Digital BW, The Print

Hello Sally,

>On solid black areas the coverage is perfect
>On dark grey areas I will see some horizontal banding

There are two types of banding. The banding caused by a clogged nozzle
is  often referred to as "micro banding" and is usually visible to the
eye.  You didn't mention a nozzle check.  

The other kind, if all nozzles are firing, is often called "dither
banding" because it's caused by the printer's dither pattern.  It's
usually harder to see without a magnifier unless it's really bad.  It
tends to show only in certain dark zones such as Zone III or IV, so it
sounds like that may be what you have (it's not limited to BO
printing, BTW, I've seen it in prints from just about every kind of
ink system and many different printer models).

It sometimes can be helped by head alignment, although the amount of
correctibility seems to vary with different printers.  On my 2200 I
was able to reduce it significantly with head alignment, by choosing a
smaller number (#2) that the usual #8 or so in the middle.  I just
kept trying a smaller number each time and making a print and it kept
lessening the dither banding and didn't seem to hert anything else.

So I'd try that if you're getting good nozzle checks.

Regards,
Clayton


Info on black and white digital printing at    
http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm