printer problem - advice please?

[Michael Rolls]

I have two printers, a Brother colour laser and a Canon ink-jet MG 4350. The Canon is hardwired to my Asus Vista machine, whilst the Brother is networked, and accessed from the Asus and my W10 Dell.
The Canon gets very little use; when I first bought a laser printer – a Samsung CLP 315W back in 2010, at the time there was no photo quality paper available suitable for a laser printer. Up to then I had always just had ink-jet printers; at the time I bought the Samsung I had an Epson (can't remember the model) which expired a bit later – 2011 – which was replaced by an Advent A10 which was replaced in its turn by the Canon in 2015. Once I had a laser printer the ink-jet was virtually used just to print photos. The Samsung laser expired in 2020 and was replaced by the Brother.
Now to the problem (sorry about the long intro). My photo programme is Photoshop Elements installed on both computers. Recently – just the last few weeks, I have printed some family photos to hang on the wall and have done them using the Asus/Canon combination. The most recent prints have a sort of striated effect. They are A4 size and vertical lines about ¼" apart appear over the whole surface of the print. They first appeared three or four prints ago and were scarcely noticeable, but they are now quite noticeable over areas of plain colour, less so over detailed areas. Thinking that the little use that the Canon gets might be the problem, I carried out maintenance on it – head cleaning, etc., but no change. I changed the black cartridge as the test printout seemed to show a slight problem from black, but again no change. Assuming the problem lay with the Canon, I printed the same picture using the Asus/Brother combination – and to my surprise the lines were still there. As a further check I then printed the same picture using the Dell/Brother combination – no lines. The obvious next step is to get photo quality paper suitable for the laser printer, but I am a loss to understand the conundrum.
Any views please? I would like to continue to be able to use the Canon – until now the quality of photos printed from it ahs been excellent. Might uninstalling Photoshop from the Asus and installing a later version (if such would work with Vista) help?
Mike

[Diasi]

The first step when doing any diagnostics is to check all the possible combinations so you need to try printing using the Dell / Canon combination.

[klondike]

Posting the original image full size using https://postimages.org/ thumbnail option along with a phone picture of the resulting prints may help too. Descriptions of picture faults can never provide the level of information a photo of them can.

[Michael Rolls]

The first step when doing any diagnostics is to check all the possible combinations so you need to try printing using the Dell / Canon combination.

good point -as things stand, the Dell doesn't have the Canon s'ware on it - I'll try and sort it. Tha Canon isn't on the netword so it needs to be temporarily hard wired to it -

July 12, 2022, 09:21:10 AM
this is the link (I hope) to the original

https://postimg.cc/BjL7HKLZ

[Michael Rolls]

and here's the link to the problem picture - this is the print from the ASUS/ Brother combination on plain paper, hence the poor quality - the glossy paper reflects too much to get a decent image. Hopefully the striations - which are at teh same sort of level as on the glossy print - will be visible.

https://postimg.cc/K18JFshH

July 12, 2022, 09:35:44 AM
yes - I can see them on my screen
Mike

[klondike]

The original is a little small for an A4 print. At 1280 x 960 it works out at a bit over 100dpi. I'd reckon on 150dpi minimum for a colour print and this https://www.toptenreviews.com/what-photo-size-is-a4#:~:text=The%20short%20answer%20is%20that,is%203510%20x%202490%20pixels. suggests even more with a size of 3510 x 2490 but I imagine that would be for viewing close up and at a distance on a wall your image may well be fine. In any case it wouldn't account for the lines you got.

I've seen prints like that but usually only on plain paper. Google suggests the cartridges may need a deep clean (ie several I guess). I'd suggest that one printer driver may be making a better job of it. Not sure why it deteriorated though as that harks back to a nozzle / ink problem.

If you have a few to print it might pay to check out commecial printing as the price may not be exhorbitant and will certainly be less in bulk and cheaper than replacing equipment.

Oy may well be able to offer better advice.

[Michael Rolls]

no more to print at the moment - On the wall - there are already 18 A4 prints, framed, on the walls and at normal viewing distance they look OK to me - but then, they all pre-dated this problem, and none of them show this striation effect. One annoying - although in the balance of things, trivial, I suppose, the pandemic closed a photographer's I used to use. They made canvas prints for me 16" x 12" which I prefer, but needs must.
Must say I am really surprised that BOTH printers exhibit the problem - the only common feature is the Photoshop software
Mike

[-Oy-]

I gave up home printing for photos years ago. I had an Epson A3+ inkjet with a continuous ink system. Then I realised U could get 16x12" prints on Fuji Crystal Archive paper online for 99p and with postage then at £3.50 it made a lot more sense - particularly when ordering several big prints for photo clients. Last time I did this it was £1.20 and £4.50 postage.  

[Michael Rolls]

must say that, apart from the canvas prints I mentioned, I do like to do my own printing as I can play around with colour balance, contrasts, etc., to get a print just as I like it
I was looking to check the Dell/Canon combination, but at the mo I can't find the Canon installation disc . Mind you, it was 7 years ago, and a lot has happened on those 7 years
Mike

[klondike]

I bet google knows where there is something you can download. There is every chance that it will be more up to date too. Few modern machines even have a DVD drive these days. If I wanted to use a CD or DVD I'd have to hunt for a USB drive.

[Michael Rolls]

My Dell doesn't have a CD/DVD drive - but I have a plug-in so that's no prob, but I need to find the original disc so I know that I am comparing like with like
Oh - and when I feel a bit more energetic (finding the heat, even though nowhere near what the south is getting, very enervating) I'll try a bot more maintenance on the Canon.
Mike