printing B&W

[stuck]

My printer is not a high end machine (it's a six ink Epson Expression Photo XP-960) but I'm happy with what I can get out of it. Usually anyway, not today though, a B&W image is coming out with a magenta cast.

I've read that such a cast can be caused by double colour management but that's not the cause here, the the Epson driver is definitely set to 'No Colour Management'. I've also read that if 'Epson Print Preview' is enabled that can break the CM, by triggering the printer to invoke CM even though the driver is set to 'No CM'. That also is not the case either, Epson Print Preview is not in use.

My monitor is a Dell U2413, which has been hardware calibrated to its native gamut, and if the X-Rite software is to be believed that exceeds Adobe RGB. However, it makes no difference if I set the monitor to use that profile or I use either of the monitor's factory settings for sRGB or Adobe RGB, in all cases the image looks OK on screen. Plus when I sample the colour at various point across the image, the RGB channels, as I'd expect for a B&W image, all show the same numbers.

Trial and error has eventually revealed that if I shift the tint of the white balance to -5% (I'm using Affinity Photo 2), i.e. towards the green, the change on screen is virtually imperceptible but resulting print looks OK.

Given that, am I right to conclude that my problem is that the Epson supplied paper profile is not accurate enough for my printer? I don't have a device to create my own paper profile, nor do I know anyone who does so I can't investigate that theory. Or is the problem that I need to get new eyes / a new monitor, to be able to better see the virtually imperceptible need for a tweak to the tint of the white balance?

Thanks

[DanK]

I don't use an Epson printer or your software, but for my combination, what you are doing is backwards. For color printing, the control of color should be set in the printing software to be handled by the software and not by the printer, and the printer's control of color should be turned off. (for my set up, Canon/LR/Windows, that is two different steps.) For B&W, one does precisely the reverse: turn on the printer's control of software and set it to B&W, then tell the software to let the printer control color.

Even though I have a different setup, the effect when I do this the wrong way is a slight magenta cast in the prints.

[stuck]

I...For B&W, one does precisely the reverse: turn on the printer's control of software and set it to B&W, then tell the software to let the printer control color...

Umm, yes, I have read that too and I should have said, that was how I had things set up the first time I tried to print this image, and it had a magenta cast, it was also darker than I expected. I suppose I must have screwed up somewhere but it was because of that failure that I reverted to letting the software control the colour + turning off CM in the printer that eventually led me to the need for a tiny tweak to the tint of the colour balance.

I've wasted enough paper so far I suppose that trying one more time with the printer controlling the colour can't make things worse. I'll report back if I do that.

Thanks again

[Rob0]

Hi
Sorry to read of your woes. I've had Epson printers for "a few" years and going back a printer or so, I seem to recall that if the printer tried to replicate Black from the colour inks, quite weird colour resulted. This has set me wondering if your Black ink may be empty or blocked. Perhaps a good starting point may be to try a head clean and a nozzle check to ensure all cartridges and nozzles are functioning OK.
In my present printer's software there is a control check box to ensure the printer uses Black ink only, maybe your has a printer control too?
I hope that you manage to resolve your problem soon - I have the reverse - 3 black inks work well but I can't get a single drop of yellow from the printer - I'm on the verge of buying a new printer!
Very best of luck
Rob O

[Manfred M]

When printing in B&W on colour photo printers, do not let the photo editing software (Photoshop, Lightroom, etc) control the colour. In Lightroom or Photoshop set the Profile Managed by Printer (for Lightroom) and in the Colour Management Tab of Photoshop, the setting should be Colour Handling "Printer Handles Color".

You also have to hit the Printer button to go to the operating system Print Management tool and here, for both Lightroom or Photoshop you need to set Colour Management to some value other than Off. Either sRGB or Adobe RGB settings should be fine. The proper paper profile has to be selected here as well.

I've never quite figured out why this works, but it does and the green (Epson) and magenta (Canon) overtones disappear.

P.S. - I print a lot on my Epson P800; generally several times a week.

[DanK]

Since I don't print with an Epson, this may not apply, but in printing with Canon printers:

In Windows, you can access the printer color controls by going to Properties in the Print dialog. From there, Epson and Canon presumably differ. For Canon printers, the correct setting to have the printer control B&W is on the first tab ("Quick setup"). For color printing, after telling the print software to control color, you go to the second tab under printer properties, ("Main"), where there is a color/intensity section. Choose manual, then set color matching to "none".

[stuck]

It's been yet another summer's day where I am, even though it's mid October, so I've been outside. Tomorrow's forecast is for rain so I'll have plenty of time then to revisit this print challenge.

Meanwhile, as I said, I do normally let the printer manage the colour when I print B&W but the result was so poor this time I switched to letting the software mange things. What I should have done is double double check I'd got all the settings in the printer properties correct. Isn't hindsight great?

Thank you all again for the extra details.