Problem printing gloss overlay on Epson 4900

InkjetMall Customer Support Piezography Inks & Printing
1

I a am having a problem with printing a GO coat on my glossy prints. When I print with the GO profile, it starts printing, then after about 2.5 inches it stops and gives a paper eject error on the printer. It’s as if if thinks the print is done. It is extremely consistent and stops at the same point every time…

Here is a rundown of what I am doing.

  1. I am printing on an Epson 4900 with 17x22 inch Jon Cone Type 5 paper.
  2. I am using QTR ver. 2.7 on mountain lion and am printing from Lightroom 4.3. I have set both page setup and print settings to the correct page size, orientation, and print driver.
  3. I have lightroom set to 16 bit output and a print resolution of 360ppi.
  4. I use the 16 bit GO profile, 1440 dpi, manual sheet feed, and bi-directional in QTR.
  5. I have a 1x1 in 300ppi solid white image file I use to print the GO.
  6. I have the printer set to Epson photo luster paper.

The settings above print about 2.5" of GO on the 17" wide sheet, then gives the paper eject error on the printer. It doesn’t show an error on the computer.

The following is what I have tried differently, but it didn’t make a difference.

  1. I tried printing out of the QTR print tool instead of lightroom.
  2. I tried 8 bit printing.
  3. I tried the cassette sheet feeder.
  4. I tried different paper, Canson Baryta Photographique.

Do you have any suggestions on what to try next? I can print photos fine, it just seems to be a problem with GO.

Thanks,

Jeff

2

We have had someone reporting a similar problem on a different printer. They were printing the image from roll and then sheeting the paper and having trouble with printing GO on the sheet. The symptoms sound similar. Can you please try (instead of printing the 1x1 image), simply adding a white layer to the image file you printed and using the same exact page setup without changing anything - print the white layer with GO. Let me know if it prints without stopping. If it does complete the GO printing - then the problem was in the page setup for your 1x1 white file. If it does not - we may have additional questions.

So do not change anything between the ink printing and the go print - except adding a white layer to the image file. Leave the page setup exactly the same!

3

Thanks for the response. I will try that. From what I understand, I should put the file into photoshop, and add a white layer. I have normally been printing out of lightoom, but I don’t believe you can isolate a layer to print in lightroom. Should I print it out of photoshop instead?

Also, I have to add that I have tried the 1x1 white square, a 5x7 scaled white image, and a 17x22 white image. All with the same results. I did have one instance yesterday in which I printed a 1x1 image on a scrap print and it worked perfectly, but I couldn’t repeat it.

4

Well I am thinking that it has something to do with the page setup. Usually when it prints half way it is because of a mismatch to what you intend to do and what the printer received as instructions. For example if you print a 40 x 40 inch image on a roll paper that is 42 inches wide, but set the page setup as letter size, only a letter sized amount of the image prints and then 40" or so is spit out of the printer as blank. I know that is not what you intended - but there may be some mis-match.

If you print out of photoshop - with ink using a K7 curve. And then use the white layer on that file to print the GO with the GO curve - nothing changes in your page setup. It is the same page setup sent twice.>> If that works - you know the problem is page setup. If that still does not work - then let me know!

5

Ok, I printed directly out of photoshop. I first printed the photo, a 16" square photo on 17x22 in paper, with K7 glossy ink curves. I then blow dried the print and placed it in the manual feeder again. I then added a white layer to the photo, and printed with exactly the same settings in photoshop, except this time it was just the white layer and I used the GO curve.

It did the exact same thing as before. It prints GO for about 2.5 inches, then stops and I get a paper eject error on the printer. I have no problem printing with the K7 inks, it only gives me problems with the gloss overcoat.

Any other ideas?

Thanks,

Jeff

6

Hi Jeff~ I have read the thread and have a few questions.

  1. Have you tried printing an image on a sheet of letter size paper, or have all these tests been on 17x22 sheets? If so, please do a test print on a different size paper, such as 8.5x11/Letter.
  2. I am aware that newer printer models have sensors that detect printed area on the sheet and refuse to print if it detects ink on the paper- to get around this with our 7880s’, I always leave 2" paper margin at the leading edge so the printer sees the white edge, then prints GO over the entire sheet. If I load a print that only has 1" top margin, the printer will detect the printed area, display a “paper load” error and not print.
  3. If you are able to print over the entire sheet when printing GO on a blank sheet of paper, but the printer ejects the sheet after only printing 2.5" over an ink image, then I am curious about the paper margins and printer’s ink detection sensor, and will do some tests today with our 7900.

Please let me know the results of these tests and if you have further questions. I will let you know the results from my 7900 tests today.
Thanks and best regards~ Dana :slight_smile:

7

Thanks for the reply Dana. Here are some answers.

  1. I do all my printing on 17x22 paper, so yes the testing has been done on 17x22 paper. I don’t have any art paper in 8.5x11, but I ran a piece of plain 8.5x11 paper through with just a GO cycle and it worked great, but I only did one. I can try and repeat this for you if you want.

  2. I have been doing this with one photo in particular (I used to like it, but through all this trouble I am starting to loath it ;-)). The photo is a 16" square photo on 17x22" paper. There is probably 3" of white space before the photo starts. In fact, it usually prints GO up until you can start to see the photo about .125" behind the small rollers behind the print head. I don’t know if this is coincidence or a clue. One thing I have noticed, is it seems to think that it is completing the print. Since I am printing bi-directional, it prints and feeds at the same time, but right at the end it stops feeding and finishes the GO off, just like it would at the end of the print. The printed GO finishes as a hard line, not a soft transition.

If you have any other questions, please let me know.

Thanks,

Jeff

8

Hi Dana. I printed the photo on 8.5x11 and it did the exact same thing. It printed the photo fine, but the GO print only printed 2.5 inches again.

9

Ok, so I may have come up with something. I was originally printing a square photo, which gave approximately 3" of margin on each side of the 17x22" sheet. I then tried a photo with a different aspect ratio which had the photo start approximately .50" from the edge, and it worked perfectly. I then tried another photo with the same aspect ratio and it worked perfectly also. I then put the trouble photo back in the printer with the square photo and it gave me the same problems.

This sounds unlikely, but is there some kind of sensor in the print that is bothered by the all the white space for some reason? That doesn’t make much sense to me, because how is this any different than printing a regular print? Although I seem to have created something repeatable.

My next step would be to trim the photo to give the .50" of white space on the edge and try again. I could also try printing a new one with the square image not centered, but all the way to the top.

Does any of this make sense?

10

Thanks for the feedback Jeff. I also did a number of tests with our 7900 yesterday by printing various size images, then re-feeding the sheet and printing the 1x1" white image with the GO curve- some correctly printed over the entire sheet and some didn’t. It certainly seems to be related to the underlying image size and paper margins, but I haven’t yet pin-pointed the margins that the printer needs to correctly print GO over the entire sheet. I am aware of sensors in the printer that detect printed area (which started with the x880 printer models), and this is why we say to leave 2" top and bottom margins when printing Piezography gloss, to be able to print the GO layer without the printer freaking about about the printed area when loading the sheet, but this seems different and only related to the latest models (7890/9890, 7900/9900 and 4900). It could also be that the 4900 is slightly different from the 7900 I’m testing with, because I was successfully able to print a 16x16" image centered on a 17x22" sheet, then print the entire sheet with GO without any problems. This issue appears to be caused by the printer’s sensors and not QTR or your printing workflow (you are doing everything correctly). I am continuing my tests today in hopes to determine the best margins to use, and appreciate your testing/feedback with the 4900, as our 4900 seems to have a bad pump (this is the second bad 4900 we’ve had- and are receiving an alarming amount of problem reports from other 4900 users, most of which have only used Epson inks/carts- we feel there are some major bugs to that need to be worked out with this model before we will recommend anyone buy one- and suggest anyone who already has one get the extended warranty because there’s such a high failure rate).

Please keep me posted on your testing, and I will do the same- we can figure this out!! :slight_smile:

11

Hi Dana, I’m glad you are seeing some of the same issues, it was driving me crazy. It almost seems like it wants a smaller margin than a larger margin.

I am going to try trimming the excess margin on the square photo tonight and retry it. I have been doubting my entry into piezography for the last couple days. After I got two successful prints off yesterday, I now remember how beautiful the prints can be.

Please keep me posted on your finds, and I will update you as well. I don’t mind working with restrictions as long as I understand the rules.

12

I trimmed the trouble square photo to give a .56" margin on each side. The first time I tried it stopped after 2.5" inches again, but when I flipped it around to the other side, it printed fine.