Vertical banding with Epson 1270 on a 13X19 print.

Hi, everyone.

I recently acquired an Epson 1270. I noticed that when I printed out a 13X19, there were vertical bands (oriented to the flow of the paper, that is) running accross the top of one print and all the way through the center of another 13X19 print.

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I think the banding is showing up in continuous tone areas. The printer head cleaned itself upon inserting the new color cartridge, so I don't think that's the problem.

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Also,upons someone's recommendation, I set the resolution down to 720dpi in Photoshop, with his theory being that when I was sending it over before in 2820 resolution, it was causing the printer to pause with so much information, creating the bands. Well, that didn't work either.

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Any ideas?

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Thanks,

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Pete.

Get a 16x20 camera and contact print? What does this have to do with

LF? I am sure there is a digital forum somewhere that can help you

better and would interest the memebers more....no?

True, I thought about that.

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I decided to post here for two reasons:

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1. I have read threads on this site about printing 4X5 scans out on

Epson printers (what I'm trying to do), and I'm assuming that many of

us use them, so it seemed reasonable to post here.

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2. There is a subject thread on this forum titled "printing (non

dark room) and exhibiting," which is where I filed this question, and

it seems appropriate to add it to that knowledge base.

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3. I've tried other forums and not found the answer so I figured that

since the people on this forum tend to be somewhat more technically

minded than others, I might find the solution.

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However, I will refrain from asking printing questions of this sort

if it bothers anyone.

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Thanks,

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Pete.

Try cleaning the heads several times. If it doen't work change the

ink cartridge and try again.

After that I only suggest having the printer serviced.

Good luck.

Not at all Pete, please ask away, I just thought maybe a

clarification like you have been unable to find an answer would have

been good. Specially if we dont want this forum to become a digital

question and answer forum for those who scan their negs.

I have no objection if you use it as a last resort type thing, after

all that is the purpose of this forum to help people and exchange

ideas.

and you would be the clasroom monitor? List Mom? Cyber Cop......?

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Tim A

I just got a new 1280 and only noticed banding when I printed @ low

res. 1440 on Glossy epson paper printed just fine. Maybe it needs

factory servic even though it's new??

George

In general, horizontal banding (runs parallel to the long side of the

paper) is due to clogged heads and vertical banding (runs parallel to

the short side of the paper) is due to head misalignment.

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In addition to running the cleaning cycle, you should also check head

alignment using the appropriate Epson utility program. You might try

cleaning the heads with the Windex method, too (a good description of

it is posted at http://www.luminous-landscape.com/cis.htm)

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If none of the above works, then you'll probably have to send it back

to Epson for repair or replace it with another one.

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Good luck!

Tim A.....none of the above, just a person who has courtesy with

others, something you apparently lack!

ahh yes - that was a rather courteous post I must say... I quite

liked the "I have no objection" phrase especially :-)

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tim

Try different kinds of paper. I have a 2000P and I have noticed

that I get banding with flatter papers and no banding with

glossier papers.

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dgh

Jorge -<BR>

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This question is as valid relating to large format as any of the

million questions that have appeared here regarding darkroom

processes and enlargers. <BR>

Just because you use a wet process does not make your concerns in

that area more relevant (sp?) to LF photography.<BR>

It is, after all, just another aspect of the process.

Hi,

I find I get the best performance from Kodak Premium Glossy.

You must have the paper settings appropriate to the paper you

are using. But, also do an extra clean cycle.

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Rehards, Bob

Pete, You don't specify which OS you're working under, but I

found that running Macintosh OS 9, my previous Epson 1200

was unpredictably sensitive to various software settings before I

learned how to set it up. Working up the chain of Epson technical

support, I finally discovered that a whole variety of printing

problems can often to traced to problems with the smooth flow

of data being buffered between computer and printer. The things

I do to eliminate these are: never use "background printing",

allocate large amounts of RAM to Photoshop (roughly 4X your file

size), and allocate large amounts off RAM to the "Epson Print

Monitor." Now with a fast G4, 1 GB of RAM, and an Epson 1280

running under OS X, I'm finding that I seem to be able to relax the

requirement about not printing in the background, but I haven't

yet printed a lot of 13 x19s with the new set-up. Personally, I don't

care for the recommendation to downgrade the printer resolution

to 720 dpi. Isn't the whole point of starting with large format film

and using the 1270/1280 printer at 2880 dpi so that you can end

up with the best print possible?

Thanks, everyone. Jorge, no problem, I'll be more specific that I'm

doing LF in the future. Don't mean to get people riled up. After

all we should all "BAND" together....applause, groan, applause.

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I'll try some of the recommendations.

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Also, Chris, I am printing with my printer set to 1440 dpi, it's the

output that I changed to 720dpi in Photoshop, which shouldn't affect

image quality per say, but should stress my printer buffering much

less. I am going to try to do some RAM reallocation in addition to

head maintenance (not my head, the printer's head).

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Thanks,

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Pete.

Chris and Jeff were right on. First, some models will just be more

sensitive to this issue-i.e. the 1160, and , of course, certain image

areas will show such an effect more. Do a Nozzle Check frequently, as

well as the Head Alignment-the newest models do both a horizontal and

vertical alignment check. The heads will drift. Next, as suggested,

if you search in the printer reference, Epson notes Spooling to Disk

before printing to minimize banding. I always do Spool to Diska nd

Preview before hitting the print button. Still, certain papers and

inks will work less well with each other. For some good guidance go

to www.tssphoto.com and then to inkjet. Once obvious banding is

conquered, part of the problem is that computers and our general

nitpicking society have made us look at everything with "loupes on."

A guru once told me, "your inkjet print was great but at 40x I decided

problems." This was a quadtone. Let's pull back to 4x and live a

little!!!!!!! Considering all the questions here about which is

better-Lisco or Fidelity holder-this is a fine question-the world of

large format photography is intimately involved in inkjet printing

(glicee)-aesthetically, craftwise and FINANCIALLY.

Tim A, exactly i wrote I had no objection because I thought Pete was

going to stop posting, which was not my intention. He uderstood this,

obviously you were unable to connect response and reply. Maybe next

time you pay a little bit more attention before you demand

expalanations.

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Matt, I disagree with you, the way the question was originally posted

it could have come from someone using 35 mm to scan his neg. The

enlarger questions usually starts something like "my Beseler 4x5, my

Zone Vi4x5" etc, which clearly is related to the printing of 4x5

negatives. Other process like platinum etc, clearly are related to LF

as they are contact print processes. So you see, not all the

digital/scanner questions posted are related to LF as the more common

Enlarger/process are most likely related to them.

Point taken Jorge, but (IMHO) a single/multiple solution to a

printing problem can just as well be used by someone in small,

medium, or large format, and particularly LF, as the standards tend

to be somewhat higher. Higher standards are why I'm moving up to LF,

I want better end results...This includes trying to get the best

print results out of my 4X5 transparencies. I agree though that if

someone asked "do I really need Eye control on my Elan 7e?" that that

would be unnecesary clutter for this site.

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I know you and Tim are great guys who would probably have a blast

shooting film in the field together. Hopefully, you and Tim can buy

lunch for each other (or at least exchange e-cards), and exclaim in

the famous words of Buggs Bunny..., "This looks like the start of a

Beeauuutiful relationship."

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I'll stop kidding, I'm always very appreciative of the feedback I get

here (including your point of being on topic), and will report back

on how the printer problem was eventually solved.

Pete,

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I didn't see that you mentioned which paper you were using (sorry if

I missed it somewhere in the thread).

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If it's something other than Epson's papers for the printer, you

might want to look very closely and see if it's really banding you're

experiencing and not the dreaded "pizza wheel" problem that often

occurs with some brands of paper. You can do a google search with the

words "Epson pizza wheel" to get a description of the problem and

potential solutions.

Definitely not the pizza wheel problem (which I don't mind too

much). This is banding with strips of a little more than 1mm next to

lighter (in tone) strips of about 4mm next to that, going accross the

page in the direction that the paper is printing out.

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Picture the sky portion going from darker blue to lighter blue across

the page resulting in a darker blue stripe next to a lighter blue

stripe and repeating accross the page. The same thing happened with

a picture of a waterfall, where there was banding in the continuous

white area of the waterfall.

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Pete.

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Will be trying some of the suggestions...

2 other points: Banding is not a function of resolution, per se. With

Epson's Photo Enhance mode, excellent "smooth" prints can be made be

from 150 dpi, they even have optimization schemes for 72 dpi JPEGs to

print well. Also, be sur High Speed printing is turned off. THAN

Well, this just gets better...

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now I've got blue lines less than 1mm in width running perpendicular

to the direction of the paper's movement through the printer. The

banding goes outside the porder of the print and off the page. This

is different than the tonal banding I described earlier.

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Looks like I might need a new head? [referring to the printer, again]

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Pete.