Print quality is good on photo paper, but colors are missing when printed on plain paper or cardstock

Are you trying to print photographs on plain paper? Epson WorkForce printers are designed for fast office-type printing, not photo quality printing.
If you use photo-paper (specifically, Epson photo paper), and "best" quality setting, it should be better. Your color may not exactly match what you see on your screen, though. Welcome to the wonderful world of "color management".

Hello Landscapeman ,

You need to specify the paper type when the print dialog box appears. Heavy glossy paper needs to spend more time in the fuser so that the toner is fixed.

Perhaps you need to adjust the printer settings in your computer?

Pay special attention to the print quality settings (if Draft mode is default, then you'll get weak colors), and to the paper (media) type - it won't let you print photo quality printouts on plain paper, as normal paper cannot accept too much ink (it would get soaked and colors would blend ugly).

If you put in high quality, expensive photo paper, and in the settings the paper would be set to "plain paper" - you'll get washed out colors on the printout, because the print driver in your system thinks that the paper is ordinary and limits the amount of ink used.

Please come back and leave a rating/testimonial if helped or post a comment for further assistance.
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1. Make sure that there is letter, A4, or legal unused plain white paper in the input tray.
2. Touch Setup on the display.
3. Touch Tools .
4. Touch Self-Test Report . A self-test report prints. Figure 1: Self Test Diagnostic Page
5. In the Print Quality Pattern section on the test page, look at the color blocks for any lines. Figure 2: Print Quality Pattern
6. If there is no color bleeding in the Print Quality Pattern color blocks, print a document to determine if the issue has been resolved.

If you have completed all of these steps and are still experiencing a problem, continue to Step three. Step three: Check the paper

• Many papers have printing and non-printing sides. Load the paper with the printing side down.
• Use the correct paper type for the project. For everyday documents, plain paper works well. For documents with dense printing, such as high-contrast graphics or photographs, use HP Advanced paper for the best results.
• If these steps do not help, try a different paper. Ink might not bleed as easily on heavier paper. Paper that does not accept ink well is also prone to bleeding and smearing. HP designs its inks and papers to work together.

If you have completed all of these steps and are still experiencing a problem, continue to Step four. Step four: Check the printer settings

1. In the software program you are trying to print from, click File and then click Print . The Print window opens.
2. Make sure that your printer is selected and then click Preferences . The printer Preferences window opens.
3. Click the Printing Shortcuts tab.
4. The Printing Shortcuts tab lists most printing needs, but you might need to modify some of the options. Options on the Printing Shortcuts tab:
   • General Everyday Printing
   • Photo Printing-Borderless
   • Photo Printing-With White Borders
   • Fast/Economical printing
   • Presentation printing
   • Two-sided (Duplex) Printing
   
   NOTE: These general printing shortcuts have pre-selected settings.
5. To change the settings from the ones that are available on the Printing Shortcuts tab, click the Features or Color tab. Options on the Features or Color tab include:
   • Print quality : If you are unhappy with the quality of your printouts, try increasing the print quality. To print more quickly, try decreasing the print quality.
   • Paper type : If one of the options matches your paper type exactly, select it rather than Automatic.
   • Paper size : Make sure this matches your paper.
   • Print in Grayscale : Print a document in shades of gray.
   • Orientation : Specify how the document is positioned on the page.
   • Paper Source : Select the tray that you want to use for printing.
   • Two sided printing : Print on both sides of the paper.
   • Color Management : Specify the color space that the printer will use to interpret image data.
   • Pages per Sheet : Specify the number of pages of the document to print on each sheet.

If you have completed all of these steps and are still experiencing a problem, continue to Step five. Step five: Clean the printhead
NOTE: Do not clean the printhead unnecessarily because this wastes ink and shortens the life of the ink nozzles on the printhead.

1. Make sure that there is plain white paper in the input tray.
2. Touch Setup on the display.
3. Touch Tools .
4. Touch Clean Printhead . The HP All-in-One cleans the printhead and prints a test page.

Step six: Service your productIf you have completed all the steps listed above and are still experiencing a problem, service the product

Copied this from the specification on HP site.

It would appear not to take 5 x 7. It's the 7" is to small, 8.5 is the smallest.

Media sizes, std.
Letter, legal, executive, No. 10 envelopes, Monarch envelopes
Media sizes, custom
Tray 1, 2, 3: 3 x 5 to 8.5 x 14 in
Media types
Paper (plain, letterhead, prepunched, bond, color, rough, preprinted, recycled), HP Color Laser Glossy Photo Paper, HP Color Laser Glossy Brochure Paper, HP Color Laser Matte Brochure Paper, HP Color Laser Matte Photo & Imaging Paper, HP Color Laser Soft Gloss Presentation Paper, HP color laser transparencies, labels, envelopes, cardstock

the pixma printers use the large black tank in most modes like text and standard (default) or fast photo printing .. thats most economical when you are using just plain paper .... it will switch to the small black tank only if you select "High" quality mode .. that black matches the nature of the color inks much better and results in really good color pictures if you are using Gloss or Matt high quality photo paper .. you can select the quality level by the following ... when you start to print, a window comes up where you can select which printer you want ... at the right of this window is "preferences" .. click that .. now select the type of paper and "High" quality mode .... now the printer will slow down but will provide really nice results and it will use the small tank black ink instead of the large tank ....the small tank is only used for "high" quality photo prints which is only needed for high quality photo paper .. if you havent tried that yet you might want to get some glossy photo paper (either Canons or Costco has great stuff if you want a lot, like 150 sheets) but most glossy paper will work except colors might need tweeking for some ... print a nice photo in the high quality mode and you should be really impressed .. and you will be using your small black ink tank .. you might want to make the first few pictures small (2x3 inch) untill you are sure everything is the way you want it .. i usually print in the top left corner first .. then reinsert the same paper and try again right next to that .. i do that until i get the colors perfect .. then i print big .. 5x7 or even 8x10 on a new sheet... the high quality mode can be selected for just plain paper and it will use the special black ink but it doesnt result in a better picture .. so no point in doing that unless you want to experiment .. if you never print high quality photos then you will never use the small tank black ink .. it will still be used up eventually because of normal head cleaning the machine does automatically .. ...
grey scaling does not select the special ink unless you select "High" for the quality setting .. then yes you can print using that small tank black ..again it will buy you a lot if you are using High quality photo paper ... almost nothing for plain paper but at least it will allow you to use that ink .. ..

You have to match your print settings with the correct type of media used !

When you print, set the preferences, set to PHOTO quality and not draft, set paper type to PHOTO PAPER, or GLOSSY PHOTO PAPER whichever - If you select wrong media type your colors might be off. Select the settings that match the closest to your media. If you use paper use "plain paper" setting, if you use glossy photo paper, use "glossy photo paper" as settings and PHOTO quality.

I recommend use you use inkjet PHOTO paper, glossy, you can use HP or EPSON or even the cheap LIKON ones work amazing for me, they should be able to dry quickly, if they don't you are not using the correct settings.

By your description above it looks like you are using economy or draft mode - NOT good for photo paper.

You need to set the settings on the printer to photo paper and then change the quality to photo quality when you switch the paper.

hallow ,,,if your lookin to just print black and white so .while printing ,go the printing properties or prefrencies ,,in the colour option click just use black and white

Paper type must be set to "Plain" to select Normal or Fast for Print Quality. Every other paper type selected will automatically set print quality to Fine (Photo).