until someone manages to hack the drivers to prevent them from mixing
other colors to pigmented black in duplexing mode, here is a solution:
use a software duplexing driver such as Fineprint. Not only you will
get more printing options, but your documents will look much better. In
fact you are going to ask yourself: "why the hell does Canon not give
an option whether I want the feature enabled or not?"

I had always figured that Canon forced dyebased/lighter ink printing
on the second side to reduce 'show-through', since the average
consumer buys the cheapest copy paper they can find, which is usually
around 20 lb / 70% opacity / 88 bright (in which case you could print
50%-grey text and still see through it)

--

http://www.FenrirOnline.com

Computer services, custom metal etching,
arts, crafts, and much more.

 

[Panos Stokas]

I had always figured that Canon forced dyebased/lighter ink printing
on the second side to reduce 'show-through'

Correct; here is the official response I got from Canon:

Please be advised that when duplex printing is
selected in the driver, it puts slightly less
ink on each side of the page. This is done to
try and prevent what is printed on one side
from showing though the page when you are
looking at the other side.

Unfortunately there is no way of disabling
this, however you may be able to work around
it by trying the following:

You could try setting the Print Quality to
High

If this doesn't improve it you could also try
the following:

01.) Open the Printing Preferences
02.) On the <Main> tab set Colour Adjustment to Manual
03.) Press [Set]
04.) Set the Black and the Intensity all the way to the right
05.) Set the Brightness to Dark
06.) Also try changing the Print Type between Photo and Graphic
07.) If they are colour documents then try settins Cyan, Magenta
and Yellow all the way to the right.

Now try printing, does this give a better result.

If not, then you can also try turning on Vivid
Photo, Image Optimizer and Photo Optimizer on
in the <Effects> tab of the printing
preferences.

Their solution of playing with intensities is laughable. And, I
personally see little sense on the argument. In fact the pure pigmented
black, printed on good quality paper, seems less visible on the other
side than the pigment-dye blended black...

 

[Lou]

I had always figured that Canon forced dyebased/lighter ink printing
on the second side to reduce 'show-through'

Correct; here is the official response I got from Canon:

Please be advised that when duplex printing is
selected in the driver, it puts slightly less
ink on each side of the page. This is done to
try and prevent what is printed on one side
from showing though the page when you are
looking at the other side.

Unfortunately there is no way of disabling
this, however you may be able to work around
it by trying the following:

You could try setting the Print Quality to
High

If this doesn't improve it you could also try
the following:

01.) Open the Printing Preferences
02.) On the <Main> tab set Colour Adjustment to Manual
03.) Press [Set]
04.) Set the Black and the Intensity all the way to the right
05.) Set the Brightness to Dark
06.) Also try changing the Print Type between Photo and Graphic
07.) If they are colour documents then try settins Cyan, Magenta
and Yellow all the way to the right.

Now try printing, does this give a better result.

If not, then you can also try turning on Vivid
Photo, Image Optimizer and Photo Optimizer on
in the <Effects> tab of the printing
preferences.

Their solution of playing with intensities is laughable. And, I
personally see little sense on the argument. In fact the pure pigmented
black, printed on good quality paper, seems less visible on the other
side than the pigment-dye blended black...

Have you noticed that some paper is different on one side? The package
will have an arrow and a comment something like "print this side"

Lou

 

[Fenrir Enterprises]

Correct; here is the official response I got from Canon:

<snip>

Their solution of playing with intensities is laughable. And, I
personally see little sense on the argument. In fact the pure pigmented
black, printed on good quality paper, seems less visible on the other
side than the pigment-dye blended black...

'Good quality paper' being the problem - most people I've worked with
insist on buying the cheapest paper they can find. Canon will field
more complaints from the 'average consumer' about show-through than
from people who know better and are willing to buy 24 lb coated paper.
I usually wait for the good paper to go on sale (most stores often do
a buy-2-get-1-free deal) so that it comes out cheaper than the thin
paper, and use it for everything. I don't do much throwaway printing
anyway. It would be very nice if Canon had included that option in the
driver, so that picking 'plain paper' would use the light ink option,
and 'premium paper' would use regular ink, but it was probably easier
for them just to go with one setting.

--

http://www.FenrirOnline.com

Computer services, custom metal etching,
arts, crafts, and much more.

 

[measekite]

I had always figured that Canon forced dyebased/lighter ink printing
on the second side to reduce 'show-through', since the average
consumer buys the cheapest copy paper they can find,

That is a blantant lie. Only the idiots, morons and misfits might do
something like that. And some of those will post in this ng. The
average person many buy paper at Costco, Staples, Office Depot or Office
Max and they are having sales on some known brand of 24# bright white
inkjet paper (like Hammermill) every week. Even their private store
label is a reasonable 24# paper.