Digital BW, The Print

Nij,

What I am referring to here is not "micro banding" which is visible 
at normal viewing distances but rather "microscopic banding" that 
requires a loupe to see. This is I believe is the basic dither 
pattern of the Piezo driver, which if all is well is invisible.

If you are now saying why worry about it you are right. I have been 
told in no uncertain terms to put the magnifier away if everything 
looks all right. But I think that even though I cannot discriminate 
the "microscopic" bands they can give an very slight overall sense of 
grittiness to the image that I don't see with prints made from the 
Epson driver.

I just did a head cleaning routine by following a suggestion from 
Tim. You cut up some of the 1/8" sponge cloth you can find in the 
dishwashing section of the grocers. Dampen it with a cleaner, I used 
IPA, and lay the sponge in the groove under the heads. Then manually 
push the head back and forth to clean it off. This helped a great 
deal but did not eliminate the "microscopic banding." I just don't 
have one of the better printers.

I am being overly, obsessively particular. A character flaw I am not 
likely to correct at this point!

Martin Wesley


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Nij" <nigel@n...> wrote:
> Martin,
> 
> I recently experienced some micro-banding... it was pernicious in 
the prints
> I was doing, but nozzle checks came up ok. Until I REALLY looked 
closely at
> a nozzle check done on a nice smooth coated paper (EAM) that showed 
under
> close examination that one light-grey nozzle position was in the 
correct
> position vertically, but it was about half as thick as the other 
lines.
> 
> A windex-like treatment (Windolene in my case) resolved it 
overnight...
> though initial results the next morning showed drop-outs on other 
cart
> positions, a couple of cleaning cycles and then a  couple of hours 
wait
> sorted them out. Since then, all that has been required is a 
cleaniny-cycle
> to get it perfect again.
> 
> Nij
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Martin Wesley [mailto:mwesley250@e...]
> > Sent: 22 August 2001 17:28
> > To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y...
> > Subject: [Digital BW] Re: Goodbye Cone Driver Forever!
> >
> >
> > Tony,
> >
> > Thanks for the info on the banding. That is one of the things that
> > made me want to try the MIS VM. After endless cleaning cycles,
> > physical head cleaning and head alignments my 1200 always has this
> > microscopic banding pattern in any area of smooth mid tones.
> >
> > I don't see this is some peoples Piezo prints and do in others. I
> > suspect if you have a perfect printer you are okay with Piezo in 
this
> > regard but if your printer is less then perfect you will have
> > problems. The Epson driver, which I assume was written to take 
into
> > account the accuracy of the printer's transport mechanism, never
> > seems to give this type of problem.
> >
> > I also do not see any dot pattern in the MIS VM prints I have 
seen.
> >
> > I wish I could say the same about clogging and my 1200!
> >
> > Martin