Digital BW, The Print

Steve,

You wrote:

>... MIS full spectrums on Royal Renaissance
>(photorag) 309gm. with my Epson 3000, using the Roark curve.

> ... thank Mr. Roark for inventing ... curve, which really turns
>the old 3000 into a great photo printer.

Don't thank me.  I didn't invent these partitioning curves.  I'm not sure
who did, but Tyler Boyle and others were doing this at least a year before I
knew what a "quad" was.  (I was going broke using Imagesetter and other
internegatives to make silver prints that were not as good.)  Tyler posted
his 3000 curves, and I modified them for EAM.

> problem ...slight micro-banding ... a little less banding with
>the thinner version of this paper ...

My review of the posts on the old Piezo list indicated that there was a
correlation between 3000 problems and thick paper.  So much so that I didn't
bother to get one until there was a thinner paper that I could live with.  I
use EAM, but I'm sure there are other papers, perhaps including the light
PhotoRag, that will work fine.

>I'm feeding the paper with the
>straight-through method, with the print head set on +.

Experiences differ here.  I use the paper tray and pre-feed larger paper
sizes with the "Load/Eject" button. I keep the head at "0." Try that and see
if it helps.  The theory is that the roller gets a better grip on the paper
if it is wrapped around it.

>I'm wondering if anyone has experience with the Piezo driver with these
>inks with a 3000, and whether I would experience more or less banding
>with that.

With mine, at 720 the Piezo bands worse.  At 1440 it is very smooth (and
very slow).

Good luck.

Paul
http://www.PaulRoark.com