Epson 9600

[Lynn Williams]

I have an Epson 9600 that I purchased from an artist friend of mine. He gave me one of his scanned prints to experiment with. When I print his scanned file, it prints perfectly. When I print a digital picture that I have taken with my camera (Nikon D90) or a scanned slide, I get lines throughout the print. I am using a Mac Book Pro and Photoshop Elements. I printed both the professionally scanned art files and my digital pictures using the same system. One without lines, the other with lines.

I have posted a few other posts concerning the lines...I seem to be narrowing it down somewhat.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

[BobShaw]

Hi Lynn
Click on his file, then go Command-I. Do the same for your file. Compare the two.
I would expect to see that his file is bigger, has greater pixel dimensions and is maybe 16 bit compared to 8 bit.

The pixel size should be 360 times the inches of the print, but would be acceptable at half or less of that.

Let us know what you find.

[langier]

Try unidirectional (slower) printing. I had a similar problem with my 7600 and this seemed to solve the lines issue.

[Lynn Williams]

Thanks for the reply's.

As I said, I am a rank beginner but I enjoy trying to make all this work.

Here is what I found out. My artist friend was kind enough to loan me two of his scanned print files for me to experiment with. The first is 5844 X 2902 pixels/51MB.  I printed it 16.5" x 23" with no lines. The second is 5106 x 3756 pixels/13.1MB It printed fine at 14.5 X 20...no lines.

My digital photograph shot with my D90 is 4288 x 2848 and 9.2 MB. print size is 8" x 10". printed with lines at 1400 speed unidirectional.

I can't find a reference to the "bits" question. Not sure if they are 8 or 16. When I open the files and press Command I, there is no information presented, the photo just changes color presentation.

I have printed fast, slow, one direction and both directions....still lines. I can print the same picture on an HP Photojet at 8x10 (same system)with no lines.

I have included scanned images of the same picture printed with the 9600 and the HP Photojet. Notice the lines and blemishes on the 9600 photo. Don't quite understand why the 9600 would print two scanned files perfectly and then not print my D90 files.

By the way...I got good nozzle checks before each printing.

Thanks.....

I have included

[BobShaw]

You don't open the files, just click once to select them, then Command-I. Having said that though, I don't think file size is the problem.

[Lynn Williams]

I printed both photos directly from Iphoto. Bypassed Elements completely. I believe that somehow the problem connected to the printer. I have considered running some cleaning fluid through it....but that's a rather expensive experiment. I have tried soaking the head with a paper towel and ink2image cleaning fluid a couple of times with no help. I have been fooling with this for a year and a whole set of cardridges......maybe the printer is junk.....

[Lynn Williams]

I have another question....I have read several articles on line about cleaning print heads and lines with cleaning fluid. One article says that RV antifreeze can be used as a cleaning fluid utilizing refillable cartridges. The antifreeze is a mixture of alcohol and ethylene glycol, sounds reasonable but also sounds a little nuts. Anyone ever tried this....? I guess it would prevent printer freeze ups...

[DaveRichardson]

The first is 5844 X 2902 pixels/51MB.  I printed it 16.5" x 23" with no lines. The second is 5106 x 3756 pixels/13.1MB It printed fine at 14.5 X 20...no lines.

My digital photograph shot with my D90 is 4288 x 2848 and 9.2 MB. print size is 8" x 10". printed with lines at 1400 speed unidirectional.

Lynn - I don't have the 9600 - however the biggest difference I can see, in your description,  is that you appear to be using the print driver to scale the picture and the scaling of the two pictures is not the same. Try this, to take the scaling away from the print driver:

Use your software (Photoshop or whatever) to resize both images to 360dpi at whatever print size you want. Then send them both to the printer with the driver settings not making any changes to the scale in the driver and using unidirectional printing. Does that make a difference?

Dave

[Peter McLennan]

I'm not sure where each of those two images come from.  You say that one is a scan from your friend, but the other (the Epson printed one) you shot with your D90.

The lines on the Epson print don't appear to be normal printer banding.  They look more like scanning artifacts to me.  Printer banding tends to be similar from one end of the print to another.  Scanner artifacts are more random. Just a wild guess, though.  It's difficult to evaluate without knowing the provenance of the two files. 

All that black stuff doesn't look like printer problems to me, either.  It looks like something that was in the image file. When you look at that file at 100% in Photoshop, do you see that stuff?

Can you print a file on the Epson from a known good image?  One that you know is free of defects?

[Lynn Williams]

Ok...I'll try to bypass the print driver.......good idea.

My friends print came from a scan of his art work..... Google Frank Gee and look at his work, amazing artist.

The two posted prints came from a digital photograph that I took using a Nikon D90 and a macro lens. The first print was printed on an HP Photosmart 7400 and the other printed on my Epson 9600. The smudges on the 9600 print are not on the original digital photo, just the 9600 print. The 9600 print  is rather washed out and has horizontal banding, the 7400 print is fine. I'm going to print the same picture on my friends new large format Epson using the same settings and see what happens....

I can't figure out why his scans print perfectly and my digital pictures don't.

I can't seem to get the smoke and the mirrors aligned properly....:-)