Digital BW, The Print

Stu, if you were getting major clogs there was a problem with th e1160. I
had one like that - got rid of it under warranty - I now have two that have
never clogged, and they get hard use. I get an slight microband very rarely,
but a cleaning cycle and letting it sit with 2/3mm of windex works. The QC
on cheap Epson printers is crap - my 2 refurbs are superb, because they were
checked again. The Cone dither pattern disable some of the built in
forgiveness in the system so the 1160 has to be up to par. I use Kodak
Ultima when I went gloss. I have to spray it with a fixative within a few
mins of printing. All inkjets leave ink on top of the surface of glossy
papers. I sometimes get microbanding on glossy papers.

Julian
----- Original Message -----
From: "Stu Rosner" <sturos@...>
To: "yahoo digital bw" <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, October 26, 2001 2:51 PM
Subject: [Digital BW] BW printing problems/ Anyone overcome these??


> Dear All;
>
> I have been trying for about a year to get acceptable results making black
> and white prints using Epson printers and easily available paper.
>
> At first I bought and tried Jon Cones Piezography system, but found that
> there were two problems that I could not get around:
>
> 1) the inks continually clogged the print heads terribly. there are all
> kinds of fixes for this, revolving around soaking the pads with Fantastik,
> and doing all kinds of other stuff, but it's an incredible waste of time
and
> money.
>
>
> 2) Even more significantly, the Cone Inks do not work well with anything
> besides a really flat paper.
> I've found that the ink does not take to Epson's premium luster, a paper
> that most closely emulates Ilford Pearl surface paper, a paper I've used
and
> loved for 20 years.
>
> I had bought an 1160 printer, and dedicated it to black and white, but
since
> the Cone system has pretty much flamed out, I have been printing off an
> Epson 1270 using color inks to make black and white prints, and the
results
> are OK, but not great..the blacks are really purple-y, and overall the
tone
> is cold. Even with various adjustments to the Epson Drivers, I have not
come
> up with a
> tone that is consistently good ie, either too cold or too green...
> I have been trying to tweak these color adjustments, but with no great
luck,
> tho I still trying other settings and hoping for the best...
>
> I have been in touch with MIS, and they tell me that their inks do not
work
> well with
> either luster, semi-gloss or glossy papers.
>
> So, the Epson printer,inks and papers work very well as an integrated
> system,
> but the tones are not quite right, or at least I have not been able to hit
> the
> proper settings/profiles...
>
> Look forward to hearing from anyone with similar experiences, especially
if
> you've
> worked your way through this...
>
> Best;
> Stu Rosner
> sturos@...
> sturos@...
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
> 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
>
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>
>
>
>
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>
>
>

I'm sure that a lot of the clogging problems are to do with the capping
mechanism. I've just hada look at mine and both printers have a different
material for the capping pad than my old 'bad' printer. Maybe they were
changed throghout the lifecycle.

Julian
----- Original Message -----
From: "Nij" <nigel@...>
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, October 26, 2001 3:38 PM
Subject: RE: [Digital BW] BW printing problems/ Anyone overcome these??


> Stu,
>
> Can I encourage you to try Piezo again? I know it is frustrating when it
> doesn't work for you... but as Julian suggests, it sounds like a
replacement
> printer is in order.
>
> You are right that there are numerous hints and fixes for printing with
> these inks - it _might_ not be perfect :) You will see in time that some
of
> these hints are incredibly easy (like - ensure your carts are stored the
> right way up, so the ink is in the right place when you want to use them!)
> Sure, these are things that you don't have to do with Epson OEM... and yet
> if you print alot with OEM, or with fine-art papers, or use any other
third
> party system... you will find these ideas coming up again and again. e.g.
> Other third party ink suppliers recommend carts are stored upright... even
> Epson realised they have got to do 'something special' with even their
> pigmented inks in their own printers that were designed for pigmented
> inks!!! I'm sure that in the early days, there were bum printing presses
> too... and people who thought the monks did a better job! (Well, OK, they
> did... but you know what I mean!). So, in general, it is frustrating both
as
> a user and reseller for Piezo when problems with Epson (tho' I believe
they
> are basically great printers) are leveled as being problems with
> Piezography. e.g. If you've cut matts 16*20, and then print an image that
> looks great, but it's 15.5*19 when you needed it 15.5*19.5, what use is
> that? If your capping station doesn't work properly, even Epson inks will
> dry out... etc.
>
> On the issue of paper, I think that papers like Orwell, Wells River et al
> print really nicely! And now Photo Rag - excellent (and smooth). In fact,
> the 1160 is one of the best of Epson's printers for feeding art papers...
>
> The fact is, that we are trying to do stuff now that used to be done worse
> by Iris printers et al, without the up-front printer cost of god-knows how
> much, and I'm sure Iris _probably_ offer an operator course costing more
> than your whole Piezo setup! Still, I am told they _do_ come with a built
in
> vacuum cleaner for all that paper-dust, which is nice ;)
>
> I recommend taking a day off from the computer, then returning with
renewed
> vigour and resolution to test the printer... return if necessary... and
> then... go make art ;)
>
> Good luck... I really do believe the effort is worth it!
>
> Nij
>
> Nigel Rheam
> MWORDS Limited   www.mwords.co.uk   Digital Fine Art
>
>
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Stu Rosner [mailto:sturos@...]
> > Sent: 26 October 2001 13:51
> > To: yahoo digital bw
> > Subject: [Digital BW] BW printing problems/ Anyone overcome these??
> >
> >
> > Dear All;
> >
> > I have been trying for about a year to get acceptable results making
black
> > and white prints using Epson printers and easily available paper.
> >
> > At first I bought and tried Jon Cones Piezography system, but found that
> > there were two problems that I could not get around:
> >
> > 1) the inks continually clogged the print heads terribly. there are all
> > kinds of fixes for this, revolving around soaking the pads with
Fantastik,
> > and doing all kinds of other stuff, but it's an incredible waste
> > of time and
> > money.
> >
> >
> > 2) Even more significantly, the Cone Inks do not work well with anything
> > besides a really flat paper.
> > I've found that the ink does not take to Epson's premium luster, a paper
> > that most closely emulates Ilford Pearl surface paper, a paper
> > I've used and
> > loved for 20 years.
> >
> <snip>
>
>
>
> 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
>
> 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/
>
>
>

Yep. And one of my replacement 1270's (I had several, each one crappo until
the fourth or fifth) had the head wiping mechanism fitted so badly that it
couldn't even retract: result head wiper stops head moving back to home
position, cartridge initialisation sequence is broken by carriage failure,
cartridge chips are buggered - all within five minutes of being out of the
box :(

Still, I think it was the Next one that worked (and I know my expeirnce was
unusual)... and in this case it was an Epson printer printing OEM inks and
on OEM papers...

Nij

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Julian Thomas [mailto:julianthomas@...]
> Sent: 26 October 2001 14:44
> To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [Digital BW] BW printing problems/ Anyone overcome these??
>
>
> I'm sure that a lot of the clogging problems are to do with the capping
> mechanism. I've just hada look at mine and both printers have a different
> material for the capping pad than my old 'bad' printer. Maybe they were
> changed throghout the lifecycle.
>
> Julian