Digital BW, The Print

----- Original Message -----

From: <thusband@...>
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 15, 2003 4:38 AM
Subject: [Digital BW] Re: Banding in BO Prints


> .........This is very consistent and I'm pretty well convinced
>  it's the driver's way of arranging the dot pattern to get that
> zone.
>  I've never been able to get rid of it.  Only time it's visible
> without
>  a loupe is if there is a large even toned area exactly on that zone.
>
>  Regards,
>  Clayton

Clayton,

In time it will get worse I'm afraid. Now you may see dot pattern
inabilities, it could change to plain nozzle wear artifacts. There's
something to be said for "less nozzles - less problems" but dot weaving of
more nozzles delivers more compensation for the flaws in few of them. A
black dot is also very "yes or no" so if there is just a small difference in
nozzle capacity it will show. The messages I wrote before are based on that
suspicion. Some experience with a friend's BO printing on a 1270 (Epson dye)
a year ago, happy in the beginning, 4 times visit of an Epson serviceman
afterwards, 2 replacements and he now does B&W with the Epson CcMmYK inks
and a good ICC profile. That isn't good B&W printing in many aspects but the
printing consistency in time is far better than his BO before.

I guess in B&W printing the total number of nozzles could be lower. There
have been messages by Quad users that 3 grey inks could be the optimal
number. The Epson 10000 can print a very nice BO print with the special 8
passes setting. But the 10000 head has the highest nozzle number of all the
Epson printers. You could fill up the cart of an Epson CMYK printer with
black only in the 4 positions and try that. But that will still show the
dots. And when there is a dot pattern inability it will show up in the 4
heads at the same tone. By shifting the density of the inks that flaw is
compensated, so quads have sense.

With further development in resolution and droplet size it is imaginable
that BO printing is possible. The CcMm ink solution is seen as temporary
too. It wouldn't surprise me however if we first get printers that are
CMYKk(k) or alike. The density of black ink being the reason to add greys.
The total ink limitation and fade properties the reason to drop c and m.
More grey inks help in reducing the ink amount printed too. There's a small
toll payed for dropping c and m, the gamut reduces slightly as smaller dots
of CM do not give the nicer subtractive colour mixing of larger dots of cm.
Time to add OGB inks then. PMA 2008 was mentioned before, I think it will be
earlier.

Ernst

Hello Ernst,

>With further development in resolution and droplet size it is
>imaginable that BO printing is possible. 


It's interesting stuff.  I'm sure we'll all look back on these days
and wonder at the primitive technology.  I'm intrigued by the new 960
with 2 pico droplets.  I wonder what sort of BO prints it will produce
- might be real nice.  Also wonder whether pigment inks will work in
it - might clog it up.

Regards,
Clayton


Info on black and white digital printing at    
http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Clayton Jones <cj@...> [mailto:cj@...] 
<snip>
> and wonder at the primitive technology.  I'm intrigued by the new 960
> with 2 pico droplets.  I wonder what sort of BO prints it will produce
> - might be real nice.  Also wonder whether pigment inks will work in
> it - might clog it up.
<snip>

My brother just ordered a 960 from Adorama, unboxed it, hooked it up and
tried to print something.  The carriage went slamming into one side, and
all the lights stayed on, and from that point it was dead.  He called
Epson and they said, "Oh yeah, we've seen that."  So he packed it all
up, and sent it back, and now awaits the replacement.

Thanks,
Ed
http://lightandsilver.com

Hi All,
     I just got my 1280 this week and it does a wonderful job with
colors (although I'm probably going to try some hextone printing with it
soon).  But a number of the images I've printed really don't look quite
as sharp to me as the same images printed with my old 740.  I've tried
all kinds of different settings with the driver, and even sharpening on
the front end with software and the images just don't snap.  Does anyone
know of a place I can download a test file for printing and testing the
printer resolution?  I called Epson today, and they told me they'd
replace the printer, but I'd rather not go through that if it's really
just a contrast issue or something else.
     I also have noticed that the shadow areas of the prints are more
prone to printing with "digital noise" whereas I never saw that on my
old 740.  If I'm going to try hextone inks and use this 1280 for B&W
I've got to know the printer is right before I do that.

Thanks,
Ed
http://lightandsilver.com

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Ed 
Mathews" <ed@l...> wrote:
snip
Does anyone
> know of a place I can download a test file for printing and 
testing the
> printer resolution?  snip

Try the resolution test file at 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/epson-inkjet/files/ (it is called 
Printer ResTest).  I found this somewhere or other on the web 
and made a few changes for color inkjets vs B&W laser printers. 
Does a fair job of comparing printers since it gives you a 
numerical index -- but only for full color inks (doesn't capture 
anything about the light color inks or about any ink printed at less 
than full intensity).  You should be able to change the 
transparency to find that info if it is important but that starts 
getting complex.   No one seems to have deleted it from the 
Epson Inkjest site files folder so it must still be usefull for 
something I guess.  There are 
instructions for opening the Illustrator file with Photoshop in the 
self extracting file or you can just use it in Adobe Illustrator. 
The 
original .ps file vesion is there as well but it only does black ink 
unless you change the color.

Personally  I don't use it any more -- if my eyes like the results of 
a print I don't worry about the actual resolution.  Then again my 
eyes ain't what they used to be either so maybe I should use it.  

Dan Culbertson
(just passing through)