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Author Topic: Epson 4800 banner printing  (Read 2532 times)

cmichaels

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Epson 4800 banner printing
« on: April 11, 2009, 12:28:27 pm »

I have an Epson 4800 printer and I need to print a continuous banner print on 17in roll paper that is about 60 feet long. I am wondering if anyone has ever made a print this large and if it is safe to continuously run my printer for this long, I am assuming that it may take a couple of hours. Also, my inks are at various levels and I would rather not replace an ink cartridge that still has some left in it with a new one. Is it possible to change an ink cartridge in the middle of printing? Will this create a mark or line in the print?

I just want to get some input before I do this. anyone have any advice for making a 60 foot banner?
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stevebri

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Epson 4800 banner printing
« Reply #1 on: April 11, 2009, 10:40:17 pm »

Hi,

To print that long on the 4800 you will need RIP software, the standard Epson software doesn't 'do' prints that long, some 4800's came with RIP software, if you have to buy it it's not cheap but users swear by it.

The 4800 is built like a tank and designed for pro use, so don't worry about it working too hard, it was designed to do exactly that.

Ink...?  I'm not sure, I have not experienced that on any of my machines, I do remember though two things happening in the past (though not related to a 4800) one was the Epson software gave me a warning before commencing saying the ink might not complete this print, another time a printer stopped mid print for ink and then carried on seamlessly...

I'd ask an Epson tech about the ink issue...

Best,

Steve
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bill t.

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Epson 4800 banner printing
« Reply #2 on: April 11, 2009, 10:41:43 pm »

Quote from: cmichaels
I have an Epson 4800 printer and I need to print a continuous banner print on 17in roll paper that is about 60 feet long. I am wondering if anyone has ever made a print this large and if it is safe to continuously run my printer for this long, I am assuming that it may take a couple of hours. Also, my inks are at various levels and I would rather not replace an ink cartridge that still has some left in it with a new one. Is it possible to change an ink cartridge in the middle of printing? Will this create a mark or line in the print?

I just want to get some input before I do this. anyone have any advice for making a 60 foot banner?
I have several times changed cartridges in the middle of print jobs with a 7800, there were absolutely no artifacts on the print.  I waited for the empty cartridge dialog to appear, I did not myself pause the job.

I assume the 4800 has the same famous 90.5" limit found in the Epson drivers for the 7800, 9800, etc.  There are various work-arounds, the best is probably to use Qimage (if you have a PC) which can in printing join together several cut-up pieces of a larger image.  Search it, there's a lot written here on that subject here.  I think Illustrator can be of help for very long prints.

60 feet?  Hum.  It seems almost certain that you would develop a missing nozzle or two somewhere in there.  Especially if you have several nearly empty cartridges, which invites not so much clogs as air bubbles.  I would personally want to print a job like this as several separate panels to be joined together for display.  But you might get lucky.  You can freely remove, store, and replace partly used cartridges.  If you have a full set, might be a good idea to start with that.
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