Not sure why black&white image prints green??

[PatiO31498]

I took several black and white images with my CP990. Did nothing but crop and AutoLevels in PS5. Printed in my HP PhotoSmart on HP Quality Glossy paper. Twice came out very green in the lighter areas. Dark areas appear black (Okay). Is my problem in the 990 or the printer? Thanks, PatiO.

 

[Bob Sabell]

You might want to try printing Bob L.'s gray scale chart to check your printer.
This should be his post...
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1007&message=817142

I took several black and white images with my CP990. Did nothing
but crop and AutoLevels in PS5. Printed in my HP PhotoSmart on HP
Quality Glossy paper. Twice came out very green in the lighter
areas. Dark areas appear black (Okay). Is my problem in the 990
or the printer? Thanks, PatiO.

 

[Reno29810]

I took several black and white images with my CP990. Did nothing
but crop and AutoLevels in PS5. Printed in my HP PhotoSmart on HP
Quality Glossy paper. Twice came out very green in the lighter
areas. Dark areas appear black (Okay). Is my problem in the 990
or the printer? Thanks, PatiO.

I don't know what kind of printer you have but on my Epson B&W photo's print much better using the color setting rather than the black ink only.

Black ink only leaves lines and the grays don't appear as rich. Some HP printers don't allow printing of B&W with the color setting (I was told,could be wrong ) Hope this helps, Reno

 

[Darrell Spreen]

I took several black and white images with my CP990. Did nothing
but crop and AutoLevels in PS5. Printed in my HP PhotoSmart on HP
Quality Glossy paper. Twice came out very green in the lighter
areas. Dark areas appear black (Okay). Is my problem in the 990
or the printer? Thanks, PatiO.

I presume you are printing in the color mode. It would appear your color
adjustments in your printer have too much cyan and maybe too much yellow.
Your color prints also probably have a slight green tint, but it may be less
noticeable. If you can switch to a Black-ink only mode, you should get better
black & white quality even though some people say they get the best B&W

prints using color settings - that's only true if the printer's color adjustments
are perfect (a difficult calibration process).

 

[Isabel Cutler]

I had a similar problem when printing in grayscale. 1/3 to 2/3 of the images has a purple cast on the bottom. Very puzzling. Changing the b/w cartridge didn't help (it was low)...I had to change the low color cartridge (believe it or not) and the problem went away. I'm using an HP970 printer.

Isabel

I took several black and white images with my CP990. Did nothing
but crop and AutoLevels in PS5. Printed in my HP PhotoSmart on HP
Quality Glossy paper. Twice came out very green in the lighter
areas. Dark areas appear black (Okay). Is my problem in the 990
or the printer? Thanks, PatiO.

I presume you are printing in the color mode. It would appear your
color
adjustments in your printer have too much cyan and maybe too much
yellow.
Your color prints also probably have a slight green tint, but it
may be less
noticeable. If you can switch to a Black-ink only mode, you should
get better
black & white quality even though some people say they get the best
B&W
prints using color settings - that's only true if the printer's
color adjustments
are perfect (a difficult calibration process).

 

[Peter iNova]

The HP printers ONLY use the CMY ink to make the color image. That black cartridge will print black type but it doesn't participate in the color image process AT ALL.

It's pretty amazing that they can do this but color film and color film printing has used only CMY dyes to make color shots for decades.

Make a photoshop grayscale on a blank RGB page and print that. If you still get the green, you have just isolated the issue to the computer/printer connection.

The Transfer function controls may help neutralize the shot. Or your photoshop may be somehow "compensating" for you when it sucks in a JPEG. It may take some tracking down, but once you get the printer to make a neutral gray scale, the camera images should be neutral as well.

-iNova

Isabel

I took several black and white images with my CP990. Did nothing
but crop and AutoLevels in PS5. Printed in my HP PhotoSmart on HP
Quality Glossy paper. Twice came out very green in the lighter
areas. Dark areas appear black (Okay). Is my problem in the 990
or the printer? Thanks, PatiO.

I presume you are printing in the color mode. It would appear your
color
adjustments in your printer have too much cyan and maybe too much
yellow.
Your color prints also probably have a slight green tint, but it
may be less
noticeable. If you can switch to a Black-ink only mode, you should
get better
black & white quality even though some people say they get the best
B&W
prints using color settings - that's only true if the printer's
color adjustments
are perfect (a difficult calibration process).

 

[Isabel Cutler]

I thought when I print in Grayscale...a picture I have converted to Grayscale before printing...I was only using the black cartridge...is that not true on the HP970? I was getting a purple swath across 1/3 to 2/3 of black and white prints before I changed the low color cartridge.
Isabel

It's pretty amazing that they can do this but color film and color
film printing has used only CMY dyes to make color shots for
decades.

Make a photoshop grayscale on a blank RGB page and print that. If
you still get the green, you have just isolated the issue to the
computer/printer connection.

The Transfer function controls may help neutralize the shot. Or
your photoshop may be somehow "compensating" for you when it sucks
in a JPEG. It may take some tracking down, but once you get the
printer to make a neutral gray scale, the camera images should be
neutral as well.

-iNova

Isabel

I took several black and white images with my CP990. Did nothing
but crop and AutoLevels in PS5. Printed in my HP PhotoSmart on HP
Quality Glossy paper. Twice came out very green in the lighter
areas. Dark areas appear black (Okay). Is my problem in the 990
or the printer? Thanks, PatiO.

I presume you are printing in the color mode. It would appear your
color
adjustments in your printer have too much cyan and maybe too much
yellow.
Your color prints also probably have a slight green tint, but it
may be less
noticeable. If you can switch to a Black-ink only mode, you should
get better
black & white quality even though some people say they get the best
B&W
prints using color settings - that's only true if the printer's
color adjustments
are perfect (a difficult calibration process).

 

[PatiO31498]

Thanks, all:

I fooled around with the printer setup stuff and found I can set the PhotoSmart printer to "Print color as greyscale". Works like a charm. Duh! PatiO.

I took several black and white images with my CP990. Did nothing
but crop and AutoLevels in PS5. Printed in my HP PhotoSmart on HP
Quality Glossy paper. Twice came out very green in the lighter
areas. Dark areas appear black (Okay). Is my problem in the 990
or the printer? Thanks, PatiO.

I don't know what kind of printer you have but on my Epson B&W
photo's print much better using the color setting rather than the
black ink only.
Black ink only leaves lines and the grays don't appear as rich.
Some HP printers don't allow printing of B&W with the color setting
(I was told,could be wrong ) Hope this helps, Reno

 

[Darrell Spreen]

I thought when I print in Grayscale...a picture I have converted to
Grayscale before printing...I was only using the black
cartridge...is that not true on the HP970? I was getting a purple
swath across 1/3 to 2/3 of black and white prints before I changed
the low color cartridge.
Isabel

You can print a grayscale image two ways with Epson printers (I don't
have the 970, but I think it's standard). One is by setting the printer option
to "black" in which case only the black ink cartridge is used. The other is
to leave the option set to "color" in which case all the colors in the color
ink cartridge are used to print the B&W print. If the color adjustments
are not calibrated correctly, the B&W print will have a color cast. If they
are calibrated very carefully, you can get a B&W print which many people
think is superior to one printed with just the black ink cartridge. You
should try both and decide for yourself.

The fact that you have converted the picture to grayscale in photoshop
and it looks good on your monitor still doesn't tell the printer which of
the two options to use to print it.

Darrell

 

[Isabel Cutler]

My printer WAS set to grayscale when I was getting the purple cast on it. Replacing the color cartridge seemed to fix it. Who knows why???? Some things take longer to figure out than others...I finally did a mail merge for mailing labels today...I've tried to figure that out for years...so I'm thankful for every epiphany!
Isabel

I thought when I print in Grayscale...a picture I have converted to
Grayscale before printing...I was only using the black
cartridge...is that not true on the HP970? I was getting a purple
swath across 1/3 to 2/3 of black and white prints before I changed
the low color cartridge.
Isabel

You can print a grayscale image two ways with Epson printers (I don't
have the 970, but I think it's standard). One is by setting the
printer option
to "black" in which case only the black ink cartridge is used. The
other is
to leave the option set to "color" in which case all the colors in
the color
ink cartridge are used to print the B&W print. If the color
adjustments
are not calibrated correctly, the B&W print will have a color cast.
If they
are calibrated very carefully, you can get a B&W print which many
people
think is superior to one printed with just the black ink cartridge.
You
should try both and decide for yourself.

The fact that you have converted the picture to grayscale in photoshop
and it looks good on your monitor still doesn't tell the printer
which of
the two options to use to print it.

Darrell

 

[MikeS]

I took several black and white images with my CP990. Did nothing
but crop and AutoLevels in PS5. Printed in my HP PhotoSmart on HP
Quality Glossy paper. Twice came out very green in the lighter
areas. Dark areas appear black (Okay). Is my problem in the 990
or the printer? Thanks, PatiO.

To answer your question on the "greenish" tint of the b&w pics....its the HP Glossy paper you're using. I have the same setup as you do, and I found the same results. Try using the new Ilford glossy paper, I think you'll be VERY impressed with the results. Also, dont forget to change the file to GRAYSCALE in Photoshop prior to printing.