Green Shadows in B&W Prints

Equipment: Canon Pixma 9000 Pro Printer
Windows 7
CS3

Problem: Color printing is reasonably calibrated
Black & White is green and yellow/sepia
Looks fine on monitor and everything in PS seems
to be working fine.
If grayscale checked picture is flat and has no tonal range
Seems to be a communication problem between computer and
printer.

Things Done: Uninstalled and reinstalled printer
Changed printer profiles
Changed PS profiles
Reinstated original profiles
Printed through another program.
Spoke to Canon about settings. Says its not the
printer.


Attaching an image

Nothing has worked! HELP!!!!!


All suggestions appreciated.

Patricia: Chances are that everything is just fine with your setup. You are experiencing what is known as ILLUMINANT METAMERISM. There are only a few potential fixes:

1. Print only with a monochromatic inkset (no color inks; such as Piezography)
2. Buy/use a third-party RIP (Raster Image Processor) if your printer is supported (RIP's can control individual ink channel output and thereby reduce/eliminate metamerism);
3. Buy/use an Epson Stylus printer that ships with Epson's Advanced Black and White (ABW) printing mode (not all Epson printers are supported);
4. Use bold toning (such as Sepia) in the hopes that the strong hue might overwhelm the illuminant metamerism.

Anytime one uses a full color inkset and RGB drivers to print grayscale images, one can and should expect metamerism.

Good luck, Patricia.

ps: Canon's CS should not have overlooked this.

Failed to mention that the printer is two years old and this problem just began after having an issue with email in inbox disappearing into cyberspace and subsequent changing of settings to resolve that issue. Microsoft failed to resolve the problem with the emails so I just restored the memory to an earlier date. Could that affect the printing accuracy?

Unfortunately, I'd have to sit at your machine and poke around to be of further help, Patricia. Everything you describe indicates metamerism, and it should normally be expected when using a full color printer to make "monochrome" prints.

Patricia, if you live near a Costco or another print lab, suggest that you transfer your image to a flash drive and take it to the lab to see if they can print an acceptable print for you. That way you will know if the issue is with your Canon printer.

Thanks also to Michael Gordon for another lesson on printing.

Bill Brennan

Problem is, Bill, that the Fuji Crystal Archive prints at Costco are color dye based papers; illuminant metamerism will still be an issue. It will show Patricia whether she actually has a problem with her system/printer or just a problem with metamerism. One cannot make cast-less monochrome prints when using color inks or color dye-based papers. There is simply no way around it.

How about a test print using Mpix True B&W Paper, which is silver based panchromatic paper?

Thanks for everyone's suggestions and discussions. I will have someone else print it to see the results. Michael: If you are heading east for fall foliage season would love it if you stopped by. Guess what I don't understand is why it has printed decent b&w prints for a couple of years and now the color inks would be a problem.

If the test print on another printers doesn't yield some answers, then I guess I'll have to take the whole setup to PCW for repair. Have two shows coming up and need to be able to print in both color and b&w.

Thanks again.

Sorry, Patricia - no plans to head east this coming season.

Have you changed from OEM to third party inks, or any other substantial changes not indicated here? If you have made significant changes in the form of ink or paper, then re-profiling your printer/paper will be necessary and may be part of the issue. Again, good luck!

No third party inks. Have always used Epson papers, but went out and bought Canon and there was no significant improvement.