Digital BW, The Print

I have an old Epson Stylus Photo EX that I want to convert to quad
tone but I cannot find curves for the printer. I've searched this
group to no avail, maybe there aren't any, but nthere must be because
the ink sets are available. Any help would be appreciated.

Hi:

    My friend gave an Epson EX to me. I order $1/each black ink and $3 color
ink (no curve needed for me). I printed 11X17 B&W on  glossy paper and color
printing on luster paper. very happy with the cheap inks and paper. but only
one problem - the banding for color printing on glossy paper. I printed 5
different glossy papers, from TDK, Micro Ceramic, Mitsubishi or the Kodak.
every one has the banding for color printing. I changed DPI(include 280
dpi), paper type (photo paper, glossy film).same problem. Even following
solutions (from Epson-inkjet group) can not help me. I will only print color
printing on luster paper!

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I have posted many times on this banding or more appropriately called
'microbanding' issue. I have an EX and I see it in certain colours (eg blue
and
light brown). I was actually informed of this problem by an Epson engineer
here
in sIngapre who has been most helpful. He has since reported to epson japan
(including sending the EX to japan for eval). We thought it might by a
region
specific problem but looks like it is not. There are actually two problems
with
the 6 colour printers whihc are on the borderline of acceptable:-

1. pizza wheels from the starwheels

The 5000 also displays this problme which was my major bug-bear with the
design of the epson photo printers. I have now learnt to disregard this
problem
after i saw the tracks on the 5000 on expensive proofing (DUPONT EPSON)
paper.
The problem can be reduced and infact removed completley by either using
right
paper (eg mitsubishi or the new kodak) or by removing the starweels. I thnik
the
latter is not advisable as is lkelyt to interfere with the paper feed.

2. the microbanding

as you noted, there are alternating lines of differnt lightness which are
ever
so slight when they appear. This is my CURRENT bug-bear (man, i gotta lot of
bug-bears!) and the epson enginneer here is also obsessed with solving this
issue. The Photo 700 has much less microbanding. On th eEX, the banding is
most
obvious at 720 dpi.
It fact, it was the epson engineer who told me that there was also
microbanding
on the 5000.

Soluition:-

1. I found that using 280dpi helps a lot?! don't know why.
Also, printing from pagemaker or freehand and stipulating print output at
1440
also helps. Again, don't really know why.

2. Paper: use the right paper and the thickness lever on the EX should NOT
be
set to the (+) unless really using thck paper. I am unfamiliar with the 5000
so
can suggest any help there.
Using paper that bleeds (a bit, eg good hot pressed water colour paper)
would
surely not show the problem but bleeding is itself a problem/.

3. Print in B& W

No microbandin ghere

4, print in A3

Almost all my A3 printouts have been bandless. Don';t know why, mayve it is
the
fact that the print head and its movement has been optimised for use wiht
large
sizes. I f you think about it, the only real difference (hardware) betwe the
700
and the EX is the width. Anyway, me and the epson engineer even tried
fooling
the printer to print an a4 picture as if there was an a3 paper (eg stick an
a4
on a3) but we added a few images (eg small characters) on the outer edge of
the
virtual a3 to make the print head transverse the whole width of the
carriage.
This seemed to improve print quality only slightly.

I think there is a real problem with is not limited to Singapore. AT first
the
epson engineer though that it is a batch production problem. Looks like it
is
not.

Email me if you want to read my previous postings on this issue. LIke I
said,
this is my current bug-bear and i am committed to solving it! Other than the
slight banding (which i must stress, is so lsight that only those with a
keen
eye can see it), the EX has been incredible.

kok leong
Singapore
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I'd like to chime in on the banding/micro-banding issue.

I first noticed this *extremely* fine banding on prints from my
new Photo 700. These prints were from 300dpi scans of 5x7 originals.
They were printed on the Epson at 1440dpi super-microweave as
5x7 prints, so the source files were obviously still at 300dpi.

Interestingly, looking back at prints of the *same* source files
done from my older Epson printers (a Stylus II and 600) I found the
same (or very similar) micro-banding. I had never noticed the
banding on the older printers. At the distance required to see the
banding, the dithered inkjet dot patterns were much more noticable
and distracting. These prints were done on Epson Photo Quality Glossy
Paper and/or Epson Photo Paper.

When Tham Kok Leong of Singapore first reported that micro-banding
on the Photo EX could be reduced or eliminated by printing from
280dpi source files, I'll admit to being skeptical. I down-sampled
some of my 300dpi files to 280dpi and printed then on the Photo 700.
Much to my surprise all evidence of banding in the prints was gone!
Since then I have found NO banding in any prints from my 700
with source files resampled (up or down) to 280dpi for printing.

It would certainly seem that 280 is a magic number for source file
dpi on the Epson photo printers. I can't explain why that should be,
or if any other 'magic' dpi numbers exists. If you are noticing
faint banding in your Epson prints, I would suggest trying 280dpi
for your source files. Please let us know your experiences.

I'd like to thank Tham Kok Leong for first reporting this here.

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Message: 10
   Date: Sat, 22 Nov 2003 16:20:32 -0000

   From: "ramonroe_47" <ramonroe_47@...>
Subject: Curves for Epson Stylus Photo EX

I have an old Epson Stylus Photo EX that I want to convert to quad
tone but I cannot find curves for the printer. I've searched this
group to no avail, maybe there aren't any, but nthere must be because
the ink sets are available. Any help would be appreciated.