Digital BW, The Print

On the first point - maybe we have a problem of definition (like I can see
banding from 12 / 18" that other people just can't see - perhaps because
they are not photographers, or perfectionists??) So either my close-up
eye-sight is REALLY good, or, well, it's just non-perfectionists who refuse
to see the bands!

So your post prompted me to take a look at some of my prints that I recently
did for print samples... I had some rejects from the early few as the
printer was settling post that cleaning I mentioned. I too had also cleaned
the underside of the print-head with a 'sponge on a stick' from an AF
printer-cleaning kit (someone else, Todd I think mentions the use of similar
tools from Tandy), and I think this is what causes the drop out of ink, as
the friction will pull ink out of the heads (or something).

Anyway... just took a look at my prints and I would classify the rejects I
picked up first as being micro-banding and sub-micro banding - first one you
could see from 12" no trouble, the next, you got a 'hint' of it but if you
get any closer you can't see the detail any more.  Looking through a loupe,
I saw banding in the first case, and again, a 'hint of banding' on the
latter. The loupe made things harder in a way, as using Somerset Enh Velvet
it's quite a fibrous paper so you actually see more detail in the paper
surface at that magnification than you can in the banding. i.e. You havbe a
vague sense of 'streakiness' but it's actually very difficult to put your
finger on.

If it came down to it, I would probably be prepared to send out the
'sub-micro banded' prints as samples.

One of my 'selected' prints by the way, showed no banding, and I swear to
you that even under a loupe, I wouldn't be able to tell which way the
print-head had been moving - perhaps because dot-gain on this paper seems to
be, well, more than some other papers.

And if anyone's wondering, I printed about 120 A4 sheets in two days - I
wasn't rushing, at all... I believe I could have done more than double that
if I'd been a little more concentrated. 99% of them were perfect once it got
going. (getting going being the 10 or so sheets the day before)

Don't stop being a perfectionist!

Nij




> -----Original Message-----
> From: Martin Wesley [mailto:mwesley250@...]
<snip>
> 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.
<snip>
> I am being overly, obsessively particular. A character flaw I am not
> likely to correct at this point!