Photos printing blue instead of black

[Kfitz767]

Okay, I seriously looked for hours and tried troubleshooting a million and one ways so now I need some help!
I have been trying to pint photos from light room to my Canon mp620b printer on glossy high quality paper. My problem is that when my photo prints, the real dark black areas are coming out either blue or cyan.

I cleaned my heads multiple times, I did some deep cleaning too, and then I switched out all my ink cartridges. I tried messing with my color profiles so only the printer decides and then only light room, still the same problem, I tried messing with the photo paper setting and none of the photo papers helped, and when I pick plain paper the printer prints the colors just fine but the quality is significantly decreased.

Mu nozzle check pattern is perfect too so I'm really lost at this point, any input would be great!

Thanks!

[Kfitz767]

Oh also! When printing from canons image garden the photo is very close color and quality wise but the extremely dark shadows are still cyan.

[ebiggs1]

Your paper and ink selections have an enormous impact on how true colors and B&W reproduce in print. Finding the perfect combination of printer settings, paper, and ink can take some experimentation.  Using the paper and ink suggested by the Canon works best. I imagine you have a setting that will let you pull back the blue tint.

All or most all, 95%, desktop printers use all their cartridges to print black. That's right it uses all the color inks to make black. If you printed only black and never printed any color you would still run out of color ink. 

[mdpalmer]

I have two canon printers I use for photo printing A Canon iP100 and a TR150 both practically the same but the 150 is just a newer version. both use the same print cartrages and settings. I used the ip100 for quite a while printing photos with great results. Then all of a sudden it started blowing out the black in the prints. The only way i could correct it was to re-install the driver. Then it would print correctly. I even install a new print head thinking it was the problem. After a few days all was well then it started doing it again. Test prints were great but photos were blowing out in the black. The other printer. the TR150 prints the same image perfectly with no blowouts. (Black turning to Blue). They both use the same ink and the same photo paper. So I don't think it is the paper or ink. There is something in the driver that is getting corrupted or soemthing. But now even rinstalling the driver will not help. Im using Windows 7 Ultimate running Lightroom Classic Checked all settings and tweeked all settings but now no results.

[ebiggs1]

I doubt seriously it is your computer or LR, or your paper, or your ink, or your print driver. That just leaves the printer itself. One works, one doesn't pretty much says it.

I would make a double check, even have a friend do the check, on your LR print settings. Good idea to have a different set of eyes looking things over. LR print settings can be somewhat ambiguous sometimes.

[ebiggs1]

Here is a great source for paper and info on how to print. Red River Paper.

[blacksapper]

Just joining in to add to the (small) number of people who appear to be experiencing similar issues. I have a T8250 (so not the same as the other contributors) but my issue is identical. I have tried multiple head cleans, different photo papers, and different source software (Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator). All produce the same problem - deep blacks come out a mid blue (anything less than full-black is strangely unaffected). Pretending that photo paper is plain paper does work - but with an attendant drop in quality. So - this has to have something to do with the way that all of the printers handle 'photo-quality' images; unfortunately it does render the printer useless for anything other than documents or drafts - so if anyone has any suggestions.........

[ebiggs1]

Unless you buy a true B&W printer, very few on the market, you will find it extremely difficult to get a true black print.

"... most all, 95%, desktop printers use all their 'color' cartridges to print black."