Digital BW, The Print

Thanks for the suggestion, Paul.  I deleted all printers (I have 3 of 
'em) and all Epson folders I could find except for the one with the 
manual in it.  Then installed the new(est) driver - I think it still 
dates from 2006 or so - and powered up each printer in turn.  BW1 prints 
as it always has, while BW2 and Color print much darker - I had the EZ 
carts in Color when I did the printer reinstall, made a print, then 
moved the carts to BW2 and made a print there.  Both printers performed 
just as they did before the driver reinstall. 

I decided to fiddle with the settings on BW2, and found that if I use 
Brightness +20 and Contrast -20 the image starts to look something like 
what I used to get (and still get from BW1, where I've used Brightness 
-4 and Contrast -2 since my C84 days.)  So there's something 
substantially different now when using the carts.

I think the next step will be to prepare some new cartridges - the ones 
I've been using are several years old, but up until a few days ago 
seemed to be working just fine.  I just hate to mess with installing the 
chips, which is why I stretch the life as far as I can.

But not until next week. 

Merry Christmas to all.

Cheers,
Kip

Paul wrote:
>  
>
> I can't say I've had anything exactly like that, but I did have a 
> similar occurrence with a different printer. Of course, the first 
> thing I'd check is that the refill was correct and K was not put into 
> the midtone positions.
>
> The inconsistencies I've recently dealt with concerned the 2 1400s 
> I've been running from the same computer. There seemed to be random, 
> suddenly different printing characteristics displayed. I suspected it 
> was the drivers. So, I deleted both of them and downloaded a new one 
> from Epson and hooked up only one printer. The random inconsistencies 
> (mostly) disappeared.
>
> (The remaining random differences appear to be different in nature and 
> relate to the inability to get totally consistent B&W output from 
> color inks -- thus the minimum 50% K profile noted in my previous post.)
>
> So, if both C88s are driven from the same computer, consider a fresh, 
> single driver, and see if it has any effect on the problem.
>
> Paul
> www.PaulRoark.com
>
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com 
> <mailto:DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint%40yahoogroups.com>, 
> "cbabing3@..." <cbabing3@...> wrote:
> >
> > I run two black and white EZ setups with C88 printers - one with a 
> CIS (BW1), one with cartridges (BW2). The BW2 has always printed just 
> slightly darker than the BW1, but it was close enough for my purposes.
> >
> > I have refilled the BW2 carts three times in the last week (I'm 
> printing hundreds of photos to bind up into books for family members). 
> Printing continued normally after each of the first two refills. But 
> after the third one, BW2 immediately began to print MUCH darker than 
> BW1 - in film terms I'd say probably two and perhaps three stops 
> darker. After an overnight cooling off period the results remained the 
> same this morning. So I swapped the BW2 EZ carts with the third C88 
> (C88 Color) I have that normally uses regular Epson OEM color carts. 
> After a couple of cleaning cycles and a purge print to get a good 
> nozzle check, that printer now prints just as dark as BW2 did.
> >
> > So logic tells me that something went wrong with one or more of the 
> carts during or after the last refill, although the process seemed to 
> go perfectly normally. But I'm wondering what it could be? Has anyone 
> else had this experience with the EZ inks in a C88 - a dramatic and 
> instantaneous change in density?
> >
>
> 


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