Digital BW, The Print

Greg,

This is one of the reasons I have two 1280 dedicated to B&W. One with MIS-VM
and the Epson driver and one with FS/Sel-PT with the Piezo driver. I believe
that in the interest of greater sharpness the Piezo driver uses less micro
weave than the Epson driver. As a result it is more susceptible to banding.
At least on the desktop printers.

I actually like the dither of the Epson driver better than any of the others
I have seen. Especially for smooth toned areas such as sky and clouds. On
the other hand with good profiles I have fewer posterization problems with
the Piezo driver.

Martin Wesley

http://www.borderless-photos.de/guests.html



----- Original Message -----
From: "Gregory Schern" <gschern@...>
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 25, 2002 8:40 AM
Subject: [Digital BW] Interesting Experience Epson vs Piezo


> Recently I was printing for one of the print exchanges that we
> sponsor, and was having a very difficult time with my normal routine.
> I was printing with the PiezographyBW (R9) driver on an Epson 1160
> with MIS FSN inks using Hahnemuhle Photo Rag 188.
>
> The print has a rather large section of light-middle gray (20-40%)in
> the sky. That section of the print was showing an incredible amount
> of microbanding while the rest of the print looked great. I did all
> the usual: nozzle check - it was perfect, alignment - no problems,
> adjusted the output resolution - didn't help. I was thoroughly
> frustrated and ready to move on to another image.
>
> As a last ditch effort I decided to use John Woolf's curves for the
> Epson driver and wouldn't you know it, beautiful. In fact, the print
> was much more neutral. The Piezo (R9)driver prints the FSN inks very
> cool while the Epson driver with Woolf's curves printed very neutral.
> The blacks were much blacker, as many others have attested to. The
> dot pattern is more prominent, but acceptable. Overall it was
> interesting to see the difference with these inks and best of all
> resolve the microbanding.
>
> While I have not noticed the banding on every print I've made, on
> this one it was unavoidable, and switching drivers did the trick. In
> most cases the Piezo (R9) driver has done very well, and the choice
> of profiles has been very helpful. The dot pattern is non existent.
> But in this case the Epson driver with appropriate curves was the
> tool for the job.
>
> I just thought this experience might be helpful for anyone else out
> there experiencing similiar problems.
>
> Gregory Schern
> Inkjet Goodies - Photographic and Fine Art Inkjet Supplies
> www.inkjetgoodies.com
> info@...
>
>
>
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