Epson R2400 Banding under Mac OS 10.5.2?

[45photo]

I've been having this banding problem on my R2400, had the printer clean and aligned by a pro no problems ....

Come home make a print I still get a vertical band about a .5 inch wide or so on the side of the image. I use Imageprint 7.0 see it still then I printed though Photoshop CS3 and still see it....

Anyone one else have this issue? Is it a Leopard issue maybe? I'm going to see about hooking the printer to a 10.4 machine and seeing if its still there....

Any thoughts?

Marko

[45photo]

I just did a print with the R2400 though CS3 using the latest Epson Driver on Mac OS 10.4.9 and I am still getting the banding. Anyone have a clue? The guy where I had it cleaned says he has been getting R2400s in lately having the same problem with people running them on Macs with 10.5. He has no problems he is printing on Windows? What gives, I've never had this problem before....

Thanks
Marko

[Donald Miller]

Marko, I am running two 2400s and have not had the problem although I am running on Windows platform. I am running on QTR on my black and white printer and it might be worth downloading the trial version of the rip and see if the problem follows the change of driver platforms.

[Kuzano]

He switched from Windows to a new Mac and a new printer. He wanted to hook the R2200 up to the Mac to show me how it worked. In testing we got banding on output. I suspected the OS, since he indicated he had no problems on the Windows platform. I took it home, and an hour later I had it hooked to my Windows XP computer, loaded drivers and the printer has been working flawlessly since then... 5-6 months. I think the printer was 2 or 3 years old when I purchased it.

[45photo]

I have ImagePrint RIP software was well, and I still get the banding. Using the RIP is where I first noticed it. Then I went the used the Epson Driver(the latest version) and was still getting it. I called another repair place and he said it has nothing to do with the OS. So I'm not sure what to think as this point. I talked to Epson this morning and will call back to try some troubleshooting over the phone. I will keep you posted.

[Ken Lee]

When your service printer performed the cleaning and aligning, did the printer work fine on his/her computer ? Which Computer/OS was it ?

I have an R2400 and don't see banding with the latest OS X + latest patches, on my 3-year old laptop.

Perhaps you could reduce the number of variables, by trying your computer a different printer of the same make and model. Similarly, you could hook up your printer to a different machine of the same make and model.

Might this have anything to do with the paper/ink combination you are using ? Are you using Epson paper and Inks ?

Have you tried printing any other images ?

[45photo]

When your service printer performed the cleaning and aligning, did the printer work fine on his/her computer ? Which Computer/OS was it ?

I have an R2400 and don't see banding with the latest OS X + latest patches, on my 3-year old laptop.

Perhaps you could reduce the number of variables, by trying your computer a different printer of the same make and model. Similarly, you could hook up your printer to a different machine of the same make and model.

Might this have anything to do with the paper/ink combination you are using ? Are you using Epson paper and Inks ?

Have you tried printing any other images ?

I've tried the printer on 2 different machines one with OS 10.5 and 10.4. I'm using the Epson Inks with Epson Premium Glossy. Still getting banding in one area of the print. I printed different photos you call see it in all of them. Where you can clearly see it I just printed a 70% grey piece of paper and you can clearly see it. So its a bit puzzling. I will to talking to Epson over the phone when I get home.

[Marko]

I've tried the printer on 2 different machines one with OS 10.5 and 10.4. I'm using the Epson Inks with Epson Premium Glossy. Still getting banding in one area of the print. I printed different photos you call see it in all of them. Where you can clearly see it I just printed a 70% grey piece of paper and you can clearly see it. So its a bit puzzling. I will to talking to Epson over the phone when I get home.

This sounds almost as if the printer (or the driver) is reducing the image to fit. A few other basic questions:

1. What's your bit depth?

2. What's your output resolution?

3. Are you (your imaging app. actually) sending it directly to the printer or is it going to the printer spooler? I'm thinking about possible buffering failure of some sort here...

At any rate, I have no answers to these questions, just something to think about and to experiment with.

Marko

[Joanna Carter]

I have used the R2400 on both Windows and OS X and had problems with banding.

I managed to acquire the Epson testing software and found that a couple of the jets were not firing straight, they were either pointing slightly towards or away from each other.

Because I had been using a CIS, we (Fotospeed and myself) both assumed that it was the ink system... but when we finally sent it to an Epson repair specialist, he confirmed that the head was faulty !!!

This was on a printer that was less than 6 months old when the problem first appeared and just over the warranty period of 1 year when we finally discovered the problem.

Fortunately, we got a replacement for a very reasonable cost and have not had any more problems so far.

Before you spend fruitless hours, days, months, speculating about irrelevancies like the OS, might I suggest that you get hold of the Epson test software and check out the nozzle alignments. Even the basic nozzle check pattern on the Epson driver should give you some indication; the lines should be perfectly evenly spaced with no overlap or gaps.

[Nathan Potter]

A half inch wide band seems too wide to be caused by out of alignment nozzles. I'm inclined to think like Marko. A buffer or memory capacity problem. The print head simply can't keep up with the data.

Nate Potter

Er, I mean vice versa, the data stream can't keep up with the print head.

[45photo]

This sounds almost as if the printer (or the driver) is reducing the image to fit. A few other basic questions:

1. What's your bit depth?

2. What's your output resolution?

3. Are you (your imaging app. actually) sending it directly to the printer or is it going to the printer spooler? I'm thinking about possible buffering failure of some sort here...

At any rate, I have no answers to these questions, just something to think about and to experiment with.

Marko

8 bit 300 dpi 4X6 inch file

Though PS3 into the Epson Driver

[Marko]

8 bit 300 dpi 4X6 inch file

Though PS3 into the Epson Driver

OK, this looks more and more like the sizing issue. So, a couple of further questions:

1. Do you reduce your image to 4x6" in PS or do you let the printer driver handle it?

2. There is an option somewhere in the Epson printer driver, depending on the version, that says "Fit the media" or something along those lines. Is it on or off for you? I've seen it being on by default for several models and it keeps coming back for some reason so you really need to uncheck it every time.

[jb7]

Epson printers work on 360dpi-
it might be worth changing that parameter-

Though the drivers should be able to handle whatever numbers you throw at it-

joseph

[45photo]

OK, this looks more and more like the sizing issue. So, a couple of further questions:

1. Do you reduce your image to 4x6" in PS or do you let the printer driver handle it?

2. There is an option somewhere in the Epson printer driver, depending on the version, that says "Fit the media" or something along those lines. Is it on or off for you? I've seen it being on by default for several models and it keeps coming back for some reason so you really need to uncheck it every time.

No, the image is 4X6 to start with I don't let the driver change the sizes or anything like that, driver is just handling the printing. I have imageprint RIP as well, and get the banding there too....So I'm still thinking its a problem with the printheads or something to that degree

[jpkirk]

I only have experience with CS3 on XP but I can tell you that I had serious issues with a 2400 and an r800. Diagonal varicolor bands. Started when I went to a new system. Tried various things. What worked was swapping the video card. The only thing I can think is that there are color transformations that take place across profiles that likely pull info from the card. If the card is faulty, could cause a problem. Same problems across two different systems though seems like driver issues.

[Ken Lee]

I just checked printing on my Epson 2400 and CS3, and I got banding too. I also got "mush" when printing certain images with close adjacent tones.

Here is what solved the problem for me: removing the Photoshop Preferences File. Apparently, it gets broken. Once you remove it, another one will be created the next time you start up the program. WHen printing, you will need to re-specify your settings. Now I am back in business, after several hours of... learning the benefits of patience.

See http://www.creativepro.com/article/photoshop-tips-trashing-the-preferences-file

The article cited above is a bit old. For CS3 on my machine, the file in question is called Adobe Photoshop CS3 Prefs.psp, and is located in Library > Preferences > Adobe Photoshop CS3 Settings

[45photo]

I just checked printing on my Epson 2400 and CS3, and I got banding too. I also got "mush" when printing certain images with close adjacent tones.

Here is what solved the problem for me: removing the Photoshop Preferences File. Apparently, it gets broken. Once you remove it, another one will be created the next time you start up the program. WHen printing, you will need to re-specify your settings. Now I am back in business, after several hours of... learning the benefits of patience.

See http://www.creativepro.com/article/photoshop-tips-trashing-the-preferences-file

The article cited above is a bit old. For CS3 on my machine, the file in question is called Adobe Photoshop CS3 Prefs.psp, and is located in Library > Preferences > Adobe Photoshop CS3 Settings

That's interesting, how come I was getting banding in Imageprint 7.0 and though CS3?

[Ken Lee]

If I were at Adobe or Epson or Apple, perhaps I would know the answer.

Using Imageprint adds, I presume an additional layer of complexity.

The intricacies of device drivers, printers, and operating systems are formidable.

In general, that's one reason why I like solutions like those from Apple. Software and hardware are produced by the same people, so issues like this are much less likely to arise. If Apple made a printer, I'd probably buy it. It would probably "just work".

[45photo]

And the verdict is.....bad print head needs to be replaced. Cost $300. Banding we not the right term, what I was seeing was electrical charges causing thin vertical lines all bunched together making about a 1 inch "band" down the paper. This really sucks I don't print a great deal, I've had the printer for about 3 years loved it have sunk money into imageprint which has been just great for B&W prints. I would love to go to a 3800 maybe depending on Imageprint I really don't want to spend anymore money on IP. So well see what happens. Looks like I'm going to replace the head which is on backorder.
What would you do?

[Ken Lee]

Thanks for sharing all this info, which will probably help someone else down the road.

This digital imaging stuff being rather new technology, it's natural for customers to be part of the "Quality Assurance" effort, since the products are developed and rolled out in ever-shorter cycles. When things go wrong, we also help finance the whole enterprise.

[Joanna Carter]

And the verdict is.....bad print head needs to be replaced. Cost $300. Banding we not the right term, what I was seeing was electrical charges causing thin vertical lines all bunched together making about a 1 inch "band" down the paper.
Unfortunately, as I hinted, it would seem that faulty print heads are quite a common problem.

It is my opinion that banding, or any other fault where ink jets appear to be misfiring, is very unlikely to be a software problem. There is ample scope for hardware problems with the technology that is used to construct print heads that makes it much more likely to be the source of problems than any software; don't forget, drivers don't tend to "self-mutate" so, if a problem appears when printing has previously been perfect, it is extremely unlikely to be software.


What would you do?
Well, after my problems with the R2400, I am having serious doubts as to which printer I would upscale to when I make the move to 24". At the moment I would not consider Epson simply because I would not be able to change from matt to gloss black without either, dumping horrendous quantities of ink or buying two printers!!!

[Herb]

I am using Imageprint V7 with the Epson R2400 and Mac OS 10.5.2 and I also had problems with banding. This was clearly seen in the darker areas but on closer look visible over the entire picture.
The problem occurred with black and white printing and in colorize mode. I just made a few colorprints with this set-up and these looked fine.

I am using third party papers from Hahnemuhle and Ilford. It is important to select in the print dialog the paper used. As these are only the default Epson papers, one must select the paper that is closest in thickness when using third party papers. However only when selecting Velvet Fine Art paper the banding disappeared in my case. All other paper selections resulted in banding.

Hope this is of any help to anyone here.

[45photo]

Finally got my printer back from repair. They put in a new print head. Did some prints last night, everything looks really good. Problem solved, it only took a month...and $300. Hopefully this will last awhile.....

[Ken Lee]

Congratulations - Your perseverance is admirable !

[Scott Kathe]

This lack of quality control is scary. I really want to step up to a printer that will do 11x14 prints but $700 for a printer and another $300 to make it work properly seems like a LOT of money.

I really like black and white prints and I'm using an Epson R220 with MIS inks and printing black only for now. If I could find a decent place to send my files to print I would give up some control but could be less expensive. I think it is easier to do that with color as opposed to black and white. Ideally I would like to be doing everything myself. Maybe it's time to think about an enlarger again.

Scott

[snp32]

This post looks closed but I was having the same banding issues with my R2400 using Photoshop CS3 and OS 10.5.4 that were not there with 10.4.
After trying a ton of fixes I found online over the past few months it turned out that the problem was simply that I was running it through airport extreme. I connected it directly and all issues were resolved. Ugh.