Epson Stylus Pro 4900 prints dots in unkown region, why?

[Maximilian]

hi everybody
few days ago i printed a image on the stylus pro 4900.

say i have a A4 image printed on a A3 page. in the free space between the end of the image and the end of the page the printer prints a 1 dot blue and red grid. (check image for imagination). the red line is the non printable edge (plain paper white)
i tried it on 2 seperat 4900s with the same result.

what do u guys and girls know about this kind of problem

thanks for reply

[Mark D Segal]

I downloaded your image and magnified the area of concern very considerably to try to see what's happening. It isn't really a grid. It looks like a more random distribution of "pixels" (some square, some rectangular) in cyan, light cyan, vivid magenta and light magenta. Having seen what they look like, I have no idea what is the cause, especially as you got this result on two separate printers. I have never noticed anything like it from my 4900. Is the A4 image really an A4 image, or is it an A3 dimensioned image space that has an A4 image size contained within it? If the latter, there could be artifacts in the image space that show where there is no photo to hide it. I raise this because once one knows it happens on two printers, it strongly suggests that something is happening in the image you are feeding them.

[Maximilian]

"It isn't really a grid. It looks like a more random distribution of "pixels" (some square, some rectangular) in cyan, light cyan, vivid magenta and light magenta."

this image i uploaded is just a sketch.
under the magnifier it is definitely a grid and i am sure that i printed a A4 on an A3

thx for your anwser.

[Wayne Fox]

Any chance you were using a version 4 ICC profile on a Mac?  Without seeing it I'm not sure, but anytime there is ink in areas that are supposed to be white that's one possible cause.  Need to use version 2 ICC profiles to avoid the problem.

[Mark D Segal]

Wayne, yes that's a real possibility - and in that case, the V4 profile would have to have been selected for both printers.

But once again - an OP providing next to no information that can be useful for diagnosis and on top of that both an invented depiction of the problem and information in the printer pane of the Photoshop Print dialog rubbed-out in the image provided. One wants to be helpful, but I can't help repeating that folks coming for suggestions should provide as much information as they can about the imaging and printing conditions. More information is always better than less even if it doesn't directly identify the source of the problem.

[Maximilian]

yes i was on a mac with PS5
i downloaded the icc profil from the website of the paper manufacturer.
"but anytime there is ink in areas that are supposed to be white that's one possible cause."
most of the image was white and there where no dots in it. only in the "free" spaces.


@mark
what do u mean by both printers..?

[Mark D Segal]

@mark
what do u mean by both printers..?

You said you tried it on two 4900s.

To follow-up on Wayne's suggestion, check to see whether the profile is V2 or V4 - that may well be the problem.

[Wayne Fox]

yes i was on a mac with PS5
i downloaded the icc profil from the website of the paper manufacturer.
"but anytime there is ink in areas that are supposed to be white that's one possible cause."
most of the image was white and there where no dots in it. only in the "free" spaces.

'
yes, that's the symptom .. ink where they should be no ink in the borders of the paper.  The image itself is normally fine even the whites.

I'm pretty sure the problem is a version 4 profile.  What paper manufacturer?

[Maximilian]

Harman.

thank u guys, ill check it out and let u know.

[Nora_nor]

I had some ink stains on the edge of some a4 sheets recently with my 4900, and last week i happened to print some images and first I used some test paper which was a little bit wrinkled on the edge, and lo and behold the edge of the paper apparently scraped off some ink smears from the bottom of the printhead...
I guess the shape of the A4 paper might cause the end to flip up towards the print head at the end of the sheet and pick up some ink from the bottom of the print head if it is dirty.

Anyway, I did not get any ink spots where there should be none on the A3+ sheets I printed afterwards.

I have no idea if that is your problem.

[Mark D Segal]

Completely different issue. The space between the print head and the paper is miniscule so the slightest unevenness of the paper can cause random ink smears of a completely different nature than what the OP showed. It happened once to me using a sheet of paper that had a slightly bumped corner due to poor handling in shipment. Too late to return the box, I shall need to shave-off about 1/4 inch from each sheet and create a custom size to avoid having prints ruined in this way.

[John Caldwell]

Yes, I'll confirm that a modest dogear on the edge or corner of A4 sheets yields random ink spots at the edge with our 4900. It seems most apparent with think fineart media, as makes sense given the explanations posted here.

This is the first I'm being educated regarding V2 vs V4 profiles. Can the Apple Color Sync Utility interrogate an ICC profile and detect the profile version?

John Caldwell

[Mark D Segal]

Can the Apple Color Sync Utility interrogate an ICC profile and detect the profile version?

John Caldwell

Yes it does. Go to the Profiles icon in Colorsync utility and the profile version is given for the profile you select from the list on the left side.

[John Caldwell]

Excellent, Mark. Using Color Sync Utility, I now note that my canned Canson Infinity profiles, for the Epson 4900 & 9900 are version 4. Why, do you suppose, a company like Canson would submit V4 profiles when users can't widely use this version to best advantage? What not stick with version 2?

Many thanks,

John Caldwell

[Mark D Segal]

Strangely enough, paper manufacturers are not always the best source of profiles - custom profiles are preferable - my experience. Some operating system versions work well with V4 others do not. There are supposed to be technical advantages to V4 - probably why a company like Canson would use it. Search this website. A lot has been written about V2 vs. V4 - especially Andrew Rodney (Digitaldog).