I am more interested in avoiding micro-banding than burning ink and paper trying to work out when you can notice it and when you can't. That said, my limited experiments suggest that it varies a lot from image to image, which makes testing difficult.
I haven't often used a lead sheet on larger paper sizes like 13"x19". When I print that large, I usually use a 1" margin for framing, so it's not a problem. But on an A4 page, which I print on a lot, a 1" margin only uses 63% of the page, and the image is just too small with too large a margin IHMO. I'm currently printing with a 7.5mm margin.
So for A4 what I do precisely is I use a 140mm long lead sheet (297mm wide). I create a custom page size which is 297+140+140 = 577mm long, but as I said before, I don't actually attach the trailing 140mm sheet. Custom page sizes are easy on a Mac, or so I'm told. On Windows QTRGui only allows one custom page size, so to make it easy to switch between multiple custom page sizes I hacked the PPD file for the printer to add more custom page sizes. To print on this page I simply centre the image, although you could set margins manually if you like, taking account of the 140mm lead.
A couple of points to watch.
1. Use a good quality low-tack painter's masking tape. This is less critical for gloss, as getting tape of the back of gloss is not hard, but it's critical for most matte papers, if you want to avoid tearing the paper. The good low-tack tapes come off pretty easily if you're careful. I use this: http://www.bunnings.com.au/bear-24mm-x-50m-low-tack-delicate-masking-tape_p1661595 and I guess something similar is available in most countries.
2. Don't skimp on the tape. You'll need it most of the way across the join. If you just use a short section at either end, there's a good chance that sooner or later the middle of the join will separate slightly and some of the paper feeding mechanism will catch on it and the paper will get stuck in there and perhaps the lead sheet will come off. This is bad, but it's easy to avoid simply by using enough tape most of the width of the paper. Tape is cheap. Good paper is not.
3. Don't use too short a lead sheet. Strictly you only need 1", but short lead sheets are harder to extract if they do separate. I think 140mm is fine for the sheet feeder, but if I was using the rear feed on any of these printers, then I think I'd use a full page. I.e. an A4 page taped to an A4 page and a custom page length of 297 + 297 + 297 mm. The rear feed may seem gentle, since there's no paper feed roller, but I've found it to be a long and complex path, and a very long lead sheet seems the safest approach.
Good luck. If anyone tries this I'd really appreciate feedback on the lack of micro-banding at the end of the page without attaching a trailing sheet.
---In QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com, <ascherjim@...> wrote :
So, I guess I will have to follow Brian's solution if I want to continue using QTR with the five-dilution profile, and set at 2880 dpi. However, I'm not quite certain, Brian, I fully understand your QTR settings to achieve this. Do I, for example, "tell" QTR I'm printing at 13 by 19 inches, but scaling the actual photo to 13 by 17 inches to eliminate the one-inch of micro banding at each leading edge?
All a bit of a nuisance, what!
All a bit of a nuisance, what!