Ricoh SG 3110DN - Print Quality Suddenly Terrible?

Hi, I'm really hoping someone can help me because I'm pulling out my hair over this.

Had my Ricoh SG 3110DN for 3ish years now and print quality has always been impeccible until... it just wasn't? Images are now coming out extremely grainy and are pressing grainy too. I have attached photos of a before & after quality on a mug and then also a look at it on paper. I haven't changed ANYTHING, using exactly the same settings/paper/inks/EVERYTHING as before. Here is all the info:

Printer - Ricoh SG 3110DN
Inks - Ink4Inkjet
Paper - JetStreamDigital paper

Printing from direct from Photoshop, 300DPI/600DPI high quality images, using correct ICC profile for inks and custom JSON, using correct side of paper. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance. :)

(You can really see the difference in quality on the mug if you look at the hands in particular)
Attachment 6665Attachment 6666Attachment 6667

What software do you print from? Is it set to manage colours and is your printer set to high-quality, plain paper, and to not manage colours, maybe a setting has been changed?

Other causes of graininess can be caused by moisture, substrate quality, or incorrect dither settings in the printer driver.

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Originally Posted by webtrekker

What software do you print from? Is it set to manage colours and is your printer set to high-quality, plain paper, and to not manage colours, maybe a setting has been changed?

Other causes of graininess can be caused by moisture, substrate quality, or incorrect dither settings in the printer driver.

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Thanks so much for responding to this.

I print directly from Photoshop. I have it set to "Photoshop Manages Colours" and I always select the ICC profile that came with my inks and high quality/plain paper. Nothing has changed even by accident. :(

If it is a moisture problem, do you know how I would be able to tell? And therefore correct it? I did actually look at the dither settings and they are set to "Use error diffusion: photo(image)", but unsure if this is the correct one, it was just the default.

Hmm ... to be honest, the only time I've had trouble with moisture was when I was subbing on aluminium panels and a few sheets of kitchen roll helped tremendously, however I've never had this issue with mugs, either in a press or an oven.

Is there any chance your sublimation paper may have retained moisture when stored? Try printing on a sheet of plain A4 copy paper and see what results you get with that. It migh help to eliminate the paper being the problem, if nothing else.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by webtrekker

Hmm ... to be honest, the only time I've had trouble with moisture was when I was subbing on aluminium panels and a few sheets of kitchen roll helped tremendously, however I've never had this issue with mugs, either in a press or an oven.

Is there any chance your sublimation paper may have retained moisture when stored? Try printing on a sheet of plain A4 copy paper and see what results you get with that. It migh help to eliminate the paper being the problem, if nothing else.

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I don't think any moisture would have gotten into the paper, I store it will my other paper goods in my office and they all seem fine. Just tried on plain A4 paper and still the same grain issue. :( This is absolutely baffling me!! I don't think I could get any help with Sawgrass direct either as I'm using 3rd party inks?

Is the grain visible in the print before pressing?

Yes it is :(

Are you printing in 8-bit RGB mode from Photoshop? Do you have any other graphics software that you can print from, eg. Illustrator, CorelDraw, Affinity or the free Inkscape or Gimp software? (Make sure any alternative software can handle ICC profiles though). See if you get the same results when printing from any of these to try and narrow it down to the software as opposed to the hardware.

Have you tried using a piece of paper from a newly opened pack, to see if damp paper is the problem?

The coating on sublimation paper soaks up moisture much quicker than other papers. Now that the weather is slightly warmer and damper any reduction in your heating could be enough for opened packs to suck up any moisture in the air.
I always store my opened packs in a ziplock bag, with one of those poundshop 'dehumidifier' silicon packs in the bag.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by webtrekker

Are you printing in 8-bit RGB mode from Photoshop? Do you have any other graphics software that you can print from, eg. Illustrator, CorelDraw, Affinity or the free Inkscape or Gimp software? (Make sure any alternative software can handle ICC profiles though). See if you get the same results when printing from any of these to try and narrow it down to the software as opposed to the hardware.

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Just checked - printing in 8-bit RGB on Photoshop. Downloaded both Affinity and Gimp, tried printing, same bloody issue!!! I've got some new paper arriving today which I will try and report back.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pw66

Have you tried using a piece of paper from a newly opened pack, to see if damp paper is the problem?

The coating on sublimation paper soaks up moisture much quicker than other papers. Now that the weather is slightly warmer and damper any reduction in your heating could be enough for opened packs to suck up any moisture in the air.
I always store my opened packs in a ziplock bag, with one of those poundshop 'dehumidifier' silicon packs in the bag.

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I've got some new paper arriving today which I will try and report back. Thanks for the tip about storing it in ziplock bags, I will do that going forward!