UPDATEI’m in possession of and have installed driver version 6.73 for my SC P7570. It has fixed the Print Preview display error, and seems to have also corrected the problem where use of the Epson Media Installer software would wipe clean any saved settings or user defined paper sizes in the driver.
This is great progress. 6.73 should show up soon for general download on Epson’s Support page and in the Epson Software Updater utility.
There’s another “issue” that has surfaced in my testing that is relevant in a very specific situation only. And so far it looks as though it is a design limitation of the new print head as opposed to a bug somewhere in the software / firmware. Here goes.
Use case:
- Printing cut sheet paper
- Printing using Enhanced Black Overcoat feature (EBO)
In these conditions, the “too much leading edge offset” happens that will displace your image toward the trailing edge, and cut off a portion of the trailing edge of the image when printed. There is no mention of this in the User Guide except on page 102 where it talks about a check box labeled “Minimize Top Margin.” (MTM). What is very disconcerting about this is that the print layout feature of Epson’s Print Layout software, Lightroom’s Print Module and Photoshop’s Print layout visual DO NOT GIVE ANY VISUAL INDICATION that this will happen. So, if you lay an image out in these applications, and select EBO option, you won’t see the problem until the printer starts printing with a way too large leading edge margin, that then tells you that something is not going right with this print! You can spell that: frustration, confusion, wasted paper, wasted ink. Of course once you’ve finally figured this out, you can just NOT DO THAT with cut sheets. OK, now is when it gets really interesting. Turns out that if you do check EBO in this “cut sheet feed” use case, AND ALSO check the MTM box, the printer will, in fact move the printing starting point “back closer to the leading edge of the paper.” When you check the MTM box, you get an alert message that says, “you may get smearing and/or lower image quality” using MTM. Not encouraging. But, when I used MTM in conjunction with EBO, I did not get lower image quality or smearing with cut sheets. My surmise is that this warning is more for roll paper where the initial load-curl could cause this problem. So, is this a compete fix for the “displaced image that doesn’t show up on the print layout and Print Preview in your application?” I thought so. But I was wrong. While it does shift the starting place of the print head “back toward the leading edge of the paper,” there is no indication of “how much.” And, if your image size as laid out in your application is still wider/taller than whatever the unknown limit is for “how much toward the leading edge” MTM moves the starting point, your image will still be cut off on the trailing edge to some unknown degree. “Isn’t that nice?” NOT. When I first used EBO in combination with MTM, I though “Ah, that’s the cure.” (Mind you, none of this is documented in the User Guide except for the vague description of MTM in the EBO description on page 102.). But it is NOT the cure. On closer inspection, I realized that a very small amount of the trailing edge of the image was still cut off. So, what to do? Well, unless Epson chooses to do something such as state what the “leading edge margin limitation is” in these conditions, AND has this displayed in the print layout views in the various applications (which I very much doubt they will do since this is a ‘single use case issue’) the only thing left to do, and which I’m in the process of doing is creating an image in photo shop that is an empty box with a stroke border in 3:2 aspect ratio (and others 4;3, etc.) and test printing them on cheap paper to find out what my minimum left and right margins “must be” on any given size cut sheet paper to avoid the problem. That will lay this issue to rest for me and provide reliable parameters when printing on cut sheets using EBO and MTM. Clear as mud, right? LOL I’d recommend to Epson three things – in case Epson is following this. First, on Page 102 in the User Guide (and other places where EBO is mentioned) I would change the terminology for “Minimize Top Margin” to “Minimize LEADING EDGE Margin.” “Top” is meaningless and in fact confusing. “Top” in relationship to what? Second, Epson should do their own calculations for the various standard cut sheet sizes and “publish” in the User Guide in this area what the minimum “leading edge margin” must be to avoid the potential for image displacement and trialing edge image cutoff. A “best case” Epson action would be to change how the layout view operates when the EBO and MTM boxes are selected to visibly show these limitations. This would be much like Lightroom’s “show edge bleed” function, and how margins cannot be set smaller than the minimum required by the printer. I suspect that the latter suggestion would be a major PITA to implement, but the former two should be a piece of cake and avoid significant confusion for anyone trying to figure this whole issue out on their own with the current documentation.
OK, if you’re read this far and your eyes have not rolled back into your head, and if you’re interested, I could post my “minimum leading / trailing margin requirements to avoid this situation” when I’m finished testing this unique use case issue. Let me know. I may be preaching to a choir of one, that would be, “Me.”
Oh, and for the record, this issue has been replicated by Epson in their lab based on my discovery of the situation. And to their credit, they are responsible for letting me know two very important things. First, this is not seen as a “bug” by Epson, but rather a “limitation” of the new head design when using EBO with cut sheets. (Frankly I’m not sure what potential impacts there may be for roll paper use, I’ve not explored that yet.) Second, I’m sensing that we’ll not see a change in either documentation in the User Guide, nor changes to print layout functionality to make this limitation “visible” i.e., that something has shifted the image toward the tailing edge of the paper. I hope I’m wrong. Don’t think I am.
Now, having described this issue, I don’t want anyone to think that I’m “dissing” this printer, Epson, or Epson’s Tech Support personnel. To the contrary, I’m even more impressed with the printer overall. It delivers wonderful output with great new features combined with very nice user ergonomics in terms of loading paper, operating the printer etc. And, the Epson Tech Support team has been flat out amazing in working with me and deserving of much praise! GREAT listeners, serious about getting issues resolved (as in the new driver release that did fix real bugs), and being appreciative of my help in this lock-down situation where I’ve provided feedback, screen shots, descriptions of behavior, and even screen capture videos and photos of resulting prints. I’m actually very much enjoying working with them on these things. And I’m loving the printer more and more as the real problems are ID’d and fixed, and as I get my head wrapped around new things like the Epson Media Installer (EMI) functionality and this “cut sheet EBO MTM issue.”
Rand
EPILOGUE
It is apparent to me, also, that perhaps a majority of folk who buy these printers will be printing principally on roll paper, perhaps especially 9570 owners. And even when they do print on cut sheets, if they don’t need/want to use the EBO function, they may never even encounter this very limited use case issue. I get that. BUT, I’m guessing there may be a lot of people, especially those choosing the 7570 who have a clientele (or personal needs) that will see use of the printer “as much for cut sheets” (and perhaps more) as use of roll paper. And certainly the EBO feature is really worthwhile for some image types! I’m very impressed with it. While my post here may appear like “nit picking fly specks out of the pepper,” or whatever, I thought it was worth presenting in some detail.
