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- HP T210 DesignJet printing weak looking blacks

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07-08-2022
07:41 AM
- last edited on
07-08-2022
11:57 AM
by
Ric_ob
I'm using a T210 DesignJet in our department to print photos. I have edited the photos in Photoshop. They are taken with various cameras from an iPhone 13 Pro Max to a full frame Canon DSLR. I'm printing from an HP Z4 workstation running Windows 10. It's up to date as are all of my Creative Cloud apps. No matter which photo I print, the blacks all come out looking weak. The rest of the colors look ok, but the lack of deep, crisp blacks make the images look terrible. I have access to an HP T2530 and it prints absolutely amazing photos with deep blacks and vibrant colors, but its inconvenient to use and not always available. I access both printers through our networked print server. I also feel that the print quality of the T210 was much better when we first purchased the printer a year ago. The ink is new and full. I use sRGB as the color profile, but have tried Adobe RGB with the same results. The papers I'm using are glossy 8.5 x 11 and glossy 24" roll made by HP. I get the same results on both papers. I've tried allowing photoshop to manage the colors and for the printer to manage the colors, and neither one looked different.
07-08-2022 01:36 PM
Check and confirm that settings on the driver state to use true black and not composite black. Also you do not mention if a print quality test printed from the control panel shows the correct dark black you are expecting. It will save you time troubleshooting if you can narrow it down between a hardware issue on the printer or a setting/software issue.
I am a volunteer, offering my knowledge to support fellow users, I do not work for HP nor speak for HP.
07-08-2022 01:46 PM
I'm not sure where to find the setting for true or composite black? Should it be in the printer dialog screen where I make all the settings as far as quality, paper type, margins, etc? If so, it's not there. I will do print quality test and see how the black looks. One of my suspicions is that I'm not able to use all of the functions of this printer due to having to access it through our print server. I feel like there should be more options available than there are.
07-08-2022 02:31 PM
I cleaned the printhead and aligned the printhead. The text on the alignment sheets appears as a nice dark black. I then printed a photo from my iPhone using airprint and the print came out with weak looking blacks. The blacks look like a really dark gray. Something is definitely not right.