I recently upgraded from a Pixma Pro-10 to a Prograf-1100. With my Pro-10 I never replaced an ink cartridge until it was completely empty. It looks like the same is recommended with the Prograf-1100.
A few weeks ago the low ink warning came on for the PBK, and then CO a couple days later. I ordered both, and a few others that were getting low. The last time I printed anyting was a week ago.
As of today, PBK and CO are still just giving the yellow low ink warning. Today I printed a couple 8x10 proofs, and they looked great. Then I just a few minutes later I went to print 16x20s and there was severe banding right away. I did a nozzle check and both PBK and CO appeared severely clogged even though not a half hour earlier there were no issues with the proofs. The only difference in the print jobs was the proofs were set at standard quality and then I set it to High quality for the final 16x20 prints. I ran a nozzle clean and printed another check; this second check looked perfect.
I didn't want to waste another big sheet so I printed another 8x10 proof. The first 7.5 inches looked great and then the last couple inches severe banding again. Another nozzle check bad so another cleaning and another check. The second check looked great again. Another proof, good at first and then banding the last few inches. PBK was still showing the yellow low ink warning. I repeated the nozzle check, cleaning, check, proof, two more times, same results.
Looking at the proofs it was pretty clear to see the banding was due to not enough, perhaps no black ink, but still just the yellow low ink warning on PBK. Finally I just replaced the PBK cartridge, nozzle check bad, clean, this time another bad nozzle check. The next cleaning took 2-3 times longer than the previous nozzle cleanings. Then the nozzle check was good again. I tried another proof and this time it looks great.
The only conclusion I can come to is that my issues were caused by not enough ink, but I never got the red ink out warning. Is this normal for the Prograf-1100?
