# Ricoh Gx7000 Printing on Dark Paper



## Oscar6330 (Mar 7, 2011)

I have a Gx 7000 printer which has been with me for a while. The printing quality and speed is good but today I found a problem

I am trying to print a brochure (A4 Size paper) which is basically on a dark brown color. The problem is that Ricoh does not print on brown paper but does print on white paper. It seems that it is not seeing the brown paper as there is a sensor on the print head which is supposed to see the paper. Is there any option to bypass this sensor?

Thanks for help


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## DAGuide (Oct 2, 2006)

This is one of the problems with the Ricoh printers and why I stopped trying to make a dtg printer using one. There is no simple trick to bypassing the light dark sensor on the print head. The other issue you are going to have is the inks are transparent. So the only color that is really only going to be noticeable on the brown paper is black (and it will be barely noticeable). If you want to print on the brown paper, you are probably going to have to use an offset press that has the ability to print white ink or print on white paper, but print the brown background that you want.

Mark


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## Oscar6330 (Mar 7, 2011)

DAGuide said:


> This is one of the problems with the Ricoh printers and why I stopped trying to make a dtg printer using one. There is no simple trick to bypassing the light dark sensor on the print head. The other issue you are going to have is the inks are transparent. So the only color that is really only going to be noticeable on the brown paper is black (and it will be barely noticeable). If you want to print on the brown paper, you are probably going to have to use an offset press that has the ability to print white ink or print on white paper, but print the brown background that you want.
> 
> Mark


Thanks for your reply Mark... I feel sort of cheated. Why didn't the printer's advertisement say "you cannot print on anything other than white" - some HP or Canon would have been a better choice

My ink cartridge is soon to run out. Is this "transparent ink" very specialized or I can get my cartridge refilled with some Non-Ricoh Non-transparent ink for future use?


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## Don-ColDesi (Oct 18, 2006)

Actually the word here is translucent - not transparent. And the answer to your last question is "no". Four color process inks are always translucent - that is the way that four color process works. Every ink jet printer I have ever seen uses translucent process color inks - the exception being spot colors like white etc. on some very specialized printers.

Hope this helps.


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## Oscar6330 (Mar 7, 2011)

Don-ColDesi said:


> Actually the word here is translucent - not transparent. And the answer to your last question is "no". Four color process inks are always translucent - that is the way that four color process works. Every ink jet printer I have ever seen uses translucent process color inks - the exception being spot colors like white etc. on some very specialized printers.
> 
> Hope this helps.


Thanks for your answer Don! The ink part makes sense. But how about the print on "White Only"? Is there any bypass to that sensor in software or hardware?


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## DAGuide (Oct 2, 2006)

Not that I found that would be cheap and easy. You will also get a similar error message if you print on a pre-printed form (like a certificate of award). Just one of the things with these printers that you have to work with.

Mark


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## Oscar6330 (Mar 7, 2011)

There is an option in the "Printer Configuration" tab saying "use pre-printed/prepunched paper". Is that a bypass?


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## Jack32 (Sep 24, 2012)

I too faced same problem with this printer, but now I'm using other printer which provides me best print quality. 
_________________

Perfect binding Toronto


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## garmentjet (Sep 27, 2012)

If you are an electronic engineer or have digital electronic background, you can mock the signal. Put out the electrical wire and replace the sensor with the other qualified one, the new sensor should also have a good response time performance , maybe you also need to transfer the voltage to the suitable...


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## 102557 (Mar 6, 2010)

Oscar6330 said:


> I have a Gx 7000 printer which has been with me for a while. The printing quality and speed is good but today I found a problem
> 
> I am trying to print a brochure (A4 Size paper) which is basically on a dark brown color. The problem is that Ricoh does not print on brown paper but does print on white paper. It seems that it is not seeing the brown paper as there is a sensor on the print head which is supposed to see the paper. Is there any option to bypass this sensor?
> 
> Thanks for help


We converted the ricoh gx7000 to dtg about a year ago, this is not a simple task without electronic knowledge the sensors need to be manipulated..

we did the conversion to test white ink in the ricoh head to see if there were less clog issues due to the larger cps ink (higher viscosity) we found it has the same issues with white clogs as any other epson models we tested.. 

the other issue is there is no rip software and the prints were not great/ useful using the stock driver settings, and rip software development would have to start from scratch... you would prolly be much better off purchasing a different printer for the application.. The new epson wf7010 is a good alternative with a cheap price with front load paper trays like the ricoh!! we use this printer for printing film (screen printing) using the cadlink filmaker rip..


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