B/W on Epson 1400 printer? I've obtained a used Epson Photo Stylus 1400 printer, but have not discovered a way to print black-and-white images without ending up with a color cast. This...

bcrawf

I've obtained a used Epson Photo Stylus 1400 printer, but have not discovered a way to print black-and-white images without ending up with a color cast. This is with an image converted to grayscale (in Photoshop) and designating B-W in the printer dialogue window. I normally work in color, but want to solve this issue. Any experience with this out there?

JennT Loc: South Central PA

I have had the same problem--- was not able to solve it!

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

My guess is that you may have Photoshop set to manage the "color" and the printer driver set to do the same. Turn of color management in one. Then try turning off in the other.

PicsFixer

Try this out: I have a 1430. This is not hard, convert to BW then back to RGB. Go to IMAGE-ADJUST-Photo Filter and pick a warm tone like Sepia or one of the three warn-up colors. You decide. Make sure 'Preserve Luminosity' is checked. This way you are giving the less forgiving printer a color to work to. You can do the same thing without a photo filter. But you do need the image to be RGB otherwise the printer decides for you and you can't control that. As an RGB image you can tweak it to get the BW look you want. Just record what you do as an action or write in down. Should work with consistency. I do it all the time. There are other ways that work but this is the simplest. Good Luck

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

The Epson 1400 only has one black ink cartridge, which limits B&W printing. I've had a number of Epson printers, and I didn't get really neutral B&W until I got an Epson R2880, which has black, light black, and light light black inks.

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

bcrawf wrote:

I've obtained a used Epson Photo Stylus 1400 printer, but have not discovered a way to print black-and-white images without ending up with a color cast. This is with an image converted to grayscale (in Photoshop) and designating B-W in the printer dialogue window. I normally work in color, but want to solve this issue. Any experience with this out there?

I still have an old Stylus 1440 printer (20 years old). It does print b&w prints without color cast, but it does not do a good job. It's one of those old, odd printers that use a ( I think four color cartridge), so it definitely wasn't made for that, I do not know your printer model but it may be similar. If you have yours set up to have Photoshop manage color, then you'll have to turn color management to OFF, otherwise you will see strange colors in your prints!

bcrawf

JohnSwanda wrote:

The Epson 1400 only has one black ink cartridge, which limits B&W printing. I've had a number of Epson printers, and I didn't get really neutral B&W until I got an Epson R2880, which has black, light black, and light light black inks.

My Epson Photo Stylus 1400 has 6 cartridges, including light gray and light magenta (besides black, C, M and Y).

bcrawf

speters wrote:

I still have an old Stylus 1440 printer (20 years old). It does print b&w prints without color cast, but it does not do a good job. It's one of those old, odd printers that use a ( I think four color cartridge), so it definitely wasn't made for that, I do not know your printer model but it may be similar. If you have yours set up to have Photoshop manage color, then you'll have to turn color management to OFF, otherwise you will see strange colors in your prints!

My 1400 is newer than that, but thanks -- and please clarify what you mean abut color management setting, since I thought the selection was either-or, so choosing one option, such as "PShop manages color," means the printer does not (and vice-versa).

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

bcrawf wrote:

My 1400 is newer than that, but thanks -- and please clarify what you mean abut color management setting, since I thought the selection was either-or, so choosing one option, such as "PShop manages color," means the printer does not (and vice-versa).

I don't have an Epson. My Canon came with the default to managing its own color in the printer driver. Lightroom and Photoshop defaulted to managing the color. You have to pick which one you want to do it.

MikeT9

With an Epson Photo printer you do need to turn off Let Photoshop manage colours. Then when you set the printer to the appropriate paper type the printer driver will manage the printing.

fergmark Loc: norwalk connecticut

MikeT9 wrote:

With an Epson Photo printer you do need to turn off Let Photoshop manage colours. Then when you set the printer to the appropriate paper type the printer driver will manage the printing.

Using a large format Canon printer for B/W printing, the only way to keep colors from showing up in the print, was to assign photoshop to manage colors. And of course make sure the paper type was correctly identified, so I have to agree with Mike.

bcrawf

fergmark wrote:

Using a large format Canon printer for B/W printing, the only way to keep colors from showing up in the print, was to assign photoshop to manage colors. And of course make sure the paper type was correctly identified, so I have to agree with Mike.

Well, you say let PShop manage colors, but Mike says not to. Can you clarify?

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

JohnSwanda wrote:

The Epson 1400 only has one black ink cartridge, which limits B&W printing. I've had a number of Epson printers, and I didn't get really neutral B&W until I got an Epson R2880, which has black, light black, and light light black inks.

Yes, you need a range of black inks to properly print black, more than one black cartridge.

fergmark Loc: norwalk connecticut

I can only speak from my experience with the large canon printer I have been using for my b/w photos. One missed setting throws off your prints. The last thing I do before sending to the printer is to be sure I have PS manage.

bcrawf wrote:

Well, you say let PShop manage colors, but Mike says not to. Can you clarify?

fergmark Loc: norwalk connecticut

gvarner wrote:

Yes, you need a range of black inks to properly print black, more than one black cartridge.

My home printer is an old 6 color epson photo rx595. It makes remarkable color prints on glossy paper, but with black and white it fails. Having only one black, the printer has to use the light colors to get values. There is an ugly greenish cast that improves as it dries but they are not good for much. If you are serious about printing black and white you should look into another printer. The best ones can have three or more blacks, and always have separate gloss and matt dark black inks that have to be flushed when changing papers. Pretty wasteful.