Digital BW, The Print

Thanks Martin,

Now are all these "artifacts" for lack of a better word common to both the
Epson driver and Piezo? Can the Piezo driver also give the corduroy effect?

I've got something between micro and sub-micro banding. I don't see it at
24" but I see it at 6". It just gives a coarseness that looks sorta like
grain, but it does have a more mechanical feel to it. I guess there just
isn't enough overlap of the dots as the paper feeds through the printer. The
advance must not be finely tuned. Is there some way to lube that?

I also get the corduroy effect (sometimes!) which runs perpendicular to the
head travel. What the heck could cause that?

I wonder if it's worth swapping with Epson. Sounds like I could do worse.

Todd

> Todd,
> 
> My understanding of these terms:
> 
> Micro banding is fine white or light colored lines that are visible
> at normal viewing distances.
> 
> Sub-micro banding is the same but requires magnification to detect
> and is not visible at normal viewing distances.
> 
> Corduroy banding is a banding pattern with no detectable light
> between the bands. This may just be something similar to brush marks.
> 
> My experience with Piezo on a 1200 was that I was always getting sub-
> micro banding in the 25 - 50% tones in very smooth sections of the
> prints. These sometimes got bad enough to be micro banding.
> 
> With MIS VM on a 1280 I have fine corduroy banding in the 50%-80%
> tones that can only be seen with magnification.
> 
> Some sort of linear pattern in the direction of head movement appears
> to be very common in inkjet prints. If the image has a fine pattern
> such as foliage or simply enough grain, the linear bands are
> completely broken up and cannot be seen even under magnification.
> Using a textured paper also can disrupt the appearance of banding to
> some extent. Some prints and printers seen to not suffer this problem
> at all. Maybe this is where the 7000 and up printers have an edge.
> 
> Bottom line, if you have to get out a loupe to see it, I wouldn't
> worry about it. If you are seeing it at normal viewing distances,
> then it is the old routine of align the heads, clean the heads and if
> that doesn't work try for an exchange from Epson.
> 
> Martin