Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

Hi everyone,

I'm puzzled. I have a printing job that consists of three 4x6" copies of the same image, a family picture that I want to use for holiday cards. I printed a bunch of pages and saved the job, including all settings, etc. Then a couple of months later I decided I needed more copies, so I recalled the job and printed out another page. Everything in my settings is the same (the only change is that I might have upgraded Qimage since I printed the first batch), but the skin tones appear different from what I printed previously--they now have a pinkish tint. Shouldn't there be consistency, if I haven't tweaked anything? I thought that was the point of saving a job....

I am using Qimage 2009.269, with Windows Vista.

Liz

The job can only save the settings; it can't save everything about your computer.  If your printer driver has been updated, that could affect things.  Even some of the Windows updates can have an affect on printing sometimes.  Also, do a nozzle check because clogged nozzles can cause color changes as can new batches of the same paper.  Are you using the same paper out of the same box?

Mike

Yes, same paper--same package, even!  I was also wondering if different levels of each print cartridge miight even have a subtle effect.

The nozzles aren't clogged, I did double check that.

Liz

The level in the cartridge won't matter unless it's an Epson and it's very near empty.  Some Epsons run the cartridges too far and they actually run out of ink before they indicate empty.  In the old days it used to be the opposite problem but now they try to run them dry.  Third party inks can suffer from ink delivery problems but I don't know if you are running those.  The only other possibility is that there could have been a problem like clogged nozzles before that has gone away now: if you adjusted or profiled for the clogged nozzles to make the prints look good before and now the nozzles are open, that could cause a problem too.  But if you are 100% certain the nozzle check is good, the problem is likely a driver or other change on your system.

It's always hard to picture what people are talking about when they describe something.  How big a change are we talking about here?  Might you be able to scan the two prints side by side and post a small sample so I can see the difference?

Mike

Interesting--I do have an Epson, and right now the yellow is very low, which could easily lead to a pinkish skin tone. I'll change the cartridge and try again.

Thanks.

Liz

What Mike said plus:
Try doing print head alignment also.  I had a case where it wasn't causing banding but was enough to cause a slight shift in certain colors.

If they are pigment inks they like to shake up. Printing something else simple first gets the job done.

Okay, thanks-- I'll see what these changes do. The shift is only minimal, but I was curious about the whys.

Liz

Okay, I replaced the low ink cartridges and cleaned the print heads. Results--the color is now as it should be!

Thanks, gurus.

Liz