Digital BW, The Print

Hi Robert; 

You must be a relative new-comer, or you wouldn't do something so 
foolish as give me an opening to bitch more about the R1800 (G). 
Regular list members however are likely bored to tears with the 
subject, so I'll only say that this is my 4th R1800, and they all had 
the problem to one extent or other. Hardly shows at all in most units 
with all inks firing, but cutting back to 2 or 3 and a couple toners 
makes it much more of a problem. 

 

> 
> That said, I think the microbanding can be resolved within the 
workflow with curves and 
> dithering patterns.  > 

A small amount of that can be dealt with in this fashion, but if you 
don't have a majority of your channels printing cleanly, microbanding 
will always rear its ugly little head. 

I suspect Epson will not make second intermediate-level 8-ink printer 
now that they have Claria inks on the one hand, and the R2400 on the 
other. This was after all an attempt to address the longevity issue at 
the advanced enthusiast level, and the R1400 and its successors will 
now fill that niche. Too bad my preferred setup requires 7 channels.

I think perhaps I'll just run this one till it quits, Then shift the 
burden to the 3800. Refillables for that are not too far away, and it 
prints beautifully. But don't get me started on the paper transport 
mechanism-what where they thinking?

Steven Karafyllakis