Windows 7 Coloured dots when printing grayscale! Canon printer.

[gabiibag]

Hi there! I am sorry if i had posted in a wrong place! I have a Canon printer which prints coloured dots in grayscale mode. I selected all the options which are related to this problem and nothing solved the problem....I found out that if i check the duplex option this problem occurs and if i don't select this option the coloured dots don't appear in grayscale mode. Can this problem came from the Windows driver or Windows print wizard...? I have the Canon driver installed and i have Windows 7. Please help me... Thankyou anticipated!

 

[Saltgrass]

I assume the duplex option is for printing front and back? You may want to give the printer model...wired or wireless, etc.

I would guess it is related to the Canon driver, especially if you can start or stop it by making that selection.

If you are double side printing, are the dots on both the front and back?

 

[gabiibag]

I have Canon MP 550 pixma and ....yes the dots are on the both sides when printing duplex.......of course i can stop this phenomenon by unchecking the duplex option... but i need this feature.

Any ideas how to solve this problem?

 

[Saltgrass]

I don't show that exact model on my Canon site, but I would just suggest you make sure you have the latest driver and see if any firmware updates are available. Are you wired or wireless?

Maybe the MP3 player is causing the problem ...

 

[gabiibag]

i am wired...the printer doesn't have wireless.

 

[Saltgrass]

I think beside the drives and firmware, the only thing I could suggest is to try it on another computer. If not that, try changing the USB ports. Most printers have other settings you might check, like bi-directional and whatever else might be available.

But it seems the ink is either leaking out or getting random signals to print. Maybe you could tell from the printout if one of those might be the case.

Is the original document in color, and does it print OK that way? But it seems the duplex setting, which should not have an effect on what prints out, is having an effect. Whether it is stray electrical signals or a driver, no way for me to even guess.

Don't know if it would make a difference, but are you using the Adobe Color Space which seems to be installed by the Adobe RGB installer?

 

[Digerati]

I don't see ink leaking in duplex mode and not in simplex. The ink cartridges have nothing to do with how the paper is fed. So I would lean towards the Canon driver but even then, it seems like a very odd problem.

If you print a two-page document in duplex mode in full color, does that look right? What about plain text (black both sides)?

 

[gabiibag]

of course...every time i print in grayscale....(this is the SINGLE option in which i can print in black&white) the document may present red and blue dots in images and sometimes in words. Sometimes there aren't dots on the printed page neither in pictures or in words. I just can think that it can be from the color tones...but this is illogical....if i had chose grayscale the document should be just black&white.
There are a few options regarding this phenomenon but even if i selected them nothing had changed.



I can say that if i copy a document or picture (scan and print without using the pc) if i print in black&white (there is no grayscale option) there would not be colored dots on the page.

Saltgrass: Regarding your questions: When i print with the worst printing quality (lets say a page with the secondary colors: green, orange, purple). After i print it in color mode i can see that these secondary colors are printed in the following method: ( if the orange has the red color predominant, the printed color will be red with many yellow dots. Or if it has the yellow color predominant, the printed color will be yellow with many red dots). I do not see Adobe Color Space in Programs and Features. I hope that i hadn't installed these programs (Adobe Color Space or Adobe RGB installer) because probably i installed them without realizing that... (I have other Adobe programs installed and while i was installing them probably i had also installed the other 2 programs without realizing).
But if i do not see that programs in Programs and Features...that means that i hadn't accidentally installed them?
Digerati: you can see what i had wrote above because you can see my answer to your question.
Does someone know what shall i do?

 

[gabiibag]

Does someone know if a driver or setting in windows driver for printing can affect and lead to this phenomenon?

 

[Saltgrass]

What you describe about the colors being printed with small dots of the second color sounds a little strange.

But this would seem to be a mechanical problem, or a driver problem.

If the printer is in warranty, you might try to get a replacement or repair.

You can try cleaning the jets to see if that helps, maybe change or reseat the cartridge/cartridges.

Try changing paper....

But it sounds like signals are being sent to tell the printer to print which are erroneous. I am not even sure a driver would have control over that.

 

[helpifIcan]

You may have already tried this, in the maint. tab do the printhead aligment, & the nozzle check and see if anything shows up.

 

[Drew]

Have you considered having a Canon printer repair shop look @ it? It was working properly & now it's not... I, also, think it has nothing to do w/ software, drivers or Windows.

Regards,
Drew

 

[Digerati]

It is able to print properly when he disables the duplex print setting so I don't see how it can be a printhead cleaning or ink issue. Or a paper or mechanical issue either. So it must be a driver issue, as noted in my first post. I would totally uninstall the drivers, reboot and install the latest drivers from Cannon.

 

[Drew]

Uninstalling the printer & re-installing might help determine if it should go to a Canon printer repair shop. Software & drivers would be from Canon not, HP. 'Installing' a mdern printer on Win7 is basically plug-n-play. & will find software & drivers needed or will come up in Windows Updates.

I happen to have a Canon printer running on Win7. Doesn't need it's disc or any special attention or help finding drivers, etc. & manages it all very nicely, all by itself.

Here's for its Software/Drivers & more, Link Removed due to 404 Error

And here you may want to look @ "Printing Difficulties", Link Removed due to 404 Error

That model is European or UK not, North America.

Cheers,
Drew

Drew

 

[Digerati]

Oops, sorry - yes Cannon, not HP.

 

[gabiibag]

the same problem even if i had uninstalled the drivers and installed the newest ones...

 

[Digerati]

The confusing part is it works fine depending on your duplex printing option. And that is odd because duplex printing really has little to do with printing - and more to do with paper handling.

That said, with my HP and duplex printing, the margins (and text size) will be slightly adjusted to allow the printer to grab the page without smearing the printed text on the first side. So maybe something similar is going on there with your Cannon, but not exactly as it should - that's a WAG.

Having said that, I just looked at your manual and note on page 303 (there are 877 pages!!!!) it says the following.

During Grayscale Printing, color inks may be used as well as black ink.

If you are trying to save ink, maybe try printing in draft or fast mode.

Did it ever work right?

 

[gabiibag]

the driver which was first installed... was from the CD received with my printer... and know i have the newest updates from the Canon site. The same problem... . I understand the duplex technology of your HP printer Digerati... if i am not wrong... it has Automatically Duplex... which means that your printer does the whole work by itself. Mine has Manual Duplex... which means that when i use this feature (the phenomenon with the colored dots appear)... the printer prints only on one side... and after that a message appears and informs you that you must take the printed paper and put it in the rear tray (in a specified way) and click on OK... to start to print on the backside of the document.Link Removed Here you can see how the message looks like. The part regarding the quality of printing...the driver is designed for a series of printers...not only for mine.... so there are 5 levels of quality: 1.Very High, 2.High, 3.Standard, 4.Fast, 5.Draft. My Canon PIXMA MP550 cannot use level 5 and 1... there are every time with any setting... "grayed" because it doesn't support them. So every usual document i print with level 4.Fast... and in grayscale and duplex mode the coloured dots appear.
I think that since i have my printer (2.5 years if i am not wrong) the phenomenon is still appearing.

 

[Digerati]

Yeah, that is not really duplex printing. Thanks for clarifying. You are right, my HP mechanically turns the paper over to print on the other side. This is controlled by the printer itself. In your case, besides your manual paper manipulation, the printer "software" (NOT to be confused with the printer "driver"), controls the timing based on your manual inputs.

My Canon PIXMA MP550 cannot use level 5 and 1... there are every time with any setting... "grayed" because it doesn't support them.

That might have to do with the paper type you have told the printer it has loaded. For example, for high-quality photo paper, it might let you print with the highest quality.

Still, none of that explains your problem.

Speaking of paper, I note some paper has different coatings on each side. Have you tried different types of paper?

In theory, you should be able to go total manual and get good results. That is, tell the printer to print just one page, then you reload that page back in the paper tray then start another print job for the second page/side. This would be a real PITA with a large documents, however.

Did I tell you I really like my HP?

 

[gabiibag]

related to the printer quality ... i tried with any paper setting and other important settings....but i also cannot use levels 1 and 5...because the respective software is also designed for other better and advanced in technology printers... not only for mine.