This article will cover potential reasons why you are seeing an incorrect or dull colour output.
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You always want to make sure that you are printing through Sawgrass Printer Utility. This program helps ensure that your colours are correctly represented after printing. There are 3 different ways to do this:
- Printing through the "Create" option in Sawgrass Printer Utility
- Printing from your design software using Send to Sawgrass Printer Utility.
- Printing straight from DesignMate
- Printing using the Quick Print Folder
If you have any more questions regarding the above please refer to one of our articles showing how to print using Sawgrass Printer Utility here
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If you are printing from a design program other than CreativeStudio, you may want to check your colour settings within that software. You can find our articles explaining how to set them based on the software that you are using here.
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If nozzles or colours in the primary chart are missing or faded, try performing 1-2 head cleans and up to 5 head flushes. The cleaning options can be accessed via the Print Menu > Printer Features > List/Test Print.
If those steps do not clear the blockage, you may want to also clean the capping station.
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Expired ink cartridges can often be the cause of colour issues. This is because the formulation of the ink inside the cartridge changes over time which results in a colour shift. This is the reason why we strongly recommend replacing cartridge that have passed their expiration date.
Cartridge expiry dates are visible on the end of the cartridge as you open the ink door.
If you do have expired ink cartridges, we recommend these be replaced and perform 5 head flushes.
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It is vital that you print using the correct Print Settings for the products that you are using. If you are not using the correct selections within the Sawgrass Printer Utility Print Settings window, Sawgrass Printer Utility may use a profile that is not adequate for your paper, inks or substrate which can result in incorrect colours or too much ink being put down on the paper.
- We strongly recommend using or creating images using the RGB colour mode. Certain CMYK colours may not be correctly replicated as the Sawgrass Printer Utility profiles are in RGB.
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The majority of sublimation papers on the market have two sides to them, one side will have a special coating rendering the sublimation process possible and the other will not or will have a watermark instead. Its important to print on the correct side or the print may come out faded or have speckled marks on it. For the TruePix paper for example, you will need to print on the white side of the paper and the printing side will need to be placed face down in the paper tray.
- Whilst it may be tempting to use non genuine or compatible cartridges, we strongly recommend using genuine Sawgrass ink cartridges. All our colour profiles have been created in order to obtain the best colour output using Sawgrass Ink and are not optimized for use with third party ink. Furthermore, the origin and composition of compatible or third party ink cartridges is unknown and as such may cause further problems in the long run with your printer.
If you are still experiencing issues or have further questions, please contact our Sawgrass Care Team for assistance by click the 'Help' button on the bottom right of the page, or click here.