Banding on high contrast prints: Epson 2100

[edward_watts]

Just printed both colour and b&w prints on my Epson 2100. Even

though colour prints were not ideal, b&w prints on Archival Matte

were impressive (may have to send colour prints out to some lab).

The problem I have is that I noticed severe banding on dark, hig

contrast b&w prints. In prints with lots of mid tones, there are no

bandings at all and details appear very well. When printing night

shots with sharp contrats created by city lights, there's banding.

Can someone help me out and solve this problem? Thanks

[sandro1]

I never had such problems with the 2100.

Trivial suggestions: run a couple of head cleaning (just keep the ink button pressed a

few seconds untill the cleaning process begins), verify the print quality settings ...

Why are the color prints "not ideal"?

 

Sandro

[pdumais]

What settings? Is high speed off?

[edward_watts]

I tried the cleaning process a few times. The thing is that it does not happen in low contrast pitures. The print in point has very darkd (night shot) with high contrat lights, which is where the banding happens. By the way, I have set it in quality the print, not high speed. DO you think the profile of the document has anything to do with it?

[imaginator]

Go to Printer Properties and look for Advanced. That's where you turn off High Speed.

[markskelly]

I operate an Epson 9600 (basically the same printer technology as your 2100).

I'm using a Best RIP system, and I'm assuming you're using the Epson RIP.

 

What I found on my printer was a great deal of banding on prints made at 720dpi

and minimal or no banding at 1440dpi. It usually showed, as you have said, in the

darker areas of the prints. From what I've been able to piece together from a lot

of research on the subject, it seems to have to do have to do with the total ink

limit and the drying time inbetween passes of the inkjet nozzles. Basically

speaking, the dark tones of an image are putting too much ink on the paper for it

to respond correctly before another pass of the heads.

 

There is, on my system, two places to adjust the total ink limit. One would be the

RIP itself. Perhaps your RIP has this capability. The other would be to open the

printer profile in a profile editing program and to place the limit there. Using a

combination of the two, I've been able to tame my 9600. It wasn't easy. It's an

Achille's heel of the Epson's that I'm surprised isn't discussed more often.

 

There is one more option as well. I've been told that there are codes that can be

entered by Epson techs into these printers that will increase the interval of time

inbetween passes of the heads. I haven't tried this simply because it would take

forever to make a print which isn't an option in my business.

 

So, in short: Try printing at a higher resolution, try limiting the total ink in

varying degrees, consider tweaking or recreating your printer profile, or possibly

ask your local tech for the secret timing codes (if they exist, I only read this).

 

Hope this helps,

 

Mark

 

P.S. If you find a solution or some enlightening info, please keep in touch. Good

luck.

[mike_kay]

We solved the banding effect on the Epson 3000 by using the Utility\re-alignment tool. This has a better effect at cleaning up heads than just Head Cleaning. Epson added a Super Button in the advanced setting later on after launching this printer. Watch out for Mis-Aligned pins e.g -----_----- when printing a test in nozzle check.

This appeared in a refurbished 3000 we bought and shows up in B&W as prints printed @720 dpi. As to over ink usage in solid black areas.

You can solve this by adjusting the input levels +5 - +10 in LEVELS\ Photo Shop. This compresses the broad band of tone and reduces the solid black to greyer values thus reducing the ink output.

 

Hope this can help some way!

Mike.