Luminous Landscape Forum
Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Printing: Printers, Papers and Inks => Topic started by: netherscurial on December 03, 2008, 03:48:33 pm
-
To owners of the HP z3200/3100 series, how was it to load paper in the printer? Especially single sheet paper. I heard this printer was problematic with loading paper.
THanks!
-
No problems, just a PITA because it's rear feed. Z3100ps 44", sheets or rolls
-
I would describe it like this: More difficult than sheets in the 9600, less difficult than sheets in the 4000 or 4800.
HTH
Bill
No problems, just a PITA because it's rear feed. Z3100ps 44", sheets or rolls
-
ah shouldn't be too bad then, I can orientate the printer in a way in my studio that it is easy to get to the back. thanks!
-
Yeah the rear loading is the major point of contention I have. Also very thin sheets can be a bit problematic. For most photographic media the feed mechanism works great. The only real skill is loading the sheets straight so that you don't have to do the skew correction.
-
Sheets are a PITA to begin with but if you do often you develop your own technique that works well enough to keep you from taking a hammer to the printer. I have easy access to the rear of the printer and that makes a difference.
It wouldn't have been that difficult for HP to make it easier to load without a skew but they chose not to go that way. I suspect there aren't enough of the printers around for an aftermarket add-on to assist with sheet loading.
-
I've found with the upgraded firmware, loading single sheets to be MUCH easier if I set "Sheet Load/Check Skew" to OFF. It will feed the paper through, not screwing with it to see if it's correct or not, then you align with the blue lines and you're done. I don't know if this was there pre-7.0 of the firmware, but it's saved me a TON of time with loading tabloid sheets I was printing.
-
I learned my way with the 3100 how to load successfully most of the time. I don't see any differences with the 3200, although you can turn off skew since a firmware rev or two with the Z printers. I find the Epson 4800 harder to load than the Z but agreed, the Z is still harder than it should be. I don't think much time went into sheet feed load design on these printers.
That is not to say that you can't learn to get it right most of the time with practice.
-
I've found with the upgraded firmware, loading single sheets to be MUCH easier if I set "Sheet Load/Check Skew" to OFF. It will feed the paper through, not screwing with it to see if it's correct or not, then you align with the blue lines and you're done. I don't know if this was there pre-7.0 of the firmware, but it's saved me a TON of time with loading tabloid sheets I was printing.
That's what my experience is (Z3200).
However, I was badly surprised when I could not READ an A3 profile-patch page, which I had PRINTED a day earlier. Impossible, period. I.A.O.T.F.R.T.I.M (If any other thing fails read the instruction manual). Color Profiling page 63, quote "Chart measurement may not be successful if you load the chart as a single feed without skew check." End quote. Skew check on again, problem solved. But this is only and explicitly needed for profiling.
The way I do it, in more then 50% of the time successful, is hanging over the printer, and hand feed an A4, A3 or A3+ sheet in the rear slot without opening the sheet tray. The roll is unloaded of course, but still in place and I use the black end of the spindle as a gauge. Carefully slipping the paper in the slot until it is picked up and hold by the printer, the display tells you that the printer will feed the paper in 3 seconds.
Bas