Canon Pixma IP4500 - Printing DVD Tops, colours not "right". Thou

[phase52001]

Not sure where to put this, so hopefully this is OK.

My canon Pixma IP4500 has been printing DVD tops successfully since I got it a year ago to replace the printer that died.

I use DISCUS to design and print my DVDs. Everything has been fine with DISCUS for years. The results have always been excellent. Prints in exactly the right spot, with a nice crisp image with good colours.

I didn't use it for about 8 to 10 weeks due to running out of ink and not being budgeted for replacements.
I got the replacement inks, and while the printer prints the DVD tops the images aren't as crisp and the colours appear wrong.
I couldn't figure out what was wrong and continued to use the printer after running all the head cleaning functions etc.

After a few weeks I notice that the Yellow & Magenta ink levels haven't gone down as much as the two blacks and the Cyan (light blue).
Which may or may not explain the odd colours when printing recently.

Anyone had this sort of issue or can explain whats happening.
Obviously the first thing to do would be to swap out ALL the ink carts, but we're a bit short on cash at the moment.

Thanks all.

[jagabo]

It sounds like you have clogged print heads. Run the printers nozzle check function to verify this. HP printers have the print heads as part of the cartridges. Every time you put in a new cartridge you are putting in a new print head. Canon has separate print heads so changing cartridges won't fix clogged heads.