Digital BW, The Print

Mark:

Based on the 1160 RGB Partitioned Epson driver workflow for the MIS 
FS inkset (which is equal to the original PiezoBW inkset), the dark 
gray ink should kick in the neighborhood of 50%.  The black doesn't 
kick until a little later.  In general, the presence of darker dots 
is "normal" when the next ink darker ink kicks in, however, the dots 
in your examples seem a little too harsh but...(don't know the dot 
size of the 1200 vs 1160). The transisitions on my 1160 using the 
Epson driver seem smoother (from memory). 

Are you sure that the ink in the cyan position is in fact dark gray 
and not black by accident?  There is not a lot of reflective density 
difference in the dark gray and black inks, but you could do a swab 
test to confirm.

Jeff Randall

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "markaronica" 
<aronica@m...> wrote:
> Below is a recent message that I posted to the Piezography support 
> group.  Interestingly, I wasn't able to get any confirmation
> about whether my results using their system are normal.  
Furthermore, 
> Cone's tech support appears to be ignoring me since I sent them
> this same question over a week ago and still no response.  Any help 
> would be very very very much appreciated as these dots are driving 
me 
> crazy!
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
-
> I'm new to the Piezo system so I'm having a hard time telling if 
the 
> results I'm getting are normal or if I have a defective printer or 
am 
> doing something wrong.
> 
> Please check the following two output scans of Paul Roark's 
improved 
> 21-step wedge file to see an example of the dots I'm getting in the 
> dark gray areas (thanks for posting this file Paul!).  My 
highlights 
> are fine, but dots are very visible once the black ink kicks in 
when 
> printing shadows (at least I think it is the black ink and not the 
> dark gray ink).
> 
> This is a zoomed-out image that shows where the second image was 
> taken from on the wedge (white box):
> http://www.aronica.com/patch/WedgeFull.jpg
> 
> Here is the zoomed in version showing what is in the white box 
> indicated above @ 1200dpi on a canon flatbed scanner:
> http://www.aronica.com/patch/WedgeCloseup.jpg
> 
> My environment is as follows:
> Epson 1200
> PT-WN inks
> Windows 2000 OS
> EAM Paper
> Using PiezographyBW 6.0.4
> 
> I also just cleaned the heads using the windex trick and was able 
to 
> get rid of much of the microbanding. Also, I think I'm getting
> perfect nozzle checks and alignments (done using EAM paper for 
both),
> although this is hard to confirm since I've never seen an example
> on the web that shows what a perfect one looks like.
> 
> As you can see in the scans, there is a very visible black (or dark 
> gray?) dot patterns showing up which appear to suddenly stop (or 
> start depending on which way you look at it) at the 55% or 114 gray 
> step. These dots are visible to the naked eye (I'm 34 years old so 
> eyesight is still somewhat okay).
> 
> So my question is, is this what other piezo users see when they 
print 
> out the wedge? If not, is there a way to fix this? When I used to 
use 
> the Lyson hex b&w inks and the epson driver I never saw any dots 
> using the same printer. On the piezography website, it is claimed 
> that PiezographyBW is 'dotless'. Why am I seeing dots?  Could my
> printer be broken?
> 
> Here are a few more pictures that show the dots in a real world 
> example:
> 
> Full size image with white box indicating zoomed in area:
> http://www.aronica.com/patch/seaweed.jpg
> 
> Zoomed in area:
> http://www.aronica.com/patch/seaweedcloseup.jpg
> 
> Thanks for your help with this frustrating problem in advance!
> -Mark