Black banding with 4900

[Shane Webster]

I've created a few profiles for my 4900 today and printed a Test Page for profile evaluation purposes.  While I was very pleased between the soft-proof color renditions on screen versus print, I'm wasn't too pleased with black banding I saw in the white-black ramp at the bottom of the test file.  Perhaps I should have always been printing this way (though I never saw banding with my 7880), but the issue is solved if I turn super microweave on, whether the driver is set to high speed or not.  I'm printing on IGF.  The banding is not as bad as I noticed with my previous 4900, but it is there nevertheless.  I can't seem to see any banding in the lighter gray to white end of the ramp, it becomes more pronounced with middle to darker gray once again disappearing in the darker end of the ramp.  I'm not certain how many images this would affect since I had printed several with my previous 4900 before printing a rather dark image that exposed the banding.

[Mark D Segal]

Shane, what printer test page are you using? As well, are you images in 16-bit? What file PPI?

What you're reporting is something I have NOT experienced at all on the 4900; I have the Epson canned profiles, the custom profile I made with my Pulse Elite and one I had made externally with i1Profiler, and the ramps are smooth throughout the tone scale from all of them.

[Shane Webster]

Bill Atkinson's Lab Test Page, an 8-bit LAB file.  I've not had issues with it in the past and I wouldn't think it would be related to the bit depth.  It only appears when printing at 1440 without super microweave on.  Turning it on at 1440 doesn't increase print time by a great amount and fixes my issue.  My profile is also one I made with i1Profiler.  The banding doesn't waiver--it's straight.

[Mark D Segal]

Bill Atkinson's Lab Test Page, an 8-bit LAB file.  I've not had issues with it in the past and I wouldn't think it would be related to the bit depth.  It only appears when printing at 1440 without super microweave on.  Turning it on at 1440 doesn't increase print time by a great amount and fixes my issue.  My profile is also one I made with i1Profiler.  The banding doesn't waiver--it's straight.

Yup, I use that one too, or a near cousin from Outback Photo. I normally print unidirectional at 2880 with super micro-weave on.

[Shane Webster]

Yes, I'm going to start printing either bi- or uni-directional 2880 as well.  I know Jeff Schewe has written and stated in the Epson Print Academy that with a properly aligned print head, there is no difference (or was it should be no difference. . . I'm sure he'll correct me if he sees it) between uni- and bi-dicretional printing.

[Farmer]

Should be no visual difference between bi and uni, but there will be a difference between the various microweave settings and I would strongly recommend super microweave on for best results.

[Mark D Segal]

Yes, Phil and Jeff are both right, but I still print uni. Probably irrational - just feels better and I'm not in a rush.  :-)

[Wayne Fox]

microweave basically uses more passes to lay down the dots.  Thus the paper steps through more often at smaller increments.  The net effect is near 2880 dpi quality, because it is putting dots in places that would happen with 2880 but wouldn't with standard 1440.  This isn't affected by uni vs bi directional, it is applied in in the direction of paper travel.

Personally with a well aligned head, the quality should be the same uni vs bi-directional, unless perhaps using a loupe ... and even then it should be tough to tell the difference.  Micro-weave off vs on is another story, and for high quality printing 1440 with microweave and 2880 are the only two options I would ever use.

The only downside to using microweave is printing speed, since the printhead makes more passes across the paper.  I believe it still uses fewer passes than 2880, so it makes the speed somewhere between 1440 and 2880.

Did you try tweaking the paper feed adjustment?