Digital BW, The Print

I tried both, first the max, then the best, then upsampling to 
printer resolution... in each case it *changed* the problem, but 
didn't get rid of it.

Anyway, after hours of frustration by myself and then two hours of 
frustration with tech support I returned the print, BUT I ended up 
learning a few things about these printers that may be helpful.  
First thing, the printer's calibration routine is not that good.  If 
you get banding after the automatic calibration, a second or third 
calibration can make it better.  Makes me think that the calibration 
is some sort of initial condition limited control loop cycle so it is 
hit or miss whether one calibration will actually get you as "good as 
it gets."  Second, there is an transparent acetate optical tracking 
band that has to be clean so the print heads know where they are.  A 
damp q-tip is all it takes to clean this up and it adds to the 
printer's accuracy.  Third, hp is apparently shipping a lot of bad 
#59 b&w carts.  After returning my 7660 to the store I went and 
tested the floor models 7660 and 7960 just to see if there really was 
some difference with b&w.  I used my newest cartridge which actually 
gave horizontal banding at home and guess what, the store's 7660 and 
7960 both banded like old one so it seems that the real problem with 
my printer was that I had purchased two bad cartridges (from two 
different stores miles apart!).  As to differences, the 7960 looked 
much worse which I think dispells the rumors that b&w is better from 
the 7960.

HP said they will ship out some fresh carts so I am going to try 
again with a new 7660 this weekend.

So the moral of the story is that we still don't have hassle-free b&w 
unless we spend big bucks:(

mark

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Radimus" 
<radimus@p...> wrote:
> Hi, Mark.  What print quality setting are you using?  I just cranked
> out a B&W print on HP PPPG with the quality setting at Best and it 
has
> what looks like microbanding going vertically across the print (the
> print is landscape oriented).  Examining it with a loupe it is
> actually a weave pattern.  Without a loupe it has the look that you
> describe below.  However, with the quality set to "Maximum dpi" the
> pattern goes away, but there is now an even finer microbanding going
> horizontal to the print.  However, this artifact is only noticable 
to
> me if I practically stick my nose in the print.
> 
> Rad
> 
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Mark Hahn"
> <markhahn2000@y...> wrote:
> > Ok, ...I guess they say that when something sounds too good to be 
> > true...
> > 
> > Have made a bunch of b&w prints with my new hp 7660.  All the 
smooth 
> > tone digital images print out near perfectly, but from film scans 
> > the "woven" dither pattern somehow blends with the random scatter 
of 
> > the grain and produces a hidious pattern of perceptible soft 
> > gridlines which almost look like microbanding.  Looking at the 
prints 
> > under a loupe shows that it is some interaction between the grain 
> > pattern and the dither pattern however.  The problem manifests 
itself 
> > most in something like a face in a portrait or other smoothly 
shaded 
> > objects and vanishes in more texture rich images or grain free 
> > images.  By comparison, the posterization issues with my 1160 
seem 
> > rather mild now.  I've tried upsampling to printer resolution 
prior 
> > to printings which changes the output, but doesn't correct it.  
> > Anyone else seeing this?  Anyone have a solution?  Unless I 
figure 
> > out a work around I will be returning the printer as the output 
from 
> > T400CN scans are not suitible for hanging in a gallery.
> > 
> > thanks for any advice,
> > 
> > mark