Z3100: 0,0,0 out of gamut?

[DotCom Editor]

When I print really dark areas on canvas, they are printing not black, but dark bluish-greenish-turquoise. I'm stumped.

As a test, I printed a 0,0,0 to 255,255,255 grayscale band on 24-inch-wide canvas. Sure enough, the first 3 inches or so are printing in a very dark midnight blue -- definitely not black. I also printed a couple of full-color spectrum bands, as chosen from Photoshop's gradient picker. They look spectacular -- no complaints. But, of course, they contain no black.

So what's my problem with blacks and near blacks? It is a bad printhead? Bad ink? Bad karma? Bad sushi? Nozzle check looks ok.

[namartinnz]

Interesting problem - have you done a calibration of the paper - that may be the problem and does this happen on other paper presets? Haven't had this happen on my Z3100. May well be a faulty head. Fresh sushi night help too.

Neal

[Damir]

Wrong profile maybe?? Do you print matte canvas with photo black ink only?

[Ernst Dinkla]

Strange, the PK and MK channels do nor share a head with blue or cyan ink on the Z3100 (on the Z2100 one does) so it is not a head fault.  The PK head has a grey channel too, if there is a fault in that head you would get a lower Dmax but no blue. Is it PK or MK you use?
The matte black delivers the highest Dmax of all matte blacks on matte papers and I never noticed an issue with matte canvas either. No experience with PK on satin etc canvas.


--
Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst

Dinkla Grafische Techniek
Quad,piëzografie,giclée
www.pigment-print.com

[digitaldog]

Wrong profile maybe?? Do you print matte canvas with photo black ink only?

Or a bad one. I’ve seen this with some questionable quality profiles but it’s been awhile.

What are the Lab values of 0/0/0 converted through the profile with various rendering intents? Are you using Black Point Compensation?

[DotCom Editor]

Z3100 #1, where solid black was printing as midnight blue.
Solution: Pulled MK/R printhead. Totally mucked up with dried and gooey chunks of black. Red (which is not really red, but more of a salmon color) was fine. Thoroughly cleaned the head and re-installed. Voila, problem gone; 0,0,0 now prints on canvas as solid black. Don't know about the dark blue, but at this point I don't care.

Z3100 #2, where reds were printing as rust or dark brown.
Solution: Pulled MK/R printhead. Same gooey and dried black ink problem. Seems MK ink was getting leaking into R side, causing reds to print dark. Following a thorough cleaning, problem is now gone.

What I find so odd is that during the 4+ years I've owned these printers, the only color problems I have had involve the MK/R channels. All other printheads in both printers are still the originals that shipped with the printer. But, in both printers, I've replaced the MK/R printhead twice.

[kers]

What I find so odd is that during the 4+ years I've owned these printers, the only color problems I have had involve the MK/R channels. All other printheads in both printers are still the originals that shipped with the printer. But, in both printers, I've replaced the MK/R printhead twice.

Maybe the MK is the more coarse grained of the lot and more likely to cause problems

I have the same experience...

[Damir]

Me to - I just replace MK/R head yesterday it kinda "explode" I smell smoke in the air at the same time printer warn me that head need to be replaced. The right side of printer was full of black-red ink mixture, I replace head, clean printer and continue happy printing. Fortunately that heads for Z are really cheap. On the HP Pro B 9180 I had problem with PK head, never with MK, so there may be red ink that cause the problem, not black, neither had any any problem with MK head on HP 8850 - all printers use same had type except that smaller units do not have red ink so there is no MK/R combination.

[Matt Addington]

I am having the exact same problem.  Printing on any paper/material that has some texture causes the same result.  I have changed the R/MK printhead too.  @DotCom Editor, what did you do to clean the printhead manually?

Hope I can find some resolve.

Thanks
matt

[Ernst Dinkla]

Z3100 #1, where solid black was printing as midnight blue.
Solution: Pulled MK/R printhead. Totally mucked up with dried and gooey chunks of black. Red (which is not really red, but more of a salmon color) was fine. Thoroughly cleaned the head and re-installed. Voila, problem gone; 0,0,0 now prints on canvas as solid black. Don't know about the dark blue, but at this point I don't care.

Z3100 #2, where reds were printing as rust or dark brown.
Solution: Pulled MK/R printhead. Same gooey and dried black ink problem. Seems MK ink was getting leaking into R side, causing reds to print dark. Following a thorough cleaning, problem is now gone.

What I find so odd is that during the 4+ years I've owned these printers, the only color problems I have had involve the MK/R channels. All other printheads in both printers are still the originals that shipped with the printer. But, in both printers, I've replaced the MK/R printhead twice.

The MK-Red heads replacements are here higher too. Still a few though. There is no substitute for regular maintenance I think. I can take off the right cover easily now and clean + moisten the station in 20 minutes. The print path is vacuum cleaned, the bar the head carriage rides on is oiled. No belt replaced so far. The formatter side fans vacuum cleaned.

--
Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst

Dinkla Grafische Techniek
Quad,piëzografie,giclée
www.pigment-print.com

[DotCom Editor]

I am having the exact same problem.  Printing on any paper/material that has some texture causes the same result.  I have changed the R/MK printhead too.  @DotCom Editor, what did you do to clean the printhead manually?

Cleaning was pretty simple. Pulled the MK/R printhead and went to work with a pile of cotton swabs and a small bowl of distilled water. On several occasions, HP has been very clear to NEVER use alcohol. Only water. There was a significant amount of black ink that either fully dried and caked, or just downright hot-fudge-like gooey in consistency. Cleaned the area in the carriage where the head sits, too. After re-installing, I went through one cleaning cycle and then did a diagnostic print. All is well. This explains 1) why MK was printing only partially and intermittently, and 2) why reds were dark and muddy -- black ink that was shot through the nozzles but not reaching the paper was instead migrating into the red.

There was yet another issue: The printer would not wake up when pressing the large round button on the control panel.  The only way to get it to wake up was either send it a print job or hit the rocker power switch on the back. That, of course, meant waiting for the 10-minute power-up process to complete. My HP service adviser (a terrific gentleman named Juan based in Costa Rica) determined the panel needed to be replaced. The very next morning, a replacement was delivered to my front door by FedEx. The printer now properly wakes up when pressing the button.