Printer - emergency help

[Jenny105]

Its club time of year so I tried to print off the 1st digital image of the season which has an angry sky.
The image printed out purple/lilac on my printer. An email version printed B&W & grey on a pals printer....

Tomorrow I'll head for the ink store.
If its not that any ideas i can try in a hurry?
I'm a beginner with little knowledge of RGB etc. A laptop and a PC with PS Elements is usedfor digital work maybe thats a problem too.

[Roger S]

Jenny, if you are using an inkjet printer, you can try an emergency, temporary fix, but it won't last very long.

Take the ink cartridges out and set them right side up on a damp paper towel for about a minute. Stick them back in, and you may get one print out of it. NO guarantees!

[Kenny]

Hi Jenny

you dont say what printer you have or if its a dye based or pigment printer.I do gather from your post that your printer has been standing for a while since last use.If thats the case it may simply be a case of cleaning the print heads using a print head cleaning cycle.No matter what manufacterer of the printer they all have a head cleaning function.You`ll find-specially with pigment based epson or Canon printers that if you leave them a while between print jobs the alcohol carrier of the ink evaporates and can leave deposits in the ink delivery tubes which blocks the ink from getting to the print head and buggers up the colour calibration when you print something out.Another thing to watch out for is dried in on the ink jet print head nozzles themselves.If this happens a shot of ink cleaning fluid usually does the trick.

One thing you might look out for is a utility like I have-if yours is an epson printer and its called the SSC utility and its the same software epson egnineers use to reset the chip in the printer that counts how many carts youve used and after a certain number gives you the message your printer is kiffed(when it isnt) and tells you you need to go to an approved epson engineer(which you dont) to have your printer repaired(which is doesnt need)

The utility resets the chip,cleans each head more gently and it doesnt cost you susty quid for the privilige.

Bessy regs and good luck with the printing.

Kenny