Problems with Colours all of a Sudden - HP Z3100 - 24 inch

[brianrybolt]

After soft proofing my work in Lightroom as I have with all versions and never having any real problems in terms of color, all of a sudden the colors are all over the place, especially red, orange, and yellow.  I have run the usual checks (monitor calibration, head cleans, paper calibration (the current one matches the old ones) and double checking my workflow in LR. 

It’s as though my profiles have been corrupted.  I checked this issue by downloading a profile for the Canson paper I use and then profiled another one for Canson using the built-in profiling tool and neither of them worked to bring in the correct color.

I tried switching to ‘Color Management’ profile MANAGED BY PRINTER and the results were far better and close enough that after doing a couple test strips I was able to get a decent print.

BTW, I soft-proofed the image as though I was going to print to a particular paper profile but printed as ‘managed by printer’.

Any thoughts/suggestions as to what is going on.

Thanks in advance,
Brian

[Ernst Dinkla]

Have you made a calibration print and checked whether all the 11(12) ink patches are correct, not the yellow, red or both magentas shifted if compared to an older calibration print? It can happen that a two color head has a leak between the ink buffers etc.

Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst

http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
December 2014 update, 700+ inkjet media white spectral plots

[brianrybolt]

Ernst, thanks for your quick reply.  I made a couple more checks (printed a 'diagnostic image' & 'printhead alignment'.  They both look fine.
Do you feel it's worthwhile to buy a Magenta-Yellow printhead to see if that solves the problem?

Cheers,  Brian

[kers]

It sounds to me like a error with the softproofing...
I have a reference image ( color+ BW) and reference printhead prints made on a day my printer surely was in good shape.
It is easy to reprint those and then you know if the printer is doing something awkward.
If there is a leakage in the printhead the colors get mixed up and it will show clearly on a calibration print ( especially if you have an older good one to compare)
succes!

[Mark Lindquist]

Pull that print head out and do a "blot test" or "stamp test".  Shake the cartridge well (don't get any on you, LOL) then stamp the head several times on a piece of folded 8 1/2 x 11 letter paper.  Do this several times in a row, then use a loop and look carefully to see if you see any cross contamination.  Bleed will be common, but not if it's significant bleeding into one side from the other.

Ultimately, I would recommend getting a new head to replace the suspicious one as a test - the question you put to Ernst.  They are inexpensive enough and a cheap fix if that's your problem.

Look on this page and scroll down to the blot test/stamp  section:

PRINTHEAD TEST INFO

[Ernst Dinkla]

A contamination in the two channel HP head would show in both application and printer color management. It is however best to keep your application color management as it was and find the real cause of this shift. The way you describe it sounded like a head issue to me, color management flaws usually have less impact. The HP driver van have a habit of falling back to default settings just for printing, did you check that?

Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst

http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
December 2014 update, 700+ inkjet media white spectral plots

[brianrybolt]

Hello,   I bit the bullet and ordered a print head.  Should have it early next week and I'll report back.

Cheer,
Brian

[brianrybolt]

I received the new printhead and the same problem still persists.

I uninstalled the printer software and re-installed it but no change.

Suggestions??

[Ernst Dinkla]

More likely color management issues then. From which applications printing? Running on which OS ? To reduce the possible errors.

One hardware question though;
Light Cyan head delivering enough? In the sense that if the total is too warm it usually is a cyan head on its last legs.

Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst

http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
December 2014 update, 700+ inkjet media white spectral plots

[brianrybolt]

I am still having continuing problems with my color rendition.  I’ve now come to think that it is a software problem which I haven’t been able to fix.  When trying to print out of LR CC 2015.1.1 Release, I am not able to choose my Custom paper (Canson Baryta GE On) even though it appears under the custom heading in the window on my printer.  As you can see in another image, my Paper Type is Fine Art Pearl Paper (more ink) & loaded paper is Fine Art Pearl Paper (more ink) which it is not, the loaded paper is Canson Baryta.

The Cyan appears fine to answer Ernst question.  Also, running MAC OS 10.10.5.
INSIGHTS?
Cheers,  Brian

[Nora_nor]

At one time HP changed it so you need to choose "any" paper.
if you read all the different notes on the firmware updates, it does say so on one of the firmware updates.
Same with HPZ2100.