Digital BW, The Print

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> 
> I also get less banding with Hi Speed on, contrary to popular wisdom.
>  Steve Karafyllakis was here a couple of weeks ago and I said this and
> he was skeptical.  So I made two identical prints, one at each speed
> setting, and let him examine them with a loupe, and sure enough, the
> hi speed one was better (maybe if he reads this he'll jump in and say
> something).  This may be unique to my printer...
> 
My own experience has been that Hi-Speed on agravates microbanding, so 
I was a bit surprised to see better results from Clayton's printer with 
HS on. Goes to show you shoiuld never rule anything out without testing 
it for yourself. Generally, however, the highest dither pattern and HS 
off seems to do better for most people, but try the obvious- any 
combinations you haven't tested so far. 
 It might be usefull to know if the printer itself has a problem in one 
particular channel, or if it is an ink-mixing/crossover problem. Either 
print a four channel purge pattern (available on the MIS website) or  
download & install QTR and use the ink calibration mode to print out a 
test pattern. This will give you a separate scale for each head, and 
tell you if one is significantly different from the others. If you 
don't have a head problem, then you might try a different printing 
workflow, for instance Paul's curves for that inkset, or QTR itself. If 
it turns out that you do get consistent banding in one or more channels 
and nothing cures it, then your only real option is to try another 
printer. Umfortunately, there is simply a certain percentage of these 
desktop printers that get released inspite of consistent banding, as 
long as it doesn't normally show.

Hope this helps;

Steve Karafyllakis