Digital BW, The Print

Antonis, Nick, and Phil,

Thanks for all the quick responses! Phil - your suggestion worked for 
me! I went back into Photoshop and used Levels to bring the 100% 
black down to 99% and no more weird streaking! I also checked my 
black cartridge and it's only about half empty. My version of OPM is 
1.02 so I've written to Bowhaus asking for the 1.02b version. I still 
think it's strange that the first print was fine, even with 100% 
areas. Besides the horizontal fine streaks, I've noticed a vertical 
banding as well alternating between black amd grey when I print a 
100% black box (it almost looks like the paper is buckling). These 
vertical stripes ALMOST line up with the printer rollers but not 
quite - they aren't perfectly uniform. Very weird!

Could this possibly be a USB problem? OPM is now sometimes having 
communication errors with my printer, and it will only do 2 prints 
before quitting with a Type 2 error. I haven't changed cables lately 
or installed any new software, firmware, etc. I remember someone on 
this list recently complaining that OPM only supported USB printer 
connections, and not Firewire, so maybe the code relies on USB 
protocols more heavily than say Photoshop, which had no trouble with 
the 100% black (I'm grasping at straws here). It's not a full moon, 
so I'm at a loss!

At any rate, many thanks to you all and I'll keep you posted on any 
new discoveries I make.

Happy printing,
Diana

P.S. I've been using Carl Schofield's profiles when I want a cooler 
look, and Antonis' for a warmer tone, and I love the Blender option!