Is it just me or does Canon ink smear easily?

[Comp625]

I currently own the Canon i860 and the Canon i550. Both printers use the BCI-3BK cartridge for document printing. Since I predominantly use the printers to print out schoolwork, I've noticed that the ink smears very easily...even if you don't touch the paper. Although I love Canon printers (especially for their photo printing and the low-cost ink economy), I'm a bit disappointed with the ease of smearing documents. I've noticed the smearing doesn't happen on printers from other manufacturers such as my roommate's Lexmark x5150, a variety of HP printers or Epson printers.

I'm using genuine Canon ink, not generic cartridges. Currently, I choose the "Fast-print all-black text" in the Print Advisor wizard to print out my documents. I believe this set of instructions are equivalent to setting the Print Quality to Standard Mode with Grayscale Printing.

Does anyone know how to rectify this problem?

 

[fisheye]

could it have anything to do with the type of paper you're printing on?

 

[Comp625]

I've tried a variety of paper ranging from HP's " Bright White Inkjet" paper to Hammermill's equivalent. I've even tried Staples Bright White Inkjet paper as well. It's as if the ink itself smears very easily.

 

[applesseed]

I have the Canon 6000 Printer and the ink smears easily too - so... I guess it's a Canon thing. I usually just let the print dry out first.

 

[Peter]

Sounds like your paper saturates too easily, leaving residue ink on the surface Try different paper settings (e.g. "Plain" instead of "High-Res" paper) to reduce the amount of ink.

 

[Comp625]

Originally posted by: Peter
Sounds like your paper saturates too easily, leaving residue ink on the surface Try different paper settings (e.g. "Plain" instead of "High-Res" paper) to reduce the amount of ink.

It's already on "Plain paper." Hmm...this is starting to bug me.

 

[Peter]

Have you tried printing onto the other side of the paper you have there? Most copier and inkjet papers have only one side suitable for printing onto. Look at the wrapper - there's an arrow that points to the "good" side of the stack.

 

[Mem]

I`ve never had that problem with my Canon i865 printer and I use third party (Print Rite) ink carts,if you`ve tried all the things Peter has suggested and still no go,I would try different ink carts since you`ve nothing to lose at this stage.

Print Rite homepage.

 

[beatle]

I never had a problem with my Canon i850 using Canon or generic ink. I print to Kodak 110+ brightness inkjet paper.

 

[imported_Arden]

Hi I just jointed and this will be my first post. I too have noticed the ink smearing on my laptop BJC 80 printer and I to have tried different papers. I have to be very careful where I pick the paper out of when I remove it otherwise if I happen to touch it there is a smear. Also there is sometimes a slight smear anyway. Where do I go into to try to set the paper settings to see where the paper is set at? i.e. plain or high resolution? As you can see I am a novice and I hope that you don't mind this type of question. Regards
I will be doing a post on printers as I am considering purchasing a canon PIXMA 5000 or 6000 and will be asking this question there as well amongst other things.

 

[Peter]

You do that in the printer's Properties pages.

And it's not like the iP series printers wouldn't still use a BC-3BK cartridge for black text printing

 

[Zepper]

For most matte papers you need to set Canon printers that use the pigmented black ink carts (BCI-3x) to "Plain Paper". And for printing docs that include pix or graphics (applies to matte paper) you need to set "Color Adjustment" to Manual and click on the "Set" button there and set Brightness to Light. The Kodak web site has good guidelines to use as starting points for lots of different papers and popular printers.
.bh.