Thin vertical lines when printing photos

[ptgbirdlover]

I too have this issue with a printer new out of box, handled with extreme loving care. Ditto on trying all the supposed solutions of cartridge cleaning, aligning the printer, using only HP cartridges, using HP premium photo paper (never had this problem with the Photosmart line, which I adored and wish I could buy again!!). Have wasted much time and about $35 worth of HP paper trying to fix this. Problem occuring with each and every software I use, from Windows Photo  Viewer to Adobe Elements to Windows Photo Gallery. In addition, HP has made the menu offerings on the small printer screen virtually unintelligible, with no online support guiding the user through the various cryptic functions and menus. Ridiculous waste of time and money, steer clear!!

[Jeet_singh]

Hi @ptgbirdlover,

Thanks for engaging in HP support Forums! This is a wonderful location to converse with the community, get assistance and find tips!

I understand that you are getting vertical lines with your HP printer. Are you getting the vertical lines while printing from the PC or while making a copy on the printer?

Could you also provide me with the printer model number? Use this link to find it:  https://support.hp.com/in-en/document/c03754824  (Ensure you do not share any of your personal information such as serial, phone number, email ID, etc...).

Place a document face down on the scanner glass and press the copy option on the printer control panel. Let me know if it makes a good copy or not.

Also, what is the operating system on your PC?

If the copy from the glass comes with vertical lines, try to perform a power drain as suggested below:

• Remove the cartridges from the printer.
• With the printer turned on, disconnect the power cord from the rear of the printer and also unplug the power cord from the wall outlet.
• Remove USB cable, if present.
• Wait for 2-3 minutes, press and hold the power button on your printer for about 30 seconds to remove any additional charge.
• Now plug back the power cable straight to a wall outlet without any surge protector or an extension cord (This is important) and then plug back the power cord to the printer.
• Turn on the printer and wait till warm-up period finishes and the printer is idle.

Please let me know if this resolves the issue, or if you require further assistance!

Eagerly waiting for your response!

I hope you have a good day ahead,

And Feel free to ask your queries as this forum has some of the best people in the world available and ready to help.

Regards,

[Moonlightflower]

If this is a new printer, HP should replace the print head for free. However, that happened to me with a Kodak printer. They replaced the print head once but it became defective too. They put me off until it was too late to have a print head replaced no charge so I tossed the printer and went back to HP. However, I had to purchase a new print head for my HP 8600. So far it's working okay. But an issue with the lines still happening sometimes is selecting the correct photo paper when printing photos. Otherwise, this new print head is working fine.

Get HP to replace either the print head of the printer. Although on that line of thought, one thing I don't like about HP is they most times do not repair whatever equipment you send to them. They give you a refurbished equipment. That's not kosher. I went through 6 pcs and had the "new" one and the one to be sent back at the same time. I told them I wanted a refund because that was rediculous going through 6 new computers in less than a year.

Replace the print head....HP should do it.

[dbvogt]

Thank you for the information. I tried this with my HP Office Jet Pro 8730 and it worked for the first print as a test on ordinary paper but the vertical lines came back with the second print on photo paper. Static? I was printing identical photos side by side in landscape mode. The  left hand photo is fine, the right hand one has thin vertical lines about 1 1/4 inch apart and this is apparently the first one printed. No lines appear on ordinary paper so maybe the test really didn't work. There is no problem with copying and no difference between Microsoft Picture Printer and Adobe Acrobat. Any suggestions?

As an aside, who is responsible for interfacing the HP 8730 with Adobe Acrobat, HP or Adobe? I'm a heavy user of Adobe Acrobat and there is no way to scan letter size documents through Adobe as the default is legal size. I am forced to use the HP Scan mode but it has a serious flaw: it does not save the last folder accessed as almost every other software package does. When I scan multiple packages of documents, each scan routine for the next package requires me to drill down to the same sub folder again and again. Any updates?

HP 8730 - nice printer but with some serious flaws.

[snoble]

we are printing pictures from a windows 10 Surface Book2. The printer works awesome for everything else except photos. Lines appear approx 1 1/4 inch apart. Photos look great but those lines ruin it. any ideas?

[gogortgo]

On my second HP printer with this issue. I have had to experiment with selecting different paper types to get rid of the lines.

On my latest HP8730, I had glossy paper 180g so I picked the closest match HP brochure 180g glossy: i got the lines in my photos. This printed very quickly which i believe has something to do with the issue. 

Changing to HP advance photo paper caused the printing to be much slower and lines to disappear.  I have the quality I expected.

Hopefully others may try and reply if it works for them also so others will know if this advice is good for the community.