Wierd problem...hoping someone can help me. I installed Colormunki Create, which came with a device to calibrate my monitor (the reason I purchased it). Now I can use my labs color profiles to achieve prints that are accurate with what appears on my screen. YAY!

Unfortunately, now my own printer will not print black ink from most of my non-photo applications (pages, text edit, etc.). I send a page of black text to the printer and it spits out the paper without even trying to print. If I change the ink color, it will print using the color cartridge. One exception is adobe reader. I can print pdf documents in black ink from reader.

Any ideas on what the problem might be or how I could fix it?

Not really sure. Perhaps try removing the Create application and resetting things, since it has nothing to do with monitor calibration. Could you have a color palet defined that does not include black

I had a problem calibrating some paper and contacted Colorminki support. Try contacting them. I presume it is some install setting.

Thanks. I will try and contact Colormunki support. I have tried to uninstall the software, but I can't figure out how to do it. I have never done anything with the software except calibrate my monitor, so I don't have any idea what to do with a color palette.

UPDATE---

I contacted support, but they said Colormunki doesn't communicate with my printer at all. It does nothing but profile my monitor. They also said there is no true "uninstall" for the software, so I don't know how to get it off my computer. I trashed it and emptied the trash per their instructions, but I still have the printer problem.

Sure the profiler does not talk to the printer. Just thought it could have effected some other related app. Guess you need to contact the printer manufacturer. Did it happen immediately after you did your profiling?? Seems strange.

reinstall the printer?

mhayes.....thanks for the help. Yes, it started immediately after I did my calibration and install of the colormunki software. Colormunki support says that the hardware they use is "very similar to what HP uses", whatever that means, so there may be an interaction issue going on. It is strange.

Ian.....We went through a lengthy process of uninstalling all the software associated with our printer and re-installing the printer. And the problem still persists.

Colormunki has a bunch of programs that are running in the background that we will try to dig up and trash later (again, there is no true uninstall feature) to see if that fixes it. I am pretty sure that it is the colormunki that is responsible somehow. If I couldn't print at all that would be a different story, but I can print anything as long as it is in color. That leaves me to suspect the munki.

I'll take the little munki off your hands I'll give him a good home on a PC

If we can't get this printer mess straightened out, he might be up for adoption.

Found this thread while searching for Colormunki uninstall instructions. I just got off the phone with X-Rite support and there is an uninstaller for Colormunki (actually several), but they post them. I am using the Design version and don't specifically about the Create version, but suggest you contact them again.

Keep in mind with the printing that your application printer dialog box may be set to use the Colormunki calibrated profile when printing to the printer. I suggest you dig in the printer dialog for the profile section and select a different profile or no profile.

Hope this helps!

You have the concept of color management bass-akwards.

The printer gamut is a function of its pigments and the paper. The point of profiling a printer is to enable the computer monitor to simulate the limits of saturation printer has. The most saturated red the printer can produce is 100% Yellow + 100% Magenta and it will not be as saturated as 100% Red on your RGB monitor. That's just the way its always been and always will be.

The goal of color management isn't to match the printer to your monitor, but rather allow you to see on the monitor when editing a file for printing how it will change when converted from the RGB working space, as seen per the limits of your monitor gamut, when printed in CYMK.

If editing in Adobe RGB or a wider space you are not really seeing what is in the file in many cases because the monitor gamut can't display it. What color management does is remap the color in the file to the most saturated color the monitor can display and rearrange the less saturated ones the overall range looks the same perceptually.

The simulation is performed by using the soft proofing mode in Photoshop which puts the printer profile in between the working space and the monitor profile, which causes the colors on the monitor to only be as saturated as the printer's inks can produce. The resulting proof image doesn't look as good as the "unfiltered" screen image, but if the printer profile is accurate should be close to how the printer output will change.

Not what you want to happen? To bad, so, sad, that's just the way it works....

If you take a file straight from the camera and print it without doing anything the color management of the printer will do the RGB > CYMK conversion per the built-in profiles mapping the most saturated red, green, blue values in the file ( e.g. 255) to the most saturated red, green and blue hues the ink and paper can produce. If you take the printer profile and using it to convert the file in Photoshop you'd be doing the same thing, because that's what the profile does: describe the limitations of its gamut.

The purpose of monitor calibration is to ensure that neutral tones wind up reproduced with equal parts RGB and a file on your monitor will look similar to mine to create a consistent baseline for viewing.

Where things tend to go south is when absolute faith is put in the monitor calibration tool and it doesn't work correctly. What happens then is the file out of the camera which is actually OK doesn't normal. The person edits it to look good perceptually on the poorly calibrated monitor, which then screws up the printing which would have been fine if the file wasn't edited.

In practical terms the best baseline is your camera. If you shoot a color target on a sunny day with daylight white balance the color management engineered into your camera, computer and printer should reproduce it in a way that looks "normal" in the perceptual sense of looking like the real thing without any odd color casts. The print and monitor will not be a perfect side-by-side match because its physically impossible, but the two seen separately will accurately reproduce the scene to the limits of their respective gamuts.

If the file straight out of the camera prints reasonably well but doesn't look good on the monitor then odds are the monitor is poorly calibrated.

Chuck

Do you have the latest version of your printer driver installed, or did you load it from a disk? Try checking in the printer settings to see if you can reset the preferences back to default, and printer managed colors. What kind of printer do you have? Also even though it may be a big coincidence check to make sure the black ink cart is seated properly, and the electronic contacts are clean.

Thanks everyone for the continued suggestions. We still have the problem, kind of. My husband keeps fiddling with printer settings. Now we can print something in color OR in black ink, but nothing with both together. We have tried using the driver that came with the printer (HP deskjet 3100 I think) and using the latest driver from the HP site. I don't think it is the cartridge, as we can print some things in black ink (from certain applications).

When my life slows down again a bit, I may try contacting X-Rite again. For now, we just have to live with this. We really don't use the printer all that much, but it is still annoying.

Thanks, Chuck for the lesson on calibration. I am afraid most of it is over my head...I really don't know much about calibration at all, except that my prints were coming out too dark and not the colors I expected. An instructor of mine suggested trying a monitor calibration tool, so I did. Now I am very happy with the way prints turn out...and a bit distressed that my printer is freaking out.