printing B&W with HP B9180

[ernie_targonski]

I have been working with a HP B9180 for a couple weeks now. Color output is

great. B&W seems have a magenta cast to it..... especially when viewed from an

angle. I have compared, side by side, to b&w prints made with my HP 7960. The

7960's have no apparent color cast. I have been using only the "Advanced" soft

gloss HP photo paper in the B9180 and HP Premium Plus soft gloss for my 7960. I

am using a b&w file and have set the B9180 driver to print in color, grayscale

composite, and grayscale gray ink only. All seem to have the same cast to

varying degrees. BTW, using the color driver option for the 7960 produced the

best b&w when using a b&w file. All the reviews and discussions I have read

indicate that b&w output from the B9180 is neutral with no color cast. Anybody

else with a B9180 see this??

Thanks in advance....

[rddelliott]

Ernie:

 

Are you using the printer driver and not the Photoshop driver for B/W? Then select greyscale and grey inks only. That produces great B/W's for me. Also, I like the look of matte papers better for B/W.

[ernie_targonski]

Robert,

 

I use PS ver 5.5 and the PS plug in does not work with that early ver. Color management is being handled by the printer and not PS. I have tried both ways, and the print matches my profiled display better than if color management was controlled by PS 5.5. Was (is) the same with my 7960. Actually I tried the Premium Plus paper, which is not supposed to be used with th B9180, and the b&w output is better. The soft gloss Prm + seems to be more matte like than the Advanced, so you may be right. I'll get my hands on some Advanced matte, or soft matte I think they call it and see. Thanks

[rddelliott]

Ernie:

 

If you are serious about your printing, you should upgrade your Photoshop. CS3 is due out in April. You can download a trial of CS2 I believe from Adobe. With the later software and using the printer to manage color, you should get great B/W. I have tried both having the printer manage color or having Photoshop manage color with a profile for B/W and get great results with either. No color casts. You might also want to join the 9180 Yahoo forum for lots of information.

[nels]

I've had a chance to do very few B/W prints with my B9180 so far, and all of them on HP Hahnemuhle Smooth Fine Art or Hahnemuhle Extra Bright White Photo Rag papers or on HP Artist Matte Canvas.

 

I let Photoshop determine colors, and select the right profile for paper from the drop down menu. The results are excellent and match my screen, to my eye. No color cast visible.

 

That said, I have not yet tried B/W printing using gray ink only.

[rddelliott]

Ernie:

 

Nels is correct on his paper choices. Also, Hahnemuhle William Turner is excellent for B/W, deep rich blacks and excellent detail.