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Author Topic: Printing the white, how much ink does this waste?  (Read 2424 times)

kevs

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Printing the white, how much ink does this waste?
« on: March 19, 2009, 08:18:22 pm »

On my 2400, I often hear the Epson chugging away loudly even on the half of the image that is white? What is this, and how much ink is it wasting? thanks
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bill t.

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Printing the white, how much ink does this waste?
« Reply #1 on: March 19, 2009, 11:47:11 pm »

The printer will lay down ink over any area that is less than RGB 255:255:255.  Is is possible you have a white border around your image that is something other than 255:255:255?  Sometimes using PS adjustments you can inadvertently shift your pure whites down to something like 254:254:254 in which case a smidgin' of ink will be deposited in those areas.  Very little ink, mind you, but if your main image is small compared to the paper border the printer will get a lot more wear and tear than it might otherwise get.
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kevs

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Printing the white, how much ink does this waste?
« Reply #2 on: March 20, 2009, 01:35:00 am »

Bill,
The images are 11.14 paper, and the photo is lets say 1/2 paper and the other half is white negative space.
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bill t.

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Printing the white, how much ink does this waste?
« Reply #3 on: March 20, 2009, 10:15:08 pm »

Quote from: kevs
Bill,
The images are 11.14 paper, and the photo is lets say 1/2 paper and the other half is white negative space.
Not sure what's going on.  Normally, if the printer sees nothing but pure 255:255:255 snow white all the way across the print at a particular part of the image, it will just fast forward over that part of the image.  But if the white is actually even the slightest shade of gray, it will laboriously lay down that shade of gray.  Same deal if there's a border outline around the print, some printer software will automatically generate a border for you if you.

When you look at your image in PS or whatever editor you are using, do you include the whole 11x14 on the screen, or do you just see the smaller image part of print?  In other words, does your file include a white border as part of the file.  If that white border is not pure, perfect, immaculate white in the file, then the printer will simply print it.  Sounds like maybe that's what happening.  In the course of editing you may have caused that white area to actually be a very light shade of gray which causes the printer to not fast forward in those areas.  If you want a smaller picture with a bunch of white around, just crop your picture to the image only and let the printer setup program position the small image on the overall larger sheet.
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kevs

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Printing the white, how much ink does this waste?
« Reply #4 on: March 21, 2009, 01:17:47 am »

Bill  I "think" I figured it out.

On all my prints, even in the negative white space, my designer put guide marks for paper cutting. that's gotta be it right?
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Farmer

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Printing the white, how much ink does this waste?
« Reply #5 on: March 21, 2009, 01:50:17 am »

Quote from: kevs
Bill  I "think" I figured it out.

On all my prints, even in the negative white space, my designer put guide marks for paper cutting. that's gotta be it right?

In horizontal head movement, the printer will stay in "print" mode so long as it has something to print further along that "row", even if there's whitespace before it.  So, yes, crop marks on the outer edges of the page will cause the printer to continue as if it were printing the entire page.  It won't use any ink on the white space if it's blank/pure white, though, so it's just slower rather than more ink intensive.
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scott morrish

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Printing the white, how much ink does this waste?
« Reply #6 on: March 21, 2009, 04:14:46 am »

Quote from: kevs
On my 2400, I often hear the Epson chugging away loudly even on the half of the image that is white? What is this, and how much ink is it wasting? thanks

If the area that should be white is being printed with a light grey tint, it is might down to your choice of output rendering intent. 'Perceptual' will leave the paper white alone. 'Relative' will also leave the paper white nice and white. But an 'absolute' rendering intent on the other hand, as used in proofing workflows, will mimic the paper white of the output icc profile, to give the most accurate simulation of whatever colour-space the icc profile is describing. Only a guess, but you never know...

Scott
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walter.sk

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Printing the white, how much ink does this waste?
« Reply #7 on: March 21, 2009, 10:59:38 am »

Printing with my Z3100 I have a similar issue with the printer laying down ink on "white" borders, under one circumstance, and I guess there is no way around it.  I have found it economical to print 11x17's 2-up on a 17x24 page and then cut them apart.  I use Qimage to print from and I place the 11x17's on the page using the "Optimum" setting, to minimize the cuts I have to make.

Because Qimage will not add unequal borders around the actual print area I add white canvas around the image, bringing the over all size to 11x17.  I stroke a 1-pixel line around the border.  Using HP Premium ID Satin's profile when softproofing,  the images would print with a blue color cast, so I compensate with adjustment layers.  No matter how I do it (whether I softproof before the white borders are added or after) the white borders end up less than pure white, and get printed on, even if only the gloss enhancer.

If someone has a solution to this let us know.  Otherwise, I willingly make the tradeoff since it is still easier and less expensive than using a smaller printer or single 11x17 sheets in the Z3100.  No such thing as a free lunch, I guess.
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