Possible ink contamination or just printer problem Stylus Pro 4900

1

1st noticed while working on B&W images to replace older silver prints, I found that when using certain (very trusty) Ilford profiles for my luster test prints and Golf Fibre Silk etc., the grays all had a magenta/reddish cast. Printing of color images was similar in that blues and grays were of the same cast. This continued whether printing from profiles or using the Epson controls. Printing grayscale images using Epson’s Advance B&W (neutral, typically) kept coming up with the same color cast. I thought I might have contaminated LLK, LK and PK Cone inks for the 4900 so swapped them out with new Epson cartridges and ran about 15-20 large A/B size printouts to flush the ink lines. No change! I was under the impression that Epson AB&W neutral would just print the black inks, but maybe I am wrong.
So what next steps. The print head has been fine for the past three years when it was replaced. The pump assembly I replaced two years ago. I suspect the magenta or red is getting elsewhere into the other inks but don’t know what makes the most sense (dampers, tubing, etc.). Any ideas will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Doug A

2

Hmm, I think a way around this is to use QuadtoneRIP and just tone out the magenta properly there,

best,
Walker

3

Hi Walter…

Haven’t corresponded in a while. Thanks for the recommendation about the Quad Tone RIP. I hadn’t been familiar with it, but just spent an hour familiarizing myself with the program, reading release notes and overview etc… Hopefully this will help with my immediate B&W needs, and I will start working with it next week.

( I do use the 4900 for color 90% of the time and hope that whatever is pulling colors towards red-magenta-orange is either a software problem on my end (which I doubt) or reasonable fixable short of a head change. If that were the case, I’d have to say RIP 4900.)

I’ll keep in touch with my results. Thanks, again,

Doug

Doug Abdelnour

BEDFORD PHOTO-GRAPHIC, Inc.

247 Route 100

Somers, NY 10589

914-301-5955

doug@bedfoto.com