printing on epson2400 – almost black image

On Wed, 18 Feb 2009 08:37:01 -0800 (PST), tanya.ilina wrote:

i haven’t used my epson 2400 for a couple of month. now it prints very- very dark, almost black, images. hard to recognize the colors. i tried different profiles, cleaned the heads, nothing helped. The only thing that i can see as a cause of the issue is that I use now remanufactured cartridges. Has anybody experienced this kind of problem?

Are you using glossy paper?
—
Mike Russell – http://www.curvemeister.com

On Feb 18, 1:00 pm, Mike Russell
wrote:

On Wed, 18 Feb 2009 08:37:01 -0800 (PST), tanya.ilina wrote:

i haven’t used my epson 2400 for a couple of month. now it prints very- very dark, almost black, images. hard to recognize the colors. i tried different profiles, cleaned the heads, nothing helped. The only thing that i can see as a cause of the issue is that I use now remanufactured cartridges. Has anybody experienced this kind of problem?

Are you using glossy paper?
—
Mike Russell -http://www.curvemeister.com

premium luster epson paper

Can you print a nozzle check? Do all the colors come out right with no fracturing of the lines?
Unfortunately the technology Epson uses for its print heads leads to clogging if the printer is infrequently used.
Any suboptimal print cartridges or ink formulations will worsen the problem. I am having problems eliminating banding from my r1800 that I did not use for a few months. I have always used Epson printers but if I have to replace this unit I am going to HP or Canon. I had to prematurely replace a 1280 because of clogging.
On the other hand, if you are using an LCD monitor and getting dark prints the problem could just be calibration.

On Feb 18, 5:35 pm, "trouble" wrote:

Can you print a nozzle check? Do all the colors come out right with no fracturing of the lines?
Unfortunately the technology Epson uses for its print heads leads to clogging if the printer is infrequently used.
Any suboptimal print cartridges or ink formulations will worsen the problem. I am having problems eliminating banding from my r1800 that I did not use for a few months. I have always used Epson printers but if I have to replace this unit I am going to HP or Canon. I had to prematurely replace a 1280 because of clogging.
On the other hand, if you are using an LCD monitor and getting dark prints the problem could just be calibration.

thanks for your reply. But, the nozzle check print is fine. Also, it’s not like colors are dark, but the images are almost black (or maybe dark negative). I haven’t seen anything like this before. I printed the test file (i had used it before), it came out the same way.

"tanya.ilina" wrote in message
On Feb 18, 5:35 pm, "trouble" wrote:

Can you print a nozzle check? Do all the colors come out right with no fracturing of the lines?
Unfortunately the technology Epson uses for its print heads leads to clogging if the printer is infrequently used.
Any suboptimal print cartridges or ink formulations will worsen the problem.
I am having problems eliminating banding from my r1800 that I did not use for a few months. I have always used Epson printers but if I have to replace
this unit I am going to HP or Canon. I had to prematurely replace a 1280 because of clogging.
On the other hand, if you are using an LCD monitor and getting dark prints the problem could just be calibration.

thanks for your reply. But, the nozzle check print is fine. Also, it’s not like colors are dark, but the images are almost black (or maybe dark negative). I haven’t seen anything like this before. I printed the test file (i had used it before), it came out the same way.

One possibility is that you are double profiling. In the Photoshop print dialog box you should have either "printer manages colors" with settings in the printer properties, or "photoshop manages color" with no color adjustment in the printer settings but the paper profile selected in the Photoshop box.
If you print from another program such as word or Acrobat, do you get the same problem?

—
Geoff J.

On Wed, 18 Feb 2009 12:00:49 -0800 (PST), tanya.ilina wrote:

i haven’t used my epson 2400 for a couple of month. now it prints very- very dark, almost black, images. hard to recognize the colors. i tried

The next thing I would try is turning off color adjustment completely in the Epson driver settings, and printing an image from Internet Explorer.

Use plain paper, and a small image for this test. For Epsons, I use a one inch horizontal test strip, to minimize the waste of paper and ink. If you have another system available, hook up the printer, install the driver, and see if the printer still prints too black.

If it does, then I would suspect the ink formula. What is the brand of cartridge? It’s conceivable that you got hold of a grayscale ink set, which would definitely give you black prints! In any case, the next step, IMHO, is be to swap out the cartridges for Epson carts. —
Mike Russell – http://www.curvemeister.com

On Feb 18, 8:01 pm, Mike Russell
wrote:

On Wed, 18 Feb 2009 12:00:49 -0800 (PST), tanya.ilina wrote:

i haven’t used my epson 2400 for a couple of month. now it prints very- very dark, almost black, images. hard to recognize the colors. i tried

The next thing I would try is turning off color adjustment completely in the Epson driver settings, and printing an image from Internet Explorer.  
Use plain paper, and a small image for this test.  For Epsons, I use a one inch horizontal test strip, to minimize the waste of paper and ink.  If you have another system available, hook up the printer, install the driver, and see if the printer still prints too black.

If it does, then I would suspect the ink formula.  What is the brand of cartridge?  It’s conceivable that you got hold of a grayscale ink set, which would definitely give you black prints!  In any case, the next step, IMHO, is be to swap out the cartridges for Epson carts.   —
Mike Russell -http://www.curvemeister.com

I printed from Word, and as you advised from a browser, result is the same.
Most likely, the ink is a problem. The cartridges brand is IEM (it’s written on one of the boxes), i bought them from printpal.com

Will see, what happens, when I get Epson carts

Thanks a lot for your help. Sometimes the printing process makes me crazy, so I really need a second opinion

On Thu, 19 Feb 2009 10:38:26 -0800 (PST), "tanya.ilina" wrote:

On Feb 18, 8:01 pm, Mike Russell
wrote:

On Wed, 18 Feb 2009 12:00:49 -0800 (PST), tanya.ilina wrote:

i haven’t used my epson 2400 for a couple of month. now it prints very- very dark, almost black, images. hard to recognize the colors. i tried

ink has dried up.

On Wed, 18 Feb 2009 12:00:49 -0800 (PST), tanya.ilina wrote:

i haven’t used my epson 2400 for a couple of month. now it prints very-
very dark, almost black, images. hard to recognize the colors. i tried

ink has dried up.

Or the cartridges are in the wrong slots…

On Thu, 19 Feb 2009 20:27:35 GMT, "Geoff J" wrote:

On Wed, 18 Feb 2009 12:00:49 -0800 (PST), tanya.ilina wrote:

i haven’t used my epson 2400 for a couple of month. now it prints very-
very dark, almost black, images. hard to recognize the colors. i tried

ink has dried up.

Or the cartridges are in the wrong slots…

I’d go for the ink dried up bit

Question is .. where. Quite possibly in the printhead and I dont know if the epson printhead is built into the cartridge.

"tanya.ilina" wrote in message

i haven’t used my epson 2400 for a couple of month. now it prints very- very dark, almost black, images. hard to recognize the colors. i tried different profiles, cleaned the heads, nothing helped. The only thing that i can see as a cause of the issue is that I use now remanufactured cartridges. Has anybody experienced this kind of problem?

Of course the printer could be faulty? Geoff.