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Author Topic: Epson R300 Banding  (Read 6146 times)

Alex53

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Epson R300 Banding
« on: April 27, 2008, 01:54:27 pm »

I am a poor photographer having issues with my current printer, Epson R300.

When I got this printer, straight out of the box I had great results. I would mostly process in Photoshop but print using the ancient Paint Shop Pro 7, because I used it to add borders and I also found the way the image looked in PSP7 was more true to the printer results.

I had very neutral monochromes with and a good range from true black to whites, and very acceptable colour rendition. The irony is I had no idea of colour spaces or printing options, it was all on defaults except I was shooting Adobe RGB on my camera simply because someone advised me it was better for printing while RGB was better for displaying on the web.

Anyway, I had to reinstall windows on my PC and therefore printer drivers, photoshop and PSP7.

Since then my workflow stopped working. Washed out colours as if suddenly the printer was able to reproduce less colours, black was not black just dark grey, and I even get banding appearing randomly which alignment and head cleaning only help marginally.

To try and solve this I started printing from Photoshop as it gave more control, but to be honest I have never managed to get the results I was getting with my previous 'ignorance is bliss' approach.

How would you guys address this? Maybe a newer printer would make things easier for me again? Have drivers/colour management etc got any easier to manage in newer software than Photoshop CS2?

At one point I went back to my Olympus P-440, a dye sublimation A4 printer, but boy was that a bad purchase. It was expensive and its not worth the space it takes. Prints are always visibly softer than the same file printed on inkjet or from a lab and the gamut of colours the printer seems capable of must be by far inferior. I was even getting strange purples appearing in a monochrome prints. Like purple fringing but much more pronounced in light areas of the print.  

As you can see I have plenty of printing woes.

Thanks in advance for any feedback
« Last Edit: April 27, 2008, 01:59:36 pm by Alex53 »
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Jon Shiu

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Epson R300 Banding
« Reply #1 on: April 27, 2008, 03:37:06 pm »

In CS2, Print with Preview, Let Printer Determine Colors and then specify your Epson Paper type in the Epson Printer Driver and check that your custom/advanced settings are 1.8 or Photoenhance and it should be alright. Also check that you are printing on the correct side.

Also make sure you are getting a perfect nozzle check in the Epson utility print out.

Jon
« Last Edit: April 27, 2008, 08:21:35 pm by Jon Shiu »
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Alex53

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Epson R300 Banding
« Reply #2 on: April 28, 2008, 03:13:06 am »

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In CS2, Print with Preview, Let Printer Determine Colors and then specify your Epson Paper type in the Epson Printer Driver and check that your custom/advanced settings are 1.8 or Photoenhance and it should be alright. Also check that you are printing on the correct side.

Also make sure you are getting a perfect nozzle check in the Epson utility print out.

Jon
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=192148\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Thanks for your reply.

What should be done when you clean the nozzle 10 times and the nozzle check is still not perfect? Does changing the ink cartridge help or is the problem in the printer itself?

I was told a while back that on an HP, changing the cartridge does help because the heads are on them, whereas on Epson printers this is useless. It might be old information though.
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sojournerphoto

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Epson R300 Banding
« Reply #3 on: April 28, 2008, 08:33:23 am »

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Thanks for your reply.

What should be done when you clean the nozzle 10 times and the nozzle check is still not perfect? Does changing the ink cartridge help or is the problem in the printer itself?

I was told a while back that on an HP, changing the cartridge does help because the heads are on them, whereas on Epson printers this is useless. It might be old information though.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=192250\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


You can try cleaning the nozzle(s) - I think Keith Cooper (Northlight Images in the UK) has some info on his website on how you can try this, but basically people recommend that (at your own risk!!) you soak some absorbent paper in isopropyl alcohol or window cleanre that contains it and leave it under the heads overnight, then run cleaning cycles in the morning.

Eventually, if you can't clear the nozzle the printer will need to be replaced (head replacement is unlikely to be economic on an R300).

A clogged nozzle wouldn't normally stop you getting good colour, but would lead to banding in the prints.

Mike
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Jon Shiu

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Epson R300 Banding
« Reply #4 on: April 28, 2008, 12:25:17 pm »

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Thanks for your reply.

What should be done when you clean the nozzle 10 times and the nozzle check is still not perfect? Does changing the ink cartridge help or is the problem in the printer itself?

I was told a while back that on an HP, changing the cartridge does help because the heads are on them, whereas on Epson printers this is useless. It might be old information though.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=192250\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
Hi, in cleaning the nozzles don't do more than 3 in succession. Doing more in succession can cause problems making the printer unusable. After doing up to 3 cleaning cycles, try printing something out. If the cartridge is low in ink that can cause a missing nozzle check color.

Sometimes it is good to do a under-head wipe with Windex on a paper towel. Basically you are wiping off any gunk built up on the nozzles. Do a web search on Epson Windex Paper Towel, and you should find instructions. Suffice to say this is not a Epson recommended procedure, but I have used it many times.

Jon
« Last Edit: April 28, 2008, 12:27:35 pm by Jon Shiu »
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Alex53

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Epson R300 Banding
« Reply #5 on: April 29, 2008, 03:24:34 am »

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Hi, in cleaning the nozzles don't do more than 3 in succession. Doing more in succession can cause problems making the printer unusable. After doing up to 3 cleaning cycles, try printing something out. If the cartridge is low in ink that can cause a missing nozzle check color.

Sometimes it is good to do a under-head wipe with Windex on a paper towel. Basically you are wiping off any gunk built up on the nozzles. Do a web search on Epson Windex Paper Towel, and you should find instructions. Suffice to say this is not a Epson recommended procedure, but I have used it many times.

Jon
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Thanks for your replies. I was ready to do some more aggresive cleaning as you guys suggested but I tried one more thing. I changed all the ink cartridges even the ones that were halfway. I did an alignment, printed, et voila, perfect print as far as I can tell.

It is an expensive solution though to throw away ink.

I made sure to disable the fast printing option in advanced. Even when selecting 'Best Photo' there is an option to print faster that is on by default and which you dont see in basic mode but which appears in advanced. I have a feeling that makes a thin regular banding much more likely.
« Last Edit: April 29, 2008, 03:25:35 am by Alex53 »
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