Do inkjet inks go bad? Why else would my hp d145 produce horizontal lines?

[Dolchas]

Greetings all!

I got an hp d145 officejet printer about a year ago, and I must say
that the printing quality is absolutely horrible. Most color
documents produced by this printer contain obvious horizontal lines. I
do align the heads sometimes, in a desperate attempt to get better
quality, but I can't say there is much improvement after alignment.

The quality of this printer is so bad that I rarely use it (I have an
old HP 4ml laserjet that I use instead). I just checked my ink levels
in the d145, and it appears that even after about a year, I still have
about 25% of my color ink left. A friend of mine told me confidently
that inkjet ink goes bad after a while -- is this true? If so, how
quickly should I use it up before it goes bad?

However, I have never had an inkjet before so perhaps (1) this is
simply as good as it gets, or (2) I have set things up incorrectly. I
use 24-lb Xerox premium multi-purpose paper for most documents, and
sometimes I print stuff on HP's glossy premium plus photo paper. I
set the printer quality to "best."

Interestingly, the first thing I printed out on this printer was about
a dozen decorative 3"x5" postcard-type things which were very colorful
drawings, including large blocks of uninterrupted colors -- sort of
like mini-travel posters. These came out incredibly perfect;
definitely suitable for framing. One thing that routinely comes out
extremely badly is when I print out CD jewel case artwork that I
produce with jewel case creation software. I often include in this
artwork a picture of the artist I downloaded from somewhere. These
photos (which I save as and import as bitmaps) come out particularly
badly. I think the postcard-type things I printed that came out
nicely were printed via the HP PhotoSmart software, whilst the
dreadful jewel case artwork is printed via the jewel case creation
software -- is it the case that I can expect crap unless I use the HP
PhotoSmart software?

When I replace my color ink, should I replace my black ink at the same
time, even if there is plenty (61% at present) of black ink left? Are
there differences in quality between my ink options, or do I just get
whatever HP ink cartridges that HP produces? If there are differences
in ink cartridge, what is the ultra-super best?

Thanks for any advice! I don't intend to buy any more inkjets of any
style or maker, but I would like to be able to get some credible use
out of this one. If I have to take it in to someone to have it fixed,
I might consider that, but I am reluctant to do so because I can quite
easily imagine spending a couple hundred bucks and finding that the
"repairs" produce no improvement.

Charles

[Stan The Man]

In article <ea7605b9.03021...@posting.google.com>, Dolchas
<dncm...@yahoo.com> wrote:

>Interestingly, the first thing I printed out on this printer was about
>a dozen decorative 3"x5" postcard-type things which were very colorful
>drawings, including large blocks of uninterrupted colors -- sort of
>like mini-travel posters. These came out incredibly perfect;
>definitely suitable for framing. One thing that routinely comes out
>extremely badly is when I print out CD jewel case artwork that I
>produce with jewel case creation software.

Print out one of the printer's built-in test pages. If that prints ok
then the problem lies elsewhere -- possibly you are sending images in
the wrong format or at too low resolution.

Stan

[Trev]

"Stan The Man" <ma...@mac.com> wrote in message
news:150220030753423118%ma...@mac.com...

Agreed, based on the "images that I downloaded of the net ". These are very
likely to be .jpg's of 320 x 280 pixels at 72 ppi To get anything worth
looking at for photo images the 15ppi is the lowest you should go so 4inch
Sq image needs to be 4 x 150 = 600ppi So if the images are not 600 x 600
that's where the problem lies Some cd label software prints at 150 ppi or
300 ppi

[mark freedman]

This has been debated for years in some circles.

One group claims that bad inkjets are born that way.

Another claims all inkjets are born good, and some are
made "bad" through faulty parenting.

And of course, another claims that there ARE no "bad"
inkjets, and that society is at fault for not meeting
the needs of those we label "bad."

In practical terms, the question should not be "do
inkjets go bad," or "do bad inkjets exist ?"

Rather, we must reflect on how we, as a society, deal
with them.

Just the other day, I witnessed a gang of delinquent
inkjets lolling about at the local mall, harassing passing
lasers for their "black and white" view of life, and
scaring away legitimate mall patrons.

I hope each and every one of us considers this issue
carefully, and takes appropriate action to alleviate the
problem.

Hope this helps.

(more serious, semi-useful response regarding head
clogging and software issues was Emailed.)

[John and Pat Ochenduszko]

LOL...very creative..!

Regards,
John O.

"mark freedman" <cd2...@yahoo.ca> wrote in message
news:4534d723.03021...@posting.google.com...