Hi Roy & Paul!
Long time no see. I have a problem that I suspect has been with me for sometime. I have not noticed it in the past however because it does not seem to be noticeable in normal images. No this occasion I am printing a very low key image. In fact the whole image is jet black except for the small item in the lower left corner. I minimalist image.
Anyway, I print the image, let it dry and see horizontal banding. Seems to occur in threes, regularly spaced, down through the image.
I have tried all the normal fixes: head cleaning, alignment, fresh cartridges. Nothing seemed to help. Trying to validate if it might be my printer, I tried printing the same B&W image using the Epson print driver instead of QTR. Except for the normal slight color shift result when printing B&W (The reason for using QTR in the first place), no banding at all.
To me this seems to mean that the issue is not with the Epson printer, but somehow with QTR in this instance??? Looking for your thoughts. I do not print that many "black" images so it is not a problem normally. Would just like to clear it up if possible. Thanks!
Don't laugh at my equipment, it has served me well.........
Epson 2200
OEM Inks
QTR
Windows 7
Moab Entrada Natural
Message
Re: [QuadtoneRIP] The Old Banding Problem
2015-10-19 by Paul Roark
There could be several causes of the banding. First, I9;d check that you're using the highest quality level in QTR that is available for that printer. (2880 and unidirectional?)
It may be caused by the fact that the Epson driver is using more of the inks, more evenly in ABW mode than is the QTR profile you're using. That is, the ABW mode is probably using a lot more of the C, M and Y to generate part of the deep shadows, helping to hide printer defects.
The Epson dither pattern may hide micorbanding better in some instances, but what you describe does not sound like microbanding.
The QTR profile is probably putting out more black ink than the Epson driver. You might want to see where the dmax is reached by your setup and compare that to the ink limit of the particular profile.
Of course, the use of only a single gray ink in the 2200 and the limitations that imposes is why that type of printer has not been made is some years.
Hope this helps.
Paul
On Mon, Oct 19, 2015 at 7:32 AM, exe.rpd@... [QuadtoneRIP] <QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com> wrote: