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Discs are printing with poor quality, poor color matching, streaks, banding, or missing colors. (Bravo, Bravo II, Signature Only)

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Question
Discs are printing with poor quality, poor color matching, streaks, banding, or missing colors. (Bravo, Bravo II, Signature Only)

Answer

 

Bravo or Signature Print Quality Problems

This could be caused by a number of things, but usually is related to an ink nozzle not firing properly because it is clogged with dried ink. There are several things to try, one of which almost always solves the problem:

1. Cartridge. Try a new cartridge. Make sure that the ink cartridge has ink remaining. We often get cartridges returned as "bad" when in reality they've just run out of ink. This can happen if you switch back and forth between cartridges a lot and the ink counter gets mixed-up. To reset the ink counter, install a brand-new cartridge and be sure to click NEW Color or NEW Black ink cartridge in the driver preferences.

2. Resolution. Change your resolution. The lowest (and fastest printing) resolution on Bravo is meant only for Draft printing.

3. Media. Try new discs. We only make the printers and the ink, not the discs themselves. There is a wide variety of printable-surface discs on the market. Some print great, some do not. The Tuff-Coat brand discs that we sell at Primera are very good discs for printing and burning.

4. Cartridge Setting. Change the cartridge setting in the driver. Try Color + Black or Color only. To change the cartridge setting, right click on the printer in the Printers and Faxes area - choose preferences - click cartridge - set it to Color + Black or Color. Color only will still print black, but will use the color cartridge to print it. We recommend "Color" only for the best possible quality on all images.

5. Saturation. Decrease or increase saturation in driver preferences.

6. Clean Print Job. Run a cleaning cycle. In printer preferences choose Cartridge Maintenance and Ink Levels. Click the Clean button. Make sure you have discs in your input bin. You may need to repeat this cycle a few times to dislodge any dried ink that may be clogging a nozzle.

7. Manually Clean Cartridge. If you still see banding after all of the above, then you may need to manually clean the cartridge. Follow this procedure:

a. Remove the print cartridges.
b. Moisten a lint-free cloth with water.
c. Hold the cloth against the nozzles for three seconds. This will "wick" some additional ink onto the damp cloth.

d. Wipe in the direction shown.
e. Repeat the process.

NOTE: Even brand new cartridges may need cleaning. Depending on where the cartridge was purchased from, it may have been sitting in the reseller's warehouse for several months before you received it. If you keep a lot of cartridges on hand, it may have been on your shelf for several months. If the cartridge is older than 90 days, even if it is sealed in its packaging, the nozzles can begin to dry out.

8. Clean the Maintenance Station. This article explains how to clean the maintenance station to prevent quality problems.

9. Copper Contacts.
Clean the copper contacts on the back of the print cartridge and the contacts on the print carriage with rubbing alcohol.


10. Dither Mode (Bravo Only). Make sure the dither mode is set to optimized for photos even if it is a graphic. 

11. Image Resolution. Try another image. Try printing a standard background from the SureThing CD Labeler software that came with the unit. Perhaps the resolution of the current image is not sufficient for a quality print. See this article for more information.

12. Cable.
Try another parallel/USB cable. Make sure that it is less than 6ft (2 meters) long.

13. Image Mode. If you are printing from another graphics application such as Photoshop or importing an image from another application, make sure that the image mode is set to CMYK. Often it helps to set the color matching option in the driver to None instead of PrimaColor for imported images. RGB images printed on the Bravo will not match colors on the screen well.

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Graphic Design Tips for Beginners and Professionals.


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Article Details
Views: 14037 Created on: May 24, 2014
Date updated: Dec 02, 2014

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