I print from QTR with an Epson 3880 using Paul Roark's lovely Eboni Variable Tone inkset. Happily, it's working great! (Touch wood.) But I'm looking down the road to the eventual day my 3880 dies. North American P800 printers won't take refill carts more than once, and the refillers may never crack the code. To plan ahead, I picked up a used 3880 for a song as a backup that I plan to put into storage until needed. I have it mostly working, but it's stubbornly refusing to print a perfect nozzle check. It's always the same two missing lines on Cyan. I've done all the recommended cleaning procedures (e.g., cleaning the capping station and wiper blades; soaking the head on a folded piece of Bounty in the platen area; running cleaning solution through the carts; careful and limited use of cleaning cycles). My cleaning solution is 70% distilled water, 10% PhotoFlo and 20% rubbing alcohol.
Anyway, let's assume it won't get better. I'd obviously prefer to put a perfect printer into storage. What I'm wondering is whether or not QTR, because of the way the curves overlap, will hide whatever effects the two missing nozzles would produce. If yes, then I'm good to go. But if the consensus is "no", the effects of the missing Cyan position will be visible, then I hope it's still worth keeping as backup.
Would any of the following options work:
* I'm currently using the Y position as the toner. Could I switch the toner to the C position in the hope that because it's the toner, any gaps in the nozzle check will have less impact?
* I could just "turn off" the C position and build a 6 color plus toner curve for use with this printer.
Thanks, Rob
Message
Re: [QuadtoneRIP] How many missing lines is too many?
2017-06-19 by Paul Roark
I'd go for option 2, with clear fluid (like my generic clear base, for example) in the defective channel. You still have plenty of carbon channels.
Paul
On Mon, Jun 19, 2017 at 2:51 PM, rdeloe1@... [QuadtoneRIP] <QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com> wrote: