My Pro9000.. can't get black ink to print black. installed new catrdidge and did 3 "deep cleanings

[Meem1140]

I have a  Pro9000 Mark II .. I can't get black ink to print black- it comes out gray. I  installed new catrdidge and did 3 "deep cleaning" and test pages show normal .. any ideas?

[ebiggs1]

It is a setting you did somewhere.  With so little info, it is impossibile to guess.  You have something set wrong!

A Pro-9000 will never print total B&W.  It is not possibile.   The printer uses all the ink tanks to print B&W as do all other photo printers.  There will always be a color tint.

[Meem1140]

That is really helpful fthat black is made from all the other colors. What other information do you need? When I print a test page the "black" comes out with lots of lines on it, which HP says it needs a deep cleaning. I did three deep cleanings and the test page still came out. This happened on both regualr paper and photo paper. 

    YOu mentioned I had done something in the settings. Would these be the printer settings? I dont' see any plac ein the printer settngs where I make a choice about inks. Thank you for our help. 

[ebiggs1]

You talked to "HP"?

I would have to see what exactly you have done.  It may be a faulty print head, too.  But one thing for sure, it doesn't need any more "deep cleanings"!

[ebiggs1]

BTW, it also depends on what type paper you are using.  Without any more info I can't help there either.  Red River Paper Co. can suggest one of their purpose B&W papers.

[Meem1140]

So, no real solution? Any suggestions where to look for printer settings? Thanx so much- I work a LOT with this printer for work .. Maybe should buy another? Any way I can clean head myself?

[ebiggs1 · Accepted solution]

"I work a LOT with this printer for work"

Just how much is "a LOT?"  It may have a faulty print head.  Things wear out but if this is the case yo ucan replace it.

But I would rather see you buy a newer Pro-100.  The cost would be close if you find one on sale and you would have a more updated printer.

[RadioACE]

I noticed greenish faded black lines and letters to prints made from scanned images using Photoshop. Saving the images to PDF and printing using Acrobat did not change.

The quality of images were the problem. The scanned images looked like 'scanned' images, with the images appearing as light grey with faded black lines and letters.  The scanned images were 'RGB'. 

I change the the Image > Mode from RGB to Greyscale.

I performed Image > Auto Tone (significant increase in intensity of Black)

Then, Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast (performed a couple of times @ 100% to rid image of grey tint)

Was able to reprint image, in Photoshop, with normal intensity of 'True' black'. 

You can sample the color in Photoshop with the color selection tool, the purpose is to obtain hex code 0x000 which represents black.  One of my images had a hex code for black of 0x605b56, significantly different from the resulting 0x010101 hex code.