UniiD verses Bi-D Printing with Quadtones

[drewharty]

Hello,

I recently switched from Studio Print to Quadtone printing with Print Toos, K7 inks, photo rag and a 9800.

One problem I have encountered is the speed of printing. Studio Print seemed to print much faster.

I started printing 2880, Uni-D with Quadtone because of Cone recommendations; what are my best options for speeding up printing: switch to 1440 Uni-D or to 2880 Bi-D printing?

I printed at 1440 Uni-D with Studio Print and haven't noticed much difference in sharpness between 1440 dpi and 2880 dpi using Quadtone printing on photo rag, but are there other benefits to printing at either resolution: less banding or dropouts, easier long term maintenance, less possible posterization of values, etc.?

I am having custom profiles done because my printer output is not linearized well and need to make a choice before printing the profile target.

Thanks, Drew Harty

[Dana-IJM]

Hi Drew~

QuadTone RIP uses it's own dither pattern, which differs from the regular Epson driver and Studio Print RIP.
2880dpi will give you the best print quality with QTR. Uni-directional speed is recommended for the best quality, especially if your printer isn't in great condition. If your printer IS in great condition, and properly aligned to the paper you're using, then you can print with bi-directional speed, which will be faster. There is a substantial difference between the print quality at 2880dpi vs. 1440dpi. To print a target to have custom curves made, please print at 2880dpi and bi-directional if your printer is in great condition.

I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have further questions or there's anything else I can help you with.
Warmly~ Dana

[drewharty]

Hello Dana,

Yesterday I printed several images to test the differences between 2880 UNI-D and 2880 BI-D and between 2880 UNI-D and 1440 Super UNI-D.

Today I went to print a similar test with another image and encounter a major problem. I have attached three images to show you. TEST 1 was printed yesterday and is what I would consider close to a normal print. TEST 2 was printed today after doing one nozzle check and is obviously very dark and solarized. TEST 3 was printed moments later after closing Print Tools, opening it again, and resetting the printer and profile. It is still way to dark and solarized but much lighter that TEST 3.

All three prints are done from the same original 16bit tif file using the Quad9800-K7 printer setting and supplied K7 photo rag profile. I use Mac OSX 10.9.2 with the most recent versions of Print Tools and the Quadtone RIP. I had seen a similar problem weeks ago printing a 20 stop linearization target. One had printed very dark but after experimenting with the the printer and profile settings then setting them back to the Quad9800-K7 and K7 photo rag profile, the target printed normally again. I assumed then I had somehow mixed up the printer and profile settings.

The only hint that something was odd today before printing was in the nozzle check pattern. The flushing fluid portion of the nozzle check pattern had 3-4 lines of grey on top that faded to magenta.

What is going on? How is it possible that a print can all of a sudden go from normal to dark and solarized then lighter? Can ink from one position back flow into an adjacent cart, or could the printer possibly over ink that much? Are the printer and profile settings in Print Tools and Quadtone somehow possibly defaulting to something else or not loading properly?

Months ago I put a new main pump in the printer, a new capping station, and new dampers.

Desperate for a solution, Drew

[drewharty]

Just a quick follow up to my above post.

As I continue to print the same image at the same printer and profile setting, after printing two more images (7x10) they look normal again, like the TEST 1 print above.

Drew

[Dana-IJM]

hm..... I'm glad to hear your prints are looking normal again, I'm curious what was going on, but happy whenever it was went away!