Digital BW, The Print

On 8/10/02 6:14 AM, "dgabbe2001" <dgabbe@...> wrote:

> Thought I'd mention a few more things to take into consideration
> about choosing a printer.  If you are Mac based, then OS X is in
> your future.  The 1280 has a native OS X driver which doesn't
> have the custom paper size feature.

This will change in two weeks with OS 10.2...all "OS9" print driver
functions will be available and I believe that epson has already announced
an update...maybe even to be included with the OS10.2 software.
> 
> The differences between the Epson 1280/7000 and the 3000 are
> as follows.  The 3000 prints _very_ slowly. It takes 45min @ best
> quality to print on 13x19 paper an image that is about 11x15.
> The 1280 is much quicker in better quality - I don't have the times
> available.  This translates into allowing 2wks to print a show on
> my 3000.
>
Letter sized print times:

Imageprint/Piezo/1280--best quality
22 minutes

I remember, I believe Martin saying that you might be able to switch down to
1440 printing (better) and still get approximately equal quality with the
piezo driver.  My guess is that this would not be the case with either the
epson driver or imageprint...they will produce better output at the highest
setting.

Imageprint/7000--best quality (1440)
7 minutes

I believe that my 7000 prints at about twice the speed of my other 1440
printers (1270).  This is even more dramatic if you take advantage of the
wide format...a landscape 8x10 is fast to print than a portrait
8x10...likewise you get even better performance if you gang prints across a
full 24 inches. 

> The quality between the 1280/7000 and the 3000 is different.
> The newer printers frequently show teeny tiny bands which run in
> the direction of the head travel. I've seen this in the print
> exchange prints and (4) 1160s and my 1280.  The 3000 doesn't
> have this artifact.  When my 3000 works, I the print quality the
> best out of all the printers.

Not universally true...I have 1280 prints with absolutely no banding on
matte papers. The first 1280 that I got I had to be replaced because of
banding...Epson did it for free.  I have two 1270's that show no banding. I
have 1160's that used not to band...but do now after several thousand
prints. My 7000 is currently due to have its heads replaced next week
because of banding...but when the nozzles all fire...there is absolutely no
banding to a 8x lupe. It is impossible to make generalizations because
printers differ from one to another even within technology class and across
their lifespan. It is true that the lower print quality of the 3000 with its
huge droplet size does tend to hid banding...particularly with the piezo
driver...but the ultimate print quality is as a result lower.  To get the
ultimate print quality you have to be willing to keep a close eye on things
including head alignment.

My recommendations stand...buy a 1280 with CIS if 13" is wide enough...if it
isn't...dig deep into your wallet and buy a 7000.  Another possible option
is a 1270 refurb...they are about $120 less than a 1280 refurb and are also
supported by OSX.  I believe that Cone plans to support the 1270 with the
piezo software...if he doesn't already...imageprint already does.  The only
down side of the 1270 is 1440 max printing vs. 2880 printing of the
1280...but as I mentioned there has been some doubt about how much better
1280 is.

Robert