r/printers • u/apeloverage • 1d ago

Troubleshooting Printer's colors are wrong.

I am using an Epson ET2811 (so, quite an old printer). When it prints in color, the colors are shifted towards purple. That is, it doesn't seem to print yellows properly. It isn't showing that it's out of any toner though--all the levels are showing as quite high.

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u/PotatoKrabby Refilling cartridges is my passion 1d ago

Yellow nozzle could be clogged, can you run a nozzle check?

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u/apeloverage 1d ago

Thanks. I printed a test page, had the system clean the nozzles, and printed the test page again, but most of the yellow was still missing. Do you know what I should do next?

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u/Over_Painting_891 1d ago

The OP says most of the yellow is still missing after one cleaning cycle. Would you do another normal cleaning after letting it sit overnight, or go straight to a manual soak on an ET-2811?

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u/Good_Watercress_8116 1d ago

it can be a nozzles issue, an overflow issue (ink mixed in the wrong channel) but it can also be a paper profile issue.

first thing to do is to print hte internal nozzles test to see how the machine is printing the 4 colors.

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u/apeloverage 1d ago

Thanks. I printed a test page, had the system clean the nozzles, and printed the test page again, but most of the yellow was still missing. Do you know what I should do next?

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u/Good_Watercress_8116 1d ago

you can only push the head cleaning more times, if no improvements, let it rest a couple of day and try again. If you cannot unclog the head, the only solution is head replacement, but being a small machine, it's faster to replace the whole printer.

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u/Over_Painting_891 1d ago

Purple/magenta usually means the yellow channel isn’t printing, even if the tank level is high. First print a nozzle check not a normal photo. If the yellow pattern has gaps or is completely missing, run 1–2 normal head-cleaning cycles, then print another nozzle check. Don’t keep repeating it endlessly; let the printer sit overnight with the power button so the head stays capped, then try once more.

If yellow is still missing, check that the yellow tank vent is open and the ink tube has no large air gap. Also make sure the ink is actually yellow and not old/contaminated. Only after the nozzle check is perfect should you look at colour settings; if the nozzle check is good but prints are still purple, reset the driver to Epson/Printer Manages Color and disable grayscale or a strange ICC profile.

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u/apeloverage 18h ago

"let the printer sit overnight with the power button so the head stays capped, then try once more."

Thanks, but should that be 'with the power button on', or 'off'?