Need help with B&W

[stephen99]

Using an Epson 3800 and printing in ABW mode on Epson Exhibition Fiber paper I get beautiful results but when I attempt the same photo on Museo Artist cards something strange happens. The blackest areas seem to go negative and print white instead of black. The profile is correct and the printer has switched to Matte Black. What am I doing wrong?

[colinm]

Too much ink. Pull it back by either choosing a different paper type or using the density slider in the driver.

Edit: On second thought, maybe not if they're white white. Try a nozzle check and make sure the matte black's actually firing to begin with.

[Mussi_Spectraflow]

Too much ink. Pull it back by either choosing a different paper type or using the density slider in the driver.

Edit: On second thought, maybe not if they're white white. Try a nozzle check and make sure the matte black's actually firing to begin with.
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It does sound like there is too much ink being put down, although I wouldn't describe that effect as printing white, more like a loss of density and a metallic hue appearing. So maybe that's not what's happening? What paper type did you select and who's profile are you using? I would expect good results from the Epson profiles but I've seen quite varied results with third party profiles for their papers. You can test this by selecting something like the Enhanced matte profile for use on the Museo paper and evaluate the results, I would suspect that it would look a bit flat, but should not be over inked. You might also try a different rendering intent and check that BPC is turned on in Photoshop. Just some things to try, hope it helps.

[stephen99]

It does sound like there is too much ink being put down, although I wouldn't describe that effect as printing white, more like a loss of density and a metallic hue appearing. So maybe that's not what's happening? What paper type did you select and who's profile are you using? I would expect good results from the Epson profiles but I've seen quite varied results with third party profiles for their papers. You can test this by selecting something like the Enhanced matte profile for use on the Museo paper and evaluate the results, I would suspect that it would look a bit flat, but should not be over inked. You might also try a different rendering intent and check that BPC is turned on in Photoshop. Just some things to try, hope it helps.
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Yes, there is a metallic hue and a big loss of density. Is that from too much ink being requested? I am using the Epson Enhanced Matte profile with the Museo cards and have tried both perceptual and relative rendering intent with BPC on and off for both. They do look a bit flat as you said. In the Photoshop print dialog box I specify the Museo profile that I downloaded from Crane and in the printer dialog box I choose the Epson Enhanced profile. Should I go with Epson in both? Thanks for your help.

[stephen99]

It does sound like there is too much ink being put down, although I wouldn't describe that effect as printing white, more like a loss of density and a metallic hue appearing. So maybe that's not what's happening? What paper type did you select and who's profile are you using? I would expect good results from the Epson profiles but I've seen quite varied results with third party profiles for their papers. You can test this by selecting something like the Enhanced matte profile for use on the Museo paper and evaluate the results, I would suspect that it would look a bit flat, but should not be over inked. You might also try a different rendering intent and check that BPC is turned on in Photoshop. Just some things to try, hope it helps.
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Thanks for your suggestions. It turned out to be exactly what you described: too much ink. I reduced the amount by using the slider in the print dialog box and now the image prints correctly.