Digital BW, The Print

I am printing with MIS inks on an Epson 1280
Using Windows XP Home
I am printing at 2800 dpi using the Black Only setting
(I know the MIS ink set supports color/grey scale)
On solid black areas the coverage is perfect
On dark grey areas I will see some horizontal banding

Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks
Sally

How old is your printer? There's a few theories on this subject if you
search the archive.

The bad news is that your printer may be at the end of it's life
already and the black printer head is misfiring. When printing colour
since the black ink is used so little you might not have noticed the
problem before..

Michael

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "sallyatt"
<sallyatt@y...> wrote:

> 
> I am printing with MIS inks on an Epson 1280
> Using Windows XP Home
> I am printing at 2800 dpi using the Black Only setting
> (I know the MIS ink set supports color/grey scale)
> On solid black areas the coverage is perfect
> On dark grey areas I will see some horizontal banding
> 
> Anyone have any suggestions?
> 
> Thanks
> Sally

Michael:

The print is less than a year old - it has not been used so much
When I pring a solid black area there are no lines - my thought being 
that this would indicate the print head is OK.
Is this correct?

Sally


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Michael Hung" 
<mhkhung@y...> wrote:
> 
> How old is your printer? There's a few theories on this subject if 
you
> search the archive.
> 
> The bad news is that your printer may be at the end of it's life
> already and the black printer head is misfiring. When printing 
colour

> since the black ink is used so little you might not have noticed the
> problem before..
> 
> Michael
> 
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "sallyatt"
> <sallyatt@y...> wrote:
> > 
> > I am printing with MIS inks on an Epson 1280
> > Using Windows XP Home
> > I am printing at 2800 dpi using the Black Only setting
> > (I know the MIS ink set supports color/grey scale)
> > On solid black areas the coverage is perfect
> > On dark grey areas I will see some horizontal banding
> > 
> > Anyone have any suggestions?
> > 
> > Thanks
> > Sally

I have had in the past very small horizontal lines (sharp but small) 
not like the typical banding one sees when the heads are very 
clogged.  I have run a few cleaning cycles which has helped.

Joe

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "sallyatt" 
<sallyatt@y...> wrote:
> 
> Michael:
> 
> The print is less than a year old - it has not been used so much
> When I pring a solid black area there are no lines - my thought 
being 
> that this would indicate the print head is OK.
> Is this correct?
> 
> Sally
> 
> 
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Michael 
Hung" 
> <mhkhung@y...> wrote:
> > 
> > How old is your printer? There's a few theories on this subject 
if 
> you
> > search the archive.
> > 
> > The bad news is that your printer may be at the end of it's life
> > already and the black printer head is misfiring. When printing 
> colour
> > since the black ink is used so little you might not have noticed 
the

> > problem before..
> > 
> > Michael
> > 
> > --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "sallyatt"
> > <sallyatt@y...> wrote:
> > > 
> > > I am printing with MIS inks on an Epson 1280
> > > Using Windows XP Home
> > > I am printing at 2800 dpi using the Black Only setting
> > > (I know the MIS ink set supports color/grey scale)
> > > On solid black areas the coverage is perfect
> > > On dark grey areas I will see some horizontal banding
> > > 
> > > Anyone have any suggestions?
> > > 
> > > Thanks
> > > Sally

Hello Sally,

>On solid black areas the coverage is perfect
>On dark grey areas I will see some horizontal banding

There are two types of banding. The banding caused by a clogged nozzle
is  often referred to as "micro banding" and is usually visible to the
eye.  You didn't mention a nozzle check.  

The other kind, if all nozzles are firing, is often called "dither
banding" because it's caused by the printer's dither pattern.  It's
usually harder to see without a magnifier unless it's really bad.  It
tends to show only in certain dark zones such as Zone III or IV, so it
sounds like that may be what you have (it's not limited to BO
printing, BTW, I've seen it in prints from just about every kind of
ink system and many different printer models).

It sometimes can be helped by head alignment, although the amount of
correctibility seems to vary with different printers.  On my 2200 I
was able to reduce it significantly with head alignment, by choosing a
smaller number (#2) that the usual #8 or so in the middle.  I just
kept trying a smaller number each time and making a print and it kept
lessening the dither banding and didn't seem to hert anything else.

So I'd try that if you're getting good nozzle checks.

Regards,
Clayton


Info on black and white digital printing at    
http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm

--Sally,

I have experience this many times with my 10K and BO printing. When I switched the grey 
gamma from 1.8 to 2.2 is was minimized so signigicantly that I have since printed many 
big jobs of large prints and achieved quite good results. The other key that I have found is 
to choose a media that reduces the dither by providing an alternate texture. 

john

That raises a question for me, that I could not find an anwser to 
using a search. 
Does the epson driver store the alignment value in the printer, such 
that QTR prints with aligned heads?

john

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Clayton Jones" 
<cj@c...> wrote:
<snip>
> It sometimes can be helped by head alignment, although the amount of

I just thought of something else - check the paper thickness lever. 
It can make a difference.


Regards,
Clayton


Info on black and white digital printing at    
http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm

Clayton:

You were correct - it was the paper thickness.

Thanks
Sally

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Clayton Jones" 
<cj@c...> wrote:

> 
> I just thought of something else - check the paper thickness lever. 
> It can make a difference.
> 
> 
> Regards,
> Clayton
> 
> 
> Info on black and white digital printing at    
> http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm

> You were correct - it was the paper thickness.

Amazing.  Isn't it nice to find a simple solution.  Happy days are
here again <g>.


Regards,
Clayton


Info on black and white digital printing at    
http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm