Epson 3880 platen gap for canvas

[rasworth]

Haven't tried printing on canvas for a decade or so, decided it was time to jump back in.  I obtained Breathing Color samples, initially interested in the Crystalline Satin and Gloss.  Downloaded their profile, found a suitable image, and cranked out a print.

I had the Paper Thickness set to .5mm, per the profile instructions, but I obviously missed on the Platen Gap, which was set to auto. I liked the appearance, but there were lots of head strikes near the edges.  The choices are Narrow, Auto, Standard, Wide and Wider.  I suspect I'll need to use Wider - my question to the group is what is the effect of a wider platen gap?  I'm printing unidirectional, so I wouldn't think lateral dot shift would be an issue

For anyone else trying the BC Crystalline canvas with an Epson 3880, don't bother with the Satin version.  The Crystalline Gloss is a better match to the Epson UltraChrome K3 inks gloss level.

Richard Southworth

[robertDthomas]

I have not run canvas through my previous 3880 but I have run thin coated aluminum and had to go wider to eliminate head strikes.  I ran a test with Epson ultra premium matte with auto gap and then widest and I really could not tell the difference between the two prints.  With canvas which has greater texture than UPPM this would further mask any loss of resolution but as I say I did not discern any in my little test.

[rasworth]

Robert,

Thanks for your input.  I did notice I can choose "Widest" only from the printer console, "Wider" is the maximum setting via the printer driver.  I would prefer to choose from the driver, hopefully "Wider" is enough.

Richard Southworth

[mearussi]

If you're having head strikes only on the edges that's more likely to be caused by curled edges than a wrong platen gap. Some BC canvases I've tried have extremely curled edges.

[rasworth]

You may well be correct - the letter size sheet was from a thick sample pack shipped in a too small cardboard envelope.  The edges were definitely curled, I tried to flatten it out before printing.  I would assume production sheet media is shipped in a box, does it also have curled edges?

Richard Southworth

[robertDthomas]

On gap setting I now have a P800 and that only allows you to choose 'Standard' and 'Wide".  My P9000 has a 'Widest' setting for media up to 0.060" but the canvas will be thinner than that.  As far as curled edges canvas the OP is correct in that it would be more prone to curling as it is not as rigid or stiff/flat as paper.  The weave of the canvas will make it more prone to the edges not lying as flat as a sheet of paper.  So to reduce or prevent head strikes on the edges set your platen gap to 'Wider'  If you keep getting head strikes another other way to flatten the canvas (which is a bit of a pain) is to mount it to a carrier sheet using a spray adhesive like 3M 75 repositionalble adhesive.  I have had to use this when printing on silk or cotton fabrics.  I doubt you will have to resort to that once you move the platen back.

[mearussi]

You may well be correct - the letter size sheet was from a thick sample pack shipped in a too small cardboard envelope.  The edges were definitely curled, I tried to flatten it out before printing.  I would assume production sheet media is shipped in a box, does it also have curled edges?

Richard Southworth

The curling can also be caused by a combination of the canvas material and coating. Once opened the local humidity can affect it. The worse I have ever encountered was using BC's new version of their Silverada metallic canvas. I ordered a 24" roll and my initial out of the box use of it was fine. But after leaving it on my printer for a few days the leading edges had curled so bad that I couldn't get it to load back into the printer (Epson 7800) without first cutting off several feet.

BC coats their own paper in Austin, Texas which has fairly low humidity and where I live in Oregon has high humidity. I'm assuming that for that particular coating (their Lyve canvas does not have this problem) going from a low humidity to a high one caused the curl.  Now their Lyve is uncoated whereas their Silverada canvas is as is their Crystalline and any other canvas they advertise as not needing to be coated, so this could be your real problem. Just something to be aware of.

[disneytoy]

I have similar issues with Legacy Baryta because it is so thick. After much experimentation, I start with a 2-3" white border on top, which aids in flattening the surface at the first print pass.

Experimenting with Platen gap vs paper thickness. I found platen gab to introduce white scan lines in my blacks caused by the head being a bit to far for the ink spay to overlap.

I am now successful with printing Auto Gap with my paper thickness set to 0.6mm. 0.5mm will also work. The profile sets this to 0.3mm. which may work for flat sheets, but with rolled paper, the print area is not perfectly flat but an arc.

I think the paper thickness adjustment is a much finer adjustment. Also, this will become more pronounced towards the tighter, end of roll, than the beginning of a new roll.

[rasworth]

Good info, thanks.  I did have the paper thickness set to .5mm (max. for 3880), have not yet worked with the platen gap other than auto in the printer driver and standard on the printer console.

Richard Southworth

Added by edit - I lied, went back and checked, apparently I can put larger numbers into the paper thickness setting.