Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/06/14
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]R2400. I've printed my own BW albums with it. Chris ----- Original Message ----- From: "Peter Klein" <pklein@2alpha.net> To: <lug@leica-users.org> Cc: "Peter Klein" <pklein@2alpha.net> Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2007 12:22 PM Subject: [Leica] Printer Purgatory > I've just wasted another evening and about $15 worth of ink dealing with a > print head Clog From Hell. My Epson 1280 printer with MIS Ultratone 2 > grayscale inks produces beautiful B&W prints--when it works. But I've just > about had it with the periodic clogs, banding and mysterious goings-on. I > just had to flush out my print heads with a special cleaning cartridge, > put cleaning fluid on the pad that the heads rest on, and hope that that > clears it. > > Part of the problem is using the pigmented MIS inks on a printer designed > for dye ink. There are other issues. My workflow with the Paul Roarke > curves worked beautifully for several years, then stopped working when I > changed to a new cartridge, and hasn't worked since. Fortunately, the > "easy way" method still works, so I've been using that. But why this > happened has never been explained. > > I have two printers. I used the 1280 for color for a while, then > dedicated it to B&W. I got an Epson R200 for a song, and dedicated that > to color. Neither printer ever gave me WYSIWYG color. The Epson-provided > profiles (I've downloaded several) don't work with Epson's own papers. > Always much too dark. I've had to resort to manually creating curves that > work with some slider settings I downloaded from the Norman Koren site. > > All in all, it's feels like time to think about another printer. Here are > my requirements: > > 1. I do a lot of B&W, so my printer must print B&W well. A later Epson > printer (designed for pigmented ink) with either its own grayscale inks or > MIS would be OK. But I'm not wedded to Epson if another company has a > better solution. > > 2. I just want the printer to work. If I send it a profiled grayscale > file, and tell it to print grayscale, it should produce a print that looks > like what I see on my profiled monitor. Ditto color. I understand that > perfection requires customization. But I don't want to have to spend > weeks tweaking curves and profiles just for decent basic performance. > > 3. A printer wider than letter-size is nice, but it's not an absolute > requirement. I rarely print bigger than 8.5 x 11. If the best printer > for me has a letter-sized carriage, I can always outsource the few big > prints I do per year. On the other hand, if a bigger printer means bigger > cartridges that don't need changing as often, that might be better. Cost > of consumables matters, too. > > 4. The high-end, $1000-plus printers are really not an option. I don't > print enough to justify them, just as I didn't print enough to justify > cartridge refilling or a continuous flow system. So we're talking a $100 > - $800-ish printer. > > I have heard that many people get good results with MIS inks and the Epson > R200 or R300. If that's a good way to go, I could always revert back to > color with the 1280 and convert the R200 to B&W. But if I'm just going to > get more clogs, forget it, I might as well try something else. > > Advice welcome! > > --Peter > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information