Digital BW, The Print

Sarah!

I did look at your original thread re microbanding with BO on 2200, 
but I did not have the patience to read it all.  So if what I am 
suggesting here has been already tried, forget about it. 

I assume you are using the settings as suggested by Clayton i.e. 
2880 dpi and with high speed checked. Have you tried printing it 
with 

a) at 2880 dpi with high speed unchecked.

b) at 1440 dpi with high speed checked 

c) at 1440 dpi with high speed unchecked.

Does the banding go away then?

I know the quality will take a huge hit at 1440 dpi and I am not 
suggesting to use this for your prints - only to find out what may 
be wrong with the printer. 

For instance if the banding goes away at 2880 dpi with high speed 
unchecked, then I would guess that the culprit could possibly be 
incorrectly adjusted Bi-directional printing... 

What I am driving at is that you may consider having a go at the 
Epson Servicing programme for this printer. This lets you print out 
test patterns to determine if the printer is adjusted correctly and 
make the necessary adjustments yourself, if you want.  I wrote about 
it here:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint/messa
ge/83642

I am not suggesting that this would solve the banding problems, but 
if you are desperate, maybe it is worth a try.  The cost of service 
manual and the service programme is trivial.  However, you have to 
account for the time it will take to go through the manual and 
perform various tests. It is a bit of a learning curve and time-
eater. 
Also for printing certain test targets Epson service manual suggests 
using  Epson Photo Quality Inkjet paper - at letter size this not a 
big problem, but for certain tests you need the A3+ 13x19 size 
paper. As this paper in this size comes at packs of 100 sheets only, 
then buying the whole pack just for these tests alone is a waste.  I 
think you can use any similar weight matte surface "photo quality" 
paper for these tests. I ended up using Epson Enhanced Matte for 
this.

Didzis

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "sagaface" 
<sagaface@...> wrote:
>
> Hi All....
> 
> I'm feeling incredibly frustrated with the micro-banding in the 
midtones on my 2200. I've 
> done the nozzle checks/head alignments and even tried lowering the 
number, as Clayton 
> suggested - all to no avail. The prints just look terrible, with 
both vertical and horizontal 
> banding in any large expanse of mid-gray, but nowhere else. The 
horizontal lines show up 
> as three lines quite close together, some space, then three more 
lines, on down the print, 
> with the verticals appearing a bit thicker and evenly spaced.
> 
> What the h*** am I missing (printing BO, btw)?? I've looked at 
past posts about this and 
> don't see anything I haven't tried. Is this a 2200 issue that is 
improved on other models 
> like the 4000? Is it my image? 
> 
> And....has anyone definitively determined that the 3800 prints 
true BO?
> 
> Thanks!
> Sarah
>