Digital BW, The Print

OK, I got my cartridges squared away, some weren't fully vented and the printer decided it had an issue with my LM cart even though that one wasn't changed and had been fine for months. Go figure. Anyway, all that is cleared up and I can print a clean nozzle check and 6-color purge page. One question on the purge page; the M column, which is black in the cartridge is a tone darker than C and Lc, but lighter than K. I would have expected it to be the same as K (same ink). Is this normal?

I then printed a 21-step gray scale using the icc QTR1400-CL-2k2lk-RrMetal-PremLset.icc without any .acv adjustment. Again, this yielded a very light ramp up to about 80% and it is quite blue-green. 

I switched to the icc QTR1400-CL-2k2lk-RrMetal-UPGet.icc. This prints a very nice ramp but it is very blue-green from about 45% to 85%. Is this normal?

I printed a small sample of an image that I had printed with the UT14, minus ebony. For the UT14 print I needed to adjust the levels quite a bit. With the 2k2lk, I did not adjust the levels at all and printed as shown on the screen. This results in a print that has excellent tonal range but it has a very strong blueish cast - unacceptably blueish in my opinion. How do I remove the blue toning?

"remononaz1" <homershannon@...> wrote:
>
> ... 6-color purge page. ... the M column, which is black in the cartridge is a tone darker than C and Lc, but lighter than K. I would have expected it to be the same as K (same ink). Is this normal?


The M position should be LK.  See http://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/1400-Claria-Noritsu-2K2LK.pdf page 1.

Check all the ink positions carefully.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com

Paul:

I thought I had this right as my post incorrectly states "the M column, which is black in the cartridge". It is not black in the cartridge, it is LK. Black is in the k and c cartridges.

Here is how the 'colors' line up in the nozzle and purge page test prints:

Nozzle Test:
y=y, k=black, lc=gray, lm=lm, m=gray, c=black

Purge Page:
k=black, c=~50%gray, lc=~50% gray, m=~65% gray, lm=lm, y=y

Based on the nozzle check, it looks like I have the colors matched correctly. The purge page does not make sense but I don't know if black in a cyan cartridge should print equal to black in a black cart or not so I am unsure of my results. Also, the step scale looked good with the UPGset.icc.  

Note that these results were all with the printer setting at printer controls, G1.8, Epson Vivid. 

I also tried the purge page with the two iccs you have posed. These are very different (all density numbers are estimates):

UPGset.icc
k=100, c=20, lc=15, m=45, lm=30-gray, y=<5-gray

PremLset.icc
k=100, c=5, lc=5, m=10, lm=5-gray, y=0

I then went and printed the purge page on RR PPM using the UPGset.icc. The results were the 'same' as with plain paper except that the grays are bit more silvery but not terribly blue or green. 

Now here is where it gets totally weird.

I printed the purge page again on RR PPM paper using the printer defaults, the same settings as earlier and without touching the cartridges. Here are the results:

k=k, c~60% greenish gray, lc~60% greenish gray, m=dullish magenta!, lm=lm, y=y

How did that happen? I printed this again on plain paper and got the same results. Yesterday this printed with a dark gray in the m position. I ran the nozzle check again and got the exact results listed above, only y and lm have color. 

At this point I opened the printer for the first time in 30 hours and checked the cartridges. They are as they  should be – lk in  the magenta cartridge. After confirming the cartridges, I re-powered the printer and ran a nozzle check again. Then I printed the purge page again using printer controls – again I get magenta and light magenta. I went on to print an image I have printed before using both printer controls (at G1.8) and the UPGset.icc. I did this on plain paper to conserve RR paper. The printer controls setting print is a little dark (expected) and neutral to slightly warm in tone. The UPGset.icc print has a better ramp but is more blueish. This is constant with printing on RR PPM. 

I was operating under the belief that nozzle checks and the purge page only printed what was in the associated cartridge. This seems to be true for the nozzle check, but not for the purge page. Using the .icc changes the purge page dramatically and even with the printer settings I'm getting a burgundy-ish magenta color in the magenta column; the cartridge associated with it has lk ink. 

I like the results I'm getting, other than the blueish tint, but I am now completely confused as to what is actually happening in the printer. 



--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Paul" <roark.paul@...> wrote:

>
> "remononaz1" <homershannon@> wrote:
> >
> > ... 6-color purge page. ... the M column, which is black in the cartridge is a tone darker than C and Lc, but lighter than K. I would have expected it to be the same as K (same ink). Is this normal?
> 
> 
> The M position should be LK.  See http://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/1400-Claria-Noritsu-2K2LK.pdf page 1.
> 
> Check all the ink positions carefully.
> 
> Paul
> www.PaulRoark.com
>