Never owned a Lexmark…don’t like the inability to refill easily.
What are the chances it ran out of one color ink without warning you? Take one color out of the mix and your colors will always be out of whack.
Also, have you tried printing the tiff from another application? It might be worth a try. I had a serious color cast problem with PSCS. When I printed from a Canon printer application all was good. I never figured out the problem but it went away when I installed a new drive and loaded everything from scratch. 😉
Martha:
Are you using Windows XP or Vista? Did you download the latest printer drivers from HP’s website and install them?
Is your printer out of cyan ink or is the cyan nozzel clogged?
can you get decent prints from other apps? have you run a test print? inquiring minds want to know!
Right. One of the things I forgot to mention was I’m running Stinking Vista Home Premium ™.
My little Epson gave up the ghost; one of the things I liked about that was how you could buy inks *separately* if you needed them, not the one cartridge for all colors.
I’ve updated til I’m blue in the face. I’ll go over all that stuff again to make sure. I’ll try printing it in other apps too. Darn. Please stand by and THANKS!
Martha
lexmark doesn’t make any money off printers. they make money off ink.
at other companies it might be the same way, or almost, but i’ve read that they’re the worst.
Yah…I’m going Epson again next time. I’ve pretty well determined it’s the cyan/yellow components of the cartridge. Call me crazy but I’m just not used to something working one second and turning out beautiful stuff and then the next looking like total crap. Oh, the help file is very helpful though…tells you about removing the cartridge and wiping with a lint-free cloth in one direction. I haven’t tried that yet…bet you can hear my joy over getting to do that.
I did a printout of the same photo in Illustrator and the colors were closer but not great.
I’ll keep pushing and letcha know what ultimately works.
A pox on Lexmark!
Martha
personally i’d cut my losses and get another printer before spending any more on ink for the lexmark.
Y’know, Dave, that’s a very good idea. I’m a little tight on cash but I begin a new job next week.
What kinda printer do you consider worth the dinero?
The best Epson you can afford!
? don’t ask me! 🙂 i use a b&w hp laser for day to day stuff and 2 different dye subs for image stuff. (an oly p330n for 3×5’s and a kodak 1400 pro for up to 8.5x 14).
others here are ink jet pros and i’m sure you’ll get some great suggestions.
no matter what you do, if you don’t print at least once a week, you need to at least clean the heads weekly (or more) on an inkjet. otherwise you risk clogging and damaging the print heads. i’ve toasted 3 mid to high range inkjets that way and that’s why i don’t do ink jets anymore! 🙂
there you go. john’s the man! 😉
I’m still a Canon fan. iP6000D. I avoided Lexmark because of combined colors, and Epson because of issues re-filing tanks.
I do lots of printing (couple of sheets almost every) so I don’t worry about clogging the jets. After a year and a half, I still get great prints! Even the people who don’t have eyesight and color perception issues as I do think so.
I understand that everyone has different needs/wants when making a purchase, so you pays your money and you takes your choice. 🙂
while i used to like canon, those were the 3 printers that went belly up for me because it didn’t print enough and the heads got too badly clogged… just keep that in mind if you’re not using the printer every day.
To be fair, Canon have improved since I switched from Canon to Epson some years ago.
I don’t do refilling so I can’t comment on that aspect.
Thank you, John. I’ve been looking at Epson’s More-In-Ones. I’ll probably go that route.
One of the reasons for this is my lovely BIG flatbed scanner isn’t supported by Stinking Vista ™. I even have a brand new one, an HP scanner of the same model that isn’t even out of the box. It’s so much faster than the Lexmark all-In-One printer/scanner with many more options.
A pox on Microsoft!
Martha
I’d have run with an HP printer on an HP ‘pooter but that may just be irrational ol’ me…
I’d suggest HP with HP as you have double the support along the lines of: "What! My HP printer won’t work with my HP ‘puter! Put me through to the chair of the board" kind of approach.
Otherwise HP pooter people may say it is XYZ printer and XYZ printer people say it is HP pooter and then both say: blame the OS?
I would advise against HP printers. Just a personal opinion.
I have a six or seven year old Epson Colour Stylus 1290, that prints maybe 1 or two sheets per month at the moment, and I have no real issue with clogged inkjets. It’s only powered on when I go to make a print, the rest of the time is sits quietly powered off under its dust cover.
Once a year, I print out a couple of A3 sized test prints, and it still performs perfectly. It’s slow, but given my usage, that’s fine.
I tried Canon for a while but was never really happy.
So I’ll always recommend an Epson.
Just like Klaas I am very pleased with my Epson 1290. Prints are great and I have very few problems with clogging.
I use a CIS which make printing much cheaper…
It is slow indeed but otherwise an excellent choice.
Just my opinion.
Ronald
I vote for Epson. Please note that I have not used a Canon printer and I realize that many people like them. That being said, I stay with Epson because of the quality and reliability. I do a LOT of printing and, at present, I’m using an Epson R1800. I love this printer. I bought it when they first came out so I guess I’ve used it for nearly three years. My previous printer was an Epson 1280 which I used for at least four years.
This is only my opinion but: I don’t consider the lower cost HP’s as being photo printers. Like John, that is my personal opinion. I don’t consider Lexmark as being printers period. I’ve never owned one but I know many people that have and none proved reliable.
As Dave stated, when owning any inkjet, you should print something at least once a week. If you haven’t printed anything in that amount of time, simply go to the printer maintenance program and run a nozzle check which will print all of your colors and does not use a lot of ink.
You can buy a decent Epson printer for photos for around a hundred dollars. That probably isn’t much more than the ink for the Lexmark.
I’m not a big fan of All In One’s. Have you tried downloading Vista drivers from HP for your HP scanner?
Q
Did you tried to find driver at driverguide? This is the best source for drivers around the internet!
Yes, I tried downloading a driver for my MOST excellent HP flatbed scanner but HP said, one, that they’re not supporting that scanner anymore. Two, Stinking Vista ™, of course, the Great Denyer of Peripherals, laughed and said, you idiot, whatever made you think I’d support THIS OLD THING? Can I have an OY?
And Dave’s right, I need to print something in color at least once a week. I’ll tellya something else too about the Lexmark. The Lexmark Solutions Center is hidden in the start up menu which doesn’t make any sense when you’re used to right-clicking to get to the printing prefs, troubleshooting stuff, etc.
Zoltan, I’ll try driverguide. Never heard of ’em until now, in fact. THANKS!
Ronald, Klass and Q., thanks for your recommendations. I’ll research each of the printers you mentioned. Gives me more to go on.
Thanks again youse guys,
Martha
