Printing B&W problem

Ok guys

I want to print my B&Ws but they are tending to come out with a tinge of red and not true B&W

I have the monitor and PS caliberated and use the correct profiles etc.. (I think ?)

The cartridges are originals and the printer is a very good Canon Pixma ip4300

However images dont look true B&W

Help and advice required

Most printers have an option to print b&w only.

G

Hi George

The printer has everything except a monochrome facility.

I have tried various settings but no joy. The B&Ws still have this tinge and its not looking good.

Pete

Pete,

My iP4200 has a 'Greyscale Printing' checkbox on the first page of the printer driver. Not sure whether this does actually mean it doesn't use any colours, but might be worth a try.

Other than that, you'll need to stick with one type of paper, and just adjust the 'Color/Intensity' until you get a good result then save those settings under 'Profiles'.

Or get a printer calibrator to go with your screen calibrator!

I don't think there's an easy, cheap way of doing it - it's either trial and error (costly in paper and ink) or calibrator (costly hardware).

Dan

Ok, first thing: Generally, you can't print decent B&W on colour printers.
(EDIT: And some printers are a lot worse at it than others )

Why?

Several reasons. Remember how inkjet printers work. They have only 4 colours (or 6) and the colours are either "on" or "off". If you want a shade in between, the printer has to dither to make it appear like a shade when held at a distance.

Now, when it comes to B&W, the printers have only black. That's full black or nothing. So, to get the shades they dither - but usually they dither with the colours as well

Even if you get a half decent B&W print it will normally suffer from metermerism where the apparent colour changes according to the ambient lighting (so it may look fine in daylight, but not in fluorescent etc).


There are a couple of ways around it:
1) Get a set of B&W inks. These replace the colours on the printer and provide shades of grey. These shouldn't suffer from metermerism (given a decent ink).

2) Use a newer printer. Some of the newer models include "Light Black" and can print half decent B&W images. Think there's an Epson or two that can do this.

Alternatively you can send your prints out to be printed

Matt

Or... go truly analogue and mess around in a darkened room - 'just on or off' no chance... there's lots of shades of grey to play with...

But I shudder to think of some of the thread headings & questions that Pete could come up with when playing with chemicals

I have used chemicals to do black and white printing from film using Ilford 400

Matt sugested the following

1) Get a set of B&W inks. These replace the colours on the printer and provide shades of grey. These shouldn't suffer from metermerism (given a decent ink).

QUESTION where do I get these for my pixma IP4300 ???

Pete

Any more ideas Guys ???

I use an Epson 1290s to make my A3 exhibition prints and generally for monochrome use the black in cartidge only. This produces perfectly fine results and should be tried out before more complex solutions are sought.

I admit that my particular high contrast style suits this approach, although I did surprise myself recently when I produced a black and white prints with some (subtle) colour areas in it and the black and white was perfectly neutral. So it is possible.

My shame is that this black-only approach gives me prints that are better than most of my darkroom ones. Ouch...

An afterthought to the previous post. Settings used on the Epson 1290s are 2880dpi and a Gamma of 2.2

This did the trick.

Pete,

Some printer drivers (certainly Epson) have an option whereby you can adjust the amount of each colour used. Presumably if you reduce the magenta and yellow output slightly this may remove the red tinge.

Have recently purchased an Epson R360 and the colour output is great, have yet to try B&W with mine though.

Hope this helps.

Gareth

Pete,
Just installed the ip4300 driver to help you out...

On the "MAIN" page, there is a check box "Grayscale Printing" - this will make it black and white with no colour


Alternatively, you should start by having your printing options as follows:
* On the ip4300 dialog: Change "Color/Intensity" to "Manual" and click "Set..."
* Set the "Color Correction" to "Driver Matching" and ensure everything is at default settings.
* Ok the boxes.

In Photoshop:
When printing, choose the option "Let the Printer determine colors" (not Let Photoshop Determine Colors)

Reply to this post with your results
Matt

I too print Black and White up to A3 on an Epson 1290S using the black only setting, in the print menu.
I too, am amazed at how good the results are.

I have tried printing Black and White with the printers colour settings but this resulted in either a slight green or magenta cast.

However, an intentionally toned print such as sepia or blue can work well with the printer colour settings.

Pete, does your printer not have the option in the printer menu, to print black only?

Graham

Hi Matt and Graham

I have tried what you said Matt but still this slight red/magenta tinge.

Graham the printer has a greyscale option but thats it.

I think Ill have to get an epson

Cheers Pete

You tried both or just one?
Matt