Digital BW, The Print

Hi Group,

I have an oddball clog I cannot get rid of, and was wondering if this
sounds familiar to anybody.

Every tone and color prints perfectly, except dark gray tones from 90
percent black to 75 percent black. (On a 21 step stepwedge). These 4
patches have courderoy banding. I've enlarged these 4 patches to fill a
letter size paper, and the defect is very noticeable. When making black
and white prints with no large areas of tone, there doesn't seem to be
any banding in the print, but when there is a large area that would
include one or more of them, the banding is obvious. Black stripes on
the very dark gray patches. Not fine, scratch like stripes, but
irregular, slightly wavy stripes like courderoy material.  I've tried
every cleaning trick ever mentioned on the lists but nothing seems to
work. The ink is generations and MIS archival, in a CIS system.
(Generations Black, MIS Colors). 

Would it be possible that these inks lose their compatibility over a
long period of time?  I'v been using this combination for about 2 years
now, with no problems.

Jer

Since no one else has taken a stab at this:
 
Jerry,
 
I am not at all expert in matters of printers (though I'm learning a
bunch on this list), but have you tried reloading your printer
driver(s)?  By your description, it sounds as if the problem could be
one of interpretation rather than a physical ink delivery problem, which
points more to a driver problem.  If I'm all wet, I apologize and will
go dry off.
 
Karl Wolz


Every tone and color prints perfectly, except dark gray tones from 90
percent black to 75 percent black. (On a 21 step stepwedge). These 4
patches have courderoy banding.. 


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I'll try it Karl, nothing to lose!

Thanks,

Jerry



Karl Wolz wrote:

> 
> Since no one else has taken a stab at this:
> 
> Jerry,
> 
> I am not at all expert in matters of printers (though I'm learning a
> bunch on this list), but have you tried reloading your printer
> driver(s)?  By your description, it sounds as if the problem could be
> one of interpretation rather than a physical ink delivery problem, which
> points more to a driver problem.  If I'm all wet, I apologize and will
> go dry off.
> 
> Karl Wolz
> 
> Every tone and color prints perfectly, except dark gray tones from 90
> percent black to 75 percent black. (On a 21 step stepwedge). These 4
> patches have courderoy banding..
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> 
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I have the same problem, Jerry.  So, if you find a
cure let me know.  Cleaning, aligning, windex do
nothing to lessen the problem.

Interestingly, when printing a purge pattern (4 color,
1160) I can not see any banding with a loupe; however,
in the 21 stepwedge all ranges from 35 to 5 exhibit
banding.

Thom
--- Jerry Olson <jerryolson@...> wrote:

> Hi Group,
> 
> I have an oddball clog I cannot get rid of, and was
> wondering if this
> sounds familiar to anybody.
> 
> Every tone and color prints perfectly, except dark
> gray tones from 90
> percent black to 75 percent black. (On a 21 step
> stepwedge).

Thom, I haven't had time to pursue this much yet, but early indications
are that this banding has to do with the paper you use. The banding is
most definitely noticible on the Photo matte paper, but it is NOT on
Aspen paper. If I use the Aspen, all is well, with no banding. I can't
imagine why this would be, but so far it is. It will take a lot more
tests to absolutely confirm this, using many different papers.

Unfortunately, Aspen is not archival, nor acid free, I'm afraid. 

What paper are you using, and what inks? DPI?, etc?

Jerry


Thom McGraw wrote:

> 
> I have the same problem, Jerry.  So, if you find a
> cure let me know.  Cleaning, aligning, windex do
> nothing to lessen the problem.
> 
> Interestingly, when printing a purge pattern (4 color,
> 1160) I can not see any banding with a loupe; however,
> in the 21 stepwedge all ranges from 35 to 5 exhibit
> banding.
> 
> Thom
> --- Jerry Olson <jerryolson@...> wrote:
> > Hi Group,
> >
> > I have an oddball clog I cannot get rid of, and was
> > wondering if this
> > sounds familiar to anybody.
> >
> > Every tone and color prints perfectly, except dark
> > gray tones from 90
> > percent black to 75 percent black. (On a 21 step
> > stepwedge).
> 
> Please visit the Group Homepage to check the Files, Bookmarks, Polls and other resources as they are often being updated. The page is at:
> 
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint
> 
> If you wish to receive no emails or just a daily digest, or you wish to unsubscribe, please edit your Membership preferences by visiting this same page.
> 
> Please follow these basic guidelines:
> - Include your full name with your message.
> - Include the address of your website, if you have one.
> - As threads develop, trim off excess portions of earlier messages to keep them short.
> - As the topic of a thread changes remember to change the subject header.
> - Good manners are required at all time. No personal attacks or &amp;amp;quot;flames.&amp;amp;quot;
> - Complete your Yahoo profile.
> - Before posting a question, search the message archives and the various resources on the homepage.
> 
> 
> 
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

--- Jerry Olson <jerryolson@...> wrote:
> Thom, I haven't had time to pursue this much yet,
> but early indications
> are that this banding has to do with the paper you
> use. 

> What paper are you using, and what inks? DPI?, etc?
> 
> Jerry



Mostly EAM with a bit of photo rag and german etching
now and then.  All printed slow speed at 1440.  I
haven't noticed any difference between paper types
even after realignment for the thicker papers.  From
normal viewing distance it's not noticable, but for
me, knowing it's there drives me nuts.

Thom

I know banding can drive you nuts, Thom. 

Been there. Had bands. Now my oldest 1160 printer has them on a couple
papers, in the 90-75 percent gray areas. When I print on Aspen, they
aren't there, but are on photo matte, and now this morning on EAM. I've
tried squiriting ammonia (Cleaning solution) through the printheads, no
improvement. Fantastix on the pad to the right of the printer did
nothing either. I get perfect head alignments and nozzle checks, but
courderoy bands in those dark gray areas. Perfect Nozzle checks mean
nothing as far as banding goes. They can be perfect and still you can
have banding. The printer prints great on the aspen paper, but that
isn't thick enough for prints I sell. I just had to replace a 1280
printer, so can't afford another one for a while.  I think that a
printer can print just so many prints, and then things begin to fail. 
This printer has had thousands of prints through it.

Jerry

> Mostly EAM with a bit of photo rag and german etching
> now and then.  All printed slow speed at 1440.  I
> haven't noticed any difference between paper types
> even after realignment for the thicker papers.  From
> normal viewing distance it's not noticable, but for
> me, knowing it's there drives me nuts.

How old is your printer and how many prints have you had through it? 
Maybe a lot of our problems are occuring simply because the epson print
heads start to wear out after so many prints.

--- Jerry Olson <jerryolson@...> wrote:
> I know banding can drive you nuts, Thom. 


> How old is your printer and how many prints have you
> had through it? 
> Maybe a lot of our problems are occuring simply
> because the epson print
> heads start to wear out after so many prints.

Perhaps you're right, Jerry.  Two year old printer
used daily is just too much.  I'll probably look to
replace it with a 1280.  Thanks for the feed back.

Thom