Digital BW, The Print

Peter,

You wrote:

>I have a 1280, and I've seen this "bump."  Its a place between the
>dark tones and midtones where a small change of tonality on the
>screen causes an abrupt change in the print.  ...
>  Which curves did you say were the least problematical?

The "warm" curve is the most problematic.  The problem is that, unlike
many/most of the drivers, we can't hold the toner curve (magenta ink spot,
green curve in the hextones) up to the top (meaning the toner ink is not
flowing at all) and then drop the curve very steeply only fairly far into
the shadow tones.  The 1280 PC (uncertain about Mac) driver appears to have
problems with the steepness of green curve that is needed to do this.  It is
most happy with mildly-sloped curves.

So, the best curves for the 1280 PC are those in the more neutral range.

>I'm wondering if we might be able to use the 1270 driver on the
>1280?

It might be worth trying that or the 1290 driver.  Both of these supported
very steep curves without much of a problem at all.

I think the 1290 is the best printer I've used.  I think most consider it
mechanically equal to the 1280 (except a voltage/power-supply difference),
but it appears to have a different driver.  With the 1290 warm curve the
green is held to 255 (no toner) until the last/darkest quarter tone, where
it then dives to the black corner (0,0).  Being able to write curves this
radical without glitches in the image is really nice.


Paul
http://www.PaulRoark.com

FWIW, I have successfully used the 2000P driver to run a 1200 using
Gen4. So, the 1270/1290 driver on a 1280 should be no problem.

Lloyd

-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Roark [mailto:paul.roark@...] 
Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2002 9:47 PM
To: DigitalB&WPrint
Subject: [Digital BW] Epson 1280 (was VM quad or hex?)


Peter,

You wrote:

>I have a 1280, and I've seen this "bump."  Its a place between the dark

>tones and midtones where a small change of tonality on the screen 
>causes an abrupt change in the print.  ...
>  Which curves did you say were the least problematical?

The "warm" curve is the most problematic.  The problem is that, unlike
many/most of the drivers, we can't hold the toner curve (magenta ink
spot, green curve in the hextones) up to the top (meaning the toner ink
is not flowing at all) and then drop the curve very steeply only fairly
far into the shadow tones.  The 1280 PC (uncertain about Mac) driver
appears to have problems with the steepness of green curve that is
needed to do this.  It is most happy with mildly-sloped curves.

So, the best curves for the 1280 PC are those in the more neutral range.

>I'm wondering if we might be able to use the 1270 driver on the 1280?

It might be worth trying that or the 1290 driver.  Both of these
supported very steep curves without much of a problem at all.

I think the 1290 is the best printer I've used.  I think most consider
it mechanically equal to the 1280 (except a voltage/power-supply
difference), but it appears to have a different driver.  With the 1290
warm curve the green is held to 255 (no toner) until the last/darkest
quarter tone, where it then dives to the black corner (0,0).  Being able
to write curves this radical without glitches in the image is really
nice.


Paul
http://www.PaulRoark.com



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
"flames."
- 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/

Thanks, Paul and Llyod.  I will try the 1290 driver. It may be a 
while, as my workplace is nuts right now.  If anyone else tries it, 
please post to the group.  It it works, an alternate driver could 
make the 1280 as viable as the other "preferred printers" for quad 
and hextone B&W.

--Peter Klein
Seattle, WA

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Lloyd O'Daniel" 
<lodaniel@b...> wrote:
> FWIW, I have successfully used the 2000P driver to run a 1200 using
> Gen4. So, the 1270/1290 driver on a 1280 should be no problem.
> 
> Lloyd
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paul Roark [mailto:paul.roark@v...] 
> Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2002 9:47 PM
> To: DigitalB&WPrint
> Subject: [Digital BW] Epson 1280 (was VM quad or hex?)
> 
> 
> Peter,
> 
> You wrote:
> 
> >I have a 1280, and I've seen this "bump."  Its a place between the 
dark
> 
> >tones and midtones where a small change of tonality on the screen 
> >causes an abrupt change in the print.  ...
> >  Which curves did you say were the least problematical?
> 
> The "warm" curve is the most problematic.  The problem is that, 
unlike
> many/most of the drivers, we can't hold the toner curve (magenta ink
> spot, green curve in the hextones) up to the top (meaning the toner 
ink
> is not flowing at all) and then drop the curve very steeply only 
fairly
> far into the shadow tones.  The 1280 PC (uncertain about Mac) driver
> appears to have problems with the steepness of green curve that is
> needed to do this.  It is most happy with mildly-sloped curves.
> 
> So, the best curves for the 1280 PC are those in the more neutral 
range.
> 
> >I'm wondering if we might be able to use the 1270 driver on the 
1280?
> 
> It might be worth trying that or the 1290 driver.  Both of these
> supported very steep curves without much of a problem at all.
> 
> I think the 1290 is the best printer I've used.  I think most 
consider
> it mechanically equal to the 1280 (except a voltage/power-supply
> difference), but it appears to have a different driver.  With the 
1290
> warm curve the green is held to 255 (no toner) until the 
last/darkest
> quarter tone, where it then dives to the black corner (0,0).  Being 
able

> to write curves this radical without glitches in the image is really
> nice.
> 
> 
> Paul
> http://www.PaulRoark.com