On Fri, Jan 19, 2018 at 2:54 PM, brian_downunda@... [QuadtoneRIP] <QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
Thanks, that's helpful. I have probably read some of that material before somewhere and then forgotten it.
In the rather hot (38C) light of a new day I should probably install this and try it before commenting too much further, but there are a couple of things that surprise me. The P800 is lumped in with the desktop printers, whereas its predecessor is regarded as a Pro printer. Why is this?
I was initially surprised too. But basically this is just what Epson decided to do. Probably cheaper. The old 3800 and 3880 were
in their own space between desktop and Pro printers -- some of each in the features. So it appears to me that the P800
is for the most part a bigger P600 rather than in its own category.
"The top and bottom ends of the paper are affected more" - this sounds like the micro-banding in the first and last inch problem is worse rather than better. It would have been good if this super mode solved it. I will test.
I had assumed that the P800 (which I don't own) didn't suffer the micro-banding in the first and last inch problem, being the successor to the 3880, but all this suggests that perhaps it does?
The top/bottom issues are due to mechanical issues of holding the paper. At ends of sheet you only get to hold the
paper from one side so weave ends up using fewer jets -- so more likely banding. This of course varies by printer. It's a potential
issue regardless of who does the weaving code. But when the code is internal to printer Epson has probably customized
it for different printers so in general its been good enough not to see a problem. However with QTR driver there's pretty
much one weave algorithm for all printers (after all I don't have all printers and don't have the resources to do different
things for each printer type).
All this is a matter of degree -- is it good enough to not see banding. It's not a "there or not there" thing.
The new 2880 super will do more passes so ought to be better -- but it's all a matter of how much. Only your
printer, your workflow and your eyes can say what you will conclude.
Roy