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Author Topic: 9900 Super Micro Weave GRRRR  (Read 13105 times)

StevenSzabo

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9900 Super Micro Weave GRRRR
« on: February 11, 2010, 04:03:51 am »

Alright, so I finally got around to working on trying to figure out WHY my prints were coming out darker than my calibrated display by a significant margin. I printed some test prints on epson luster, first at 1440 X 1440, then 1440 X 2880(which forces super micro weave to be on), then tried it again at 1440 X 1440 with the super micro weave on...and for comparison sake I printed two prints on canvas one at 1440 X 1440 with super micro weave off, and one with it on.

the results are that the super micro weave is making the prints significantly darker, if it was a little bit of variance I could understand, but it's quite a jump, I lose all my detail in my blacks which is just unacceptable to me.

Does anyone have any experience with this? is it supposed to make things darker?

To run it down, here's my setup:
- Mac OSX 10.6.2
- Printing from photoshop CS4 using the epson drivers
- Epson profiles for both the luster and the canvas

The prints with the microweave off are damn near spot on to my calibrated display, it appears to just be an issue with the super micro weave. Quite frustrating.
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iCanvas

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9900 Super Micro Weave GRRRR
« Reply #1 on: February 11, 2010, 09:15:57 am »

This is very interesting and will have to try this out on my next canvas prints. I have had to make adjustments to the Hue/saturation/lightness selection in Photoshop to get my canvas prints to print out properly. What is Super microweave to begin with and how does it affect the printing?

Thanks for this post

Gar
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StevenSzabo

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9900 Super Micro Weave GRRRR
« Reply #2 on: February 11, 2010, 03:55:55 pm »

Quote
Super Microweave setting that enables the print head to perform 8 microweave passes instead of the standard 4 passes. Printing is slower with this setting, but it produces the highest quality prints when used along with the highest print resolutions of 1440 or 2880 and when the high speed setting is turned off.

From the epson site.

I called epson's support number, gave them the details, we will see what happens.

Apparently they've had a couple complaints from people about prints printing to dark, and it has been linked to CS4...I'll keep this updated with my progress.
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Wayne Fox

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9900 Super Micro Weave GRRRR
« Reply #3 on: February 11, 2010, 08:01:00 pm »

Quote from: StevenSzabo
Alright, so I finally got around to working on trying to figure out WHY my prints were coming out darker than my calibrated display by a significant margin. I printed some test prints on epson luster, first at 1440 X 1440, then 1440 X 2880(which forces super micro weave to be on), then tried it again at 1440 X 1440 with the super micro weave on...and for comparison sake I printed two prints on canvas one at 1440 X 1440 with super micro weave off, and one with it on.

the results are that the super micro weave is making the prints significantly darker, if it was a little bit of variance I could understand, but it's quite a jump, I lose all my detail in my blacks which is just unacceptable to me.

Does anyone have any experience with this? is it supposed to make things darker?

To run it down, here's my setup:
- Mac OSX 10.6.2
- Printing from photoshop CS4 using the epson drivers
- Epson profiles for both the luster and the canvas

The prints with the microweave off are damn near spot on to my calibrated display, it appears to just be an issue with the super micro weave. Quite frustrating.

Odd.  I normally print at 2880dpi so no microweaving.  I believe the main function of microweaving is an advance adjust so lower DPI's take advantage of more passes, so not sure why this would print out dark.  I'll have to run a couple of tests.

Curious if you are enabling 16bit printing.
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StevenSzabo

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9900 Super Micro Weave GRRRR
« Reply #4 on: February 11, 2010, 09:27:41 pm »

Quote from: Wayne Fox
Odd.  I normally print at 2880dpi so no microweaving.  I believe the main function of microweaving is an advance adjust so lower DPI's take advantage of more passes, so not sure why this would print out dark.  I'll have to run a couple of tests.

Curious if you are enabling 16bit printing.

In my driver it forces the super micro weave to be on as soon as I go up to 2880 X 1440 mode...perhaps a difference in the driver?
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Wayne Fox

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« Reply #5 on: February 11, 2010, 10:03:26 pm »

Quote from: StevenSzabo
In my driver it forces the super micro weave to be on as soon as I go up to 2880 X 1440 mode...perhaps a difference in the driver?

Actually that's what I meant.  In standard 1440 mode, the printer will make 4 passes, in 2880 mode the printer makes 8 passes.  What super weave does is utilize the full 8 passes, yet only print at 1440 dpi ... basically allowing a little more flexibility in the screening and supposedly a quality increase. So the microweave setting doesn't affect 2880 ... I guess they show it "on" since it's making the full 8 passes.  You just can't disable it, since there is no way to print 2880 dpi with 4 passes.

Using super microweave takes much longer to print (twice as many passes) at 1440 dpi, so I always just use 2880.  If I go to 1440 because the quality is going to be good enough, I really see no point in super microweave.
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StevenSzabo

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« Reply #6 on: February 11, 2010, 10:35:10 pm »

ah sorry...my mistake...
I guess my question for you is, does printing with the super micro weave on in 1440 X 1440 cause significantly darker prints than without it on in your case.
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Wayne Fox

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9900 Super Micro Weave GRRRR
« Reply #7 on: February 11, 2010, 11:41:26 pm »

Quote from: StevenSzabo
ah sorry...my mistake...
I guess my question for you is, does printing with the super micro weave on in 1440 X 1440 cause significantly darker prints than without it on in your case.

No, but unfortunately the only setup I have to test it on right now is CS3/Leopard/11880.  No problem ... can't tell the difference between the prints.

As I mentioned, I don't ever use it because it visually doesn't really provide any visual increase in quality and doubles your printing time ... might as well just use 2880.

I'll try to set up and test 10.6/CS4.  I'm not sure the OS/Driver can affect this ... not sure of the actual screening process but I'll try to check for you.
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Farmer

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9900 Super Micro Weave GRRRR
« Reply #8 on: February 12, 2010, 03:15:14 am »

Quote from: Wayne Fox
No, but unfortunately the only setup I have to test it on right now is CS3/Leopard/11880.  No problem ... can't tell the difference between the prints.

As I mentioned, I don't ever use it because it visually doesn't really provide any visual increase in quality and doubles your printing time ... might as well just use 2880.

I'll try to set up and test 10.6/CS4.  I'm not sure the OS/Driver can affect this ... not sure of the actual screening process but I'll try to check for you.

It could be as simple as the canned profile not being suitable for 1440 super micro.

There's a spiffy new iMac at work so if I can get some time I'll try to test this, too.
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Phil Brown

StevenSzabo

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9900 Super Micro Weave GRRRR
« Reply #9 on: February 17, 2010, 03:08:54 pm »

I have no idea why, but it randomly stopped doing it the other day...my canvases are now coming out bright and vibrant, and Luster at 2880 X 1440 with super micro weave on is now true to color. Unsolved mystery...I dunno. maybe because I ran the adobe updater and what not.
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Scott O.

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9900 Super Micro Weave GRRRR
« Reply #10 on: February 20, 2010, 10:48:27 pm »

I have probably the same issue with a 7900 on a Windows7 system printing through Lightroom 2.6.  But the drivers don't allow microweave to be turned off.  The option is "On" or "Super".  I think I'll try to print tomorrow at a lesser quality which will lower the microweave setting to "on".  Very strange behavior...
« Last Edit: February 20, 2010, 10:49:23 pm by soberle »
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