Canon MX870 started printing pictures too dark!

Until a few weeks ago my MX870 (which I found on SD ) printed pictures very nicely with good coloring. I did the printing through the Canon picture software (Canon Easy-PhotoPrint EX). I am not sure what happened or changed but now all my pictures started printing way too dark.

I can't think of any changes I have made which would cause this to happen. I have used 3 different types of photo papers and nothing changed. I tried printing through the printer software (Canon Easy-PhotoPrint EX) and Microsoft office picture manager and the prints still came out dark.

Any help someone can give me would be greatly appreciated. I am a tech noob, so if you can help please "dumb it down" .

Quote from gabe23111 : Until a few weeks ago my MX870 (which I found on SD ) printed pictures very nicely with good coloring. I did the printing through the Canon picture software (Canon Easy-PhotoPrint EX). I am not sure what happened or changed but now all my pictures started printing way too dark. I can't think of any changes I have made which would cause this to happen. I have used 3 different types of photo papers and nothing changed. I tried printing through the printer software (Canon Easy-PhotoPrint EX) and Microsoft office picture manager and the prints still came out dark. Any help someone can give me would be greatly appreciated. I am a tech noob, so if you can help please "dumb it down" .

Dont have the manual or printer in front of me. But go you your printer setting, there should be an option the adjusts the "balance" or "Exposure"

Quote from fenderman : Dont have the manual or printer in front of me. But go you your printer setting, there should be an option the adjusts the "balance" or "Exposure"

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

The settings you suggested are probably there I just can't find them

I tried manually adjusting the settings in the "printing preferences" to no avail .....

I manually adjusted cyan, magenta, and yellow to the lowest possible and all of my pictures are still printing darkly - all of the pictures are printing the exact same (I tried the opposite as well - putting the colors on the highest possible settings).

I tried changing the contrast settings on my printer also.

The pictures look fine on my computer.

I completely uninstalled the drivers and also restarted my computer and still....

Does anyone else know what might be causing my pictures to print so dark?

This is driving me

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Quote from gabe23111 : I tried manually adjusting the settings in the "printing preferences" to no avail ..... I manually adjusted cyan, magenta, and yellow to the lowest possible and all of my pictures are still printing darkly - all of the pictures are printing the exact same (I tried the opposite as well - putting the colors on the highest possible settings). I tried changing the contrast settings on my printer also. The pictures look fine on my computer. I completely uninstalled the drivers and also restarted my computer and still.... Does anyone else know what might be causing my pictures to print so dark? This is driving me Any help would be greatly appreciated

Have you done the typical maintenance and cleaned the print nozzles and recalibrated the cartridges?

Quote from menace33 : Have you done the typical maintenance and cleaned the print nozzles and recalibrated the cartridges?

I Just did the alignment and cleaned the print nozzles. I didn't think of doing it before because it only seems like I am having an issue with photos and not other documents.

The pictures are still printing dark

Do you have any other suggestions?

p.s. Repped +4 for taking the time to help me. I appreciate it.

Quote from gabe23111 : I Just did the alignment and cleaned the print nozzles. I didn't think of doing it before because it only seems like I am having an issue with photos and not other documents. The pictures are still printing dark Do you have any other suggestions? p.s. Repped +4 for taking the time to help me. I appreciate it.

I have this same type of issue, and its variants, at work all the time. Are you using original Canon OEM ink cartridges or are they third party redistributed cartridges? Are they either refurbished or remanufactured? If so for either, go with the extra expense and get original Canon OEM cartridges and use those only. Those are the only ones I can safely say will be 100% out of the box, minus any flaws due to shipping/handling damage.

Through the Canon software, also try lowering the resolution of the image you're trying to print and print again. Monitor resolution and picture resolution will always be two different things so what you see is not always what you get when printing.