Trying to improve print quality of Epson C60

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History Fan

I have an uncle who owns a Epson C60 inkjet printer. It's about 4
years old and has never produced good print quality. This is really
frustrating considering how much money he has spent on the ink cartridges.

As his computer "advisor", I have tinkered with the printer's
maintenance programs to no avail, used compressed air to clean out the
machine, reinstalled the printer driver....but still print quality is not
good. He's used it on two computers with the same poor quality.

The C60 printer plugs into his computer via a parallel port cord. Is
it possible using a USB cord might improve print quality??
 
method of connecting to the computer should have no effect on quality of the
prints. You didn't describe how the print quality was poor. Color balance?
banding? original mfg inks? type of paper on which you are printing? type
of file you are printing? size and quality of image in the file? If the
printhead is clogged you should write to Art Entlich for his info on how to
clean Epson print heads. email is (e-mail address removed) I don't know what the
inherent print quality is for the C60 under best of circumstances. If it
produced poor prints new out of the box it sounds like it might be a losing
battle. What is he trying to print? Photos? text? how much will he use
it? Lots of questions to answer.
 
No, the parallel is just fine. While I prefer Canon printers there is
no reason why the Epsons should not produce good quality printing. What
are you printing? Are you using or have you used third party ink? If
so what brand? What paper are you using? Check your settings in the
print driver for draft or standard or what ever Epson calls the quality.
 
History said:
I have an uncle who owns a Epson C60 inkjet printer. It's about 4
years old and has never produced good print quality. This is really
frustrating considering how much money he has spent on the ink cartridges.

As his computer "advisor", I have tinkered with the printer's
maintenance programs to no avail, used compressed air to clean out the
machine, reinstalled the printer driver....but still print quality is not
good. He's used it on two computers with the same poor quality.

The C60 printer plugs into his computer via a parallel port cord. Is
it possible using a USB cord might improve print quality??
Click to expand...

Can you be more specific about that print quality, or lack of it? What
exactly is wrong with the print? Is it printing badly at all the
different quality settings? And you haven't mentioned anything about the
status of Nozzle Check tests which would reveal if you have clogging in
the printhead. Are these tests normal?

I used to own two Epsons. They normally print with any brand of ink, any
setting, any paper. I'll assume it's Epson brand cartridges he's using
since you said your father has spent a lot of money on them. But that
wouldn't make any difference in the world. If nozzle checks reveal
clogging, that would probably be your culprit.

-Taliesyn
 
Changing the interface is not likely to improve print quality. You use
the expression "print quality is no good" but you don't explain what you
mean by that, making it hard to help. Is the color wrong? Does the
color band? Is it too light, too dark, smeared, bleeding, dots to big?
What?

The C60 is a medium-low end dye printer with 4 ink colors, but capable
of fairly high resolution images, and with the right paper, it should
provide you with near photographic results.

If you can be more specific I may be able to help. If you scan a
section of the bad printing at about 300 ppi and send me a section about
2" x 2" as an attachment privately, I may be able to diagnose what is wrong.

Art
 
Burt, you asked the same questions I had, almost exactly. You got to it
sooner than I, however... Hopefully a response will be (or already is)
forthcoming ;-)

Art
 
You didn't describe how the print quality was poor. Color balance?
banding?>>
Click to expand...

Text is rather faint and not bold.

Yes, Epson ink cartridges.

<<type of paper on which you are printing?>>

I think it is HP inkjet paper. Not sure though.

<<What is he trying to print? Photos? text?>>

Mostly text documents, but photos don't come out as bright and crisp
as they should either.
 
Arthur Entlich said:
Changing the interface is not likely to improve print quality. You use
the expression "print quality is no good" but you don't explain what you
mean by that, making it hard to help. Is the color wrong? Does the color
band? Is it too light, too dark, smeared, bleeding, dots to big? What?
Click to expand...

I rarely use his printer, and unfortunately I don't have any sample
copies with me. However, I've noticed that text is not as sharp and bold as
what I see on other inkjet printers. Text comes out faded, not sharp. As I
recall, color printouts are too dark. I've run the print head cleaner
repeatedly, but that doesn't help.

My uncle is under the weather right now, so I can't do any tinkering
with his printer this weekend. However, I will note down all the
suggestions here and try again. If I am unble to fix his printer, I will
report back here with more specific details. Thanks.
 
And you haven't mentioned anything about the status of Nozzle Check tests
which would reveal if you have clogging in the printhead. Are these tests
normal?
Click to expand...

I honestly don't recall what the Nozzle Check tests stated. It's
been months since I ran those tests. I'm assuming they reported nothing
wrong, otherwise I would have remembered. But next time I'm over there I'll
pay closer attention to those details.
 
One of the problems you are probably having (reading between the lines) is
that the printer is used infrequently and would be subject to ink drying and
clogging the print head. You can follow Art Entlich's directions and
probably bring it back to life, but infrequent use will cause the same
problem again. If your uncle prints all black text documents I would
suggest that he buy an inexpensive laser printer. Cheaper to run, better
for text, and not subject to the problems of infrequent use. You can buy
one for under $200. My daughter found a deal on a Brother for about $100 a
few months ago. Cheaper than buying a few sets of inkjet cartridges! The
other problem you might see is with the paper you have used. Although many
companies make a paper that states that it is for inkjets, your best results
are on a special coated paper.
 
It sounds like the printer may have a partial head clog.

There are many factors that can influence print quality, type of inks
being used (in this case, you stated they are Epson's, which should be
fine) Paper type... some HP paper is inappropriate for Epson printers,
particularly their glossy photo papers. This printer uses dye colorant
inks, which should provide reasonably good text and photo image results.

Driver settings: the mode set could be draft or economy, versus on of
the better qualities. These are designed to save ink, for test images
and simple text for reading but not for layout. The setting for the
paper type, and the resolution settings.

All of these can alter the print quality. If the printer isn't used
very often, a partial ink clog in the head would not be uncommon.


Art
 
the nozzle test doesn't actually report. They are made up of a bunch of
small horizontal lines in a stepwise pattern. If lines are missing or
out of sequence or placement there is a problem.

Art
 
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