Thanks for the suggestion, Paul. I deleted all printers (I have 3 of
'em) and all Epson folders I could find except for the one with the
manual in it. Then installed the new(est) driver - I think it still
dates from 2006 or so - and powered up each printer in turn. BW1 prints
as it always has, while BW2 and Color print much darker - I had the EZ
carts in Color when I did the printer reinstall, made a print, then
moved the carts to BW2 and made a print there. Both printers performed
just as they did before the driver reinstall.
I decided to fiddle with the settings on BW2, and found that if I use
Brightness +20 and Contrast -20 the image starts to look something like
what I used to get (and still get from BW1, where I've used Brightness
-4 and Contrast -2 since my C84 days.) So there's something
substantially different now when using the carts.
I think the next step will be to prepare some new cartridges - the ones
I've been using are several years old, but up until a few days ago
seemed to be working just fine. I just hate to mess with installing the
chips, which is why I stretch the life as far as I can.
But not until next week.
Merry Christmas to all.
Cheers,
Kip
Paul wrote:
>
>
> I can't say I've had anything exactly like that, but I did have a
> similar occurrence with a different printer. Of course, the first
> thing I'd check is that the refill was correct and K was not put into
> the midtone positions.
>
> The inconsistencies I've recently dealt with concerned the 2 1400s
> I've been running from the same computer. There seemed to be random,
> suddenly different printing characteristics displayed. I suspected it
> was the drivers. So, I deleted both of them and downloaded a new one
> from Epson and hooked up only one printer. The random inconsistencies
> (mostly) disappeared.
>
> (The remaining random differences appear to be different in nature and
> relate to the inability to get totally consistent B&W output from
> color inks -- thus the minimum 50% K profile noted in my previous post.)
>
> So, if both C88s are driven from the same computer, consider a fresh,
> single driver, and see if it has any effect on the problem.
>
> Paul
> www.PaulRoark.com
>
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
> <mailto:DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint%40yahoogroups.com>,
> "cbabing3@..." <cbabing3@...> wrote:
> >
> > I run two black and white EZ setups with C88 printers - one with a
> CIS (BW1), one with cartridges (BW2). The BW2 has always printed just
> slightly darker than the BW1, but it was close enough for my purposes.
> >
> > I have refilled the BW2 carts three times in the last week (I'm
> printing hundreds of photos to bind up into books for family members).
> Printing continued normally after each of the first two refills. But
> after the third one, BW2 immediately began to print MUCH darker than
> BW1 - in film terms I'd say probably two and perhaps three stops
> darker. After an overnight cooling off period the results remained the
> same this morning. So I swapped the BW2 EZ carts with the third C88
> (C88 Color) I have that normally uses regular Epson OEM color carts.
> After a couple of cleaning cycles and a purge print to get a good
> nozzle check, that printer now prints just as dark as BW2 did.
> >
> > So logic tells me that something went wrong with one or more of the
> carts during or after the last refill, although the process seemed to
> go perfectly normally. But I'm wondering what it could be? Has anyone
> else had this experience with the EZ inks in a C88 - a dramatic and
> instantaneous change in density?
> >
>
>
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