HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus....poor photo printing

[doncarajo]

Hello,

The printer above seems to print grainy photos on Kodak photo paper. My old Canon MP830 printer (whose scanner broke but can still print) seems to print superior photos with no noticeble graininess. I am using best quality settings in both cases. I would have expected a much newer printer to print much better than an old broken Canon one. Is this a known issue with the printer?

Thanks

[Bob_Headrick]

There are a few things to check.  What paper settings are you using?  I would suggest you try setting "Other Photo Papers" or "HP Premium Plus Photo Papers" rather than leaving the setting on Automatic.

Be aware that the Officejet 8600 uses pigmented inks which may not be compatible with some photo papers.  You might try HP Advanced Photo Paper.

[doncarajo]

I did try those two suggestions and at the best qualities. The printouts were grainy. It might just be that the pigmented inks are the issue and I will have to try the HP paper as you suggest. Thank you.

[Old_Salt]

I posted something similar on this board recently. My Kodak paper displayed grainy photos. I called tech support, and was told that only HP papers would work, and other papers might void my warranty (why, I cannot imagine). The pix that print grainy on Kodak papers print fine on the HP papers, so now that's all I use. A drawback to the HP papers is that they print darker pix than the Kodak papers, and the Kodak papers were the most accurate for color, contrast and exposure (although grainy).

[Dovidas]

I to just bought a HP 8600 and was putting it though its paces today, I to was shocked at the poor photo quality using my favaorite Kodak Ultima paper.  I tried some other brands of paper I had and got the same poor results, grainy, poor resolution. I then found the remainder of a box of HP Premium Photo Paper 4X6 so I tried it.  On the same pictures the difference in results were amazing!  My old Photosmart ate anything and gave great results.  Guess I'll just have to chuck out all my old paper and stick with HP products. Other than that, this printer is great!

[RoyFC]

I tried HP Advanced photo paper and the results are the same on my 8600 Plus:  grainy prints with resolution of photos well over 200 dpi.  "Best" chosen for quality.   And I am using the latest drivers and firmware (from March 2013 for firmware).

Dozens of people had much improved results with HP paper, according to a Web search on this problem, but my results are unchanged.  The printer is less than 2 months old.

[Bob_Headrick]

---

@RoyFC wrote:

I tried HP Advanced photo paper and the results are the same on my 8600 Plus:  grainy prints with resolution of photos well over 200 dpi.  "Best" chosen for quality.   And I am using the latest drivers and firmware (from March 2013 for firmware).

 Dozens of people had much improved results with HP paper, according to a Web search on this problem, but my results are unchanged.  The printer is less than 2 months old.

---

Make sure you have the Media type in the driver set to HP Advanced Photo Papers.

[RoyFC]

I did!

[JC-HPUser]

I also have very grainy picture.

My photo paper is HP Advanced Photo Paper

I did change my media setting to HP Advanced Photo Paper

Very grainy picture to an unacceptable level. In these cases, can HP fix this issue or is this, HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus, just a crappy printer?

Thank you.

[Gemini02]

Hi JC-HPUser

I understand you are getting grainy pictures and are using HP Advanced Photo Paper.

I will be happy to assist you with this.

I have included a document for grainy printing. How to power reset the printer, make sure you are using HP Genuine Cartridges, check print settings, update the firmware, checking the ink levels, evaluate a diagnostic page and aligning and cleaning the printhead.

Here is a document for troubleshooting the printhead.

If you require further assistance please provide the following so I can assist you
better.

What operating system are you using?
Here is a document to check your operating system for Windows or Mac.

What application are you printing from?

Try another application.

What were the results of the diagnostic page?

Are you using Genuine HP Cartridges?

What are the ink levels?