HP8750 TO DARK!

[espressogeek]

I have an HP 8750 with the three grey cartridge. I have finally gotten around to getting some of the large 13x19 paper. My monitor is calibrated. I went to print a B&W with a lot of dark tones and it comes out REALLY dark with all of the greys blocked up. The paper is soaked. I have tried changing the rendering to perceptual, relative, and actual no luck. I have tried letting PS CS3 manage the colors and the printer manage them. No matter what I get different iterations of crap. Any suggestions??? I'm totally lost and frustrated.

[John R Smith]

Hello there

well, this should not happen. The HP printers that use the 100 or 102 photo-grey cartridge, like your 8750, will print really first-class B/W prints. I have used one for two years and had excellent results printing only B/W. Are your colour results OK? If so, it is hard to understand what is going on, but I would suggest -

* Reduce the ink load to minimum in the HP driver for the HP glossy papers.

* Make sure that "Enable Advanced Printing Features" is checked OFF in the Printer Properties Advanced tab if running Windows XP.

* Let printer manage output in PS (no profiles).

Send the printer a decent grayscale image at 8 bits, 300 dpi with a stepwedge so you can see where the problems are. Use the HP Premium Plus paper for starters as a known quantity.

John

[espressogeek]

John, thanks for the feedback. I used to get great prints. The only thing that has changed is I am now using CS3.
I tried letting the printer manage the color and I get the same thing. I found a stepwedge here, http://curvemeister.com/downloads/TestStri..._test_strip.htm , is there a better one?

[John R Smith]

Espresso

go to this link and download the test image -

BW Test Image

This is an excellent B/W test. Now try something really simple (if you are running a PC under Windows). Open the file with Windows Picture and Fax Viewer and just send it to the 8750 direct, no CS3 or whatever. Print it on A5 to save paper for a start. You should have an excellent print - the 8750 will print the test just fine, mine does.

Let us know how you get on.

John

[espressogeek]

John,
Thanks. I have a mac so I downloaded this image and opened it in preview. I then sent it to the 8750. 13 steps of the wedge are completely blocked up. Do you have any ideas?

[John R Smith]

Well

unfortunately I have zero experience of the Mac platform and OS, so at this point I have run out of good ideas. Something is obviously very wrong with the interface between the printer and the computer, presumably in the drivers. I would suggest that you contact HP and see if they have any suggestions. The amount of blocking you have in the stepwedge implies that it is something far more serious than a simple gamma mismatch, I think.

Best wishes

John