Epson Artisan 835 - What are causing these microscopic line streaks?

[rajhlinux]

I did another print with my new T2100 - with 600dpi - and promised by Epson to print fine drawings etc .

This is the first print cropped - with a glossy pigment ink on a glossy paper - with the B/W settings in the driver, but no other attempt to optimize the print - paper coatings react differently and show a varying amount of ink spread as I have seen at various times.

View attachment 16530
Various attempts have been made but w/o success so far to recreate these spikes. I still think that there could be some interference of the graphics data as it moves from a PDF file , gets converted from a vector graphics to pixel graphics file with a particular dpi, the printer driver needs to interpolate those pixels to match the printer print resolution - 600 dpi for Canon - and to match the required print size - that's several conversions in a row. I would give another PDF reader a chance to test which allows you to specify the dpi for the output/pixel file generation.

Thanks for the reply.

I will try your recommendation and will use a different PDF reader application, hopefully adobe acrobat allows me to specify the print DPI resolution.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I'm not sure to understand what you expect from a 'professional' printer in this case - I don't think the spikes are an issue with the printhead, it's a combination of the ink type - dye or pigment - or high density dye - and the surface of the paper - the coating - or film, and the forum members here have tried to print your layout in various ways. Epson photo printers typically run with a droplet size of 1.5 pl, but my T2100 just prints with 4 pl min - I don't think you can see that in the printout.
But it's the best that you try all discussed options since we are not getting these spikes - I'm curious what you'll find out .

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I did another test with a WF-2010W, an entry level 4 color Epson printer running with pigment inks and 3.5pl droplets.
The print looks the same as with the T2100 - no spikes and rather clean edges with the pigment black.

 

[The Hat]

Your test prints helps much in convincing of your setup.
Wow, very clean, sharp and opaque. A+
What kind of printer model and ink are you using?

I used two different Canon printers, one runs Image Specialists dye ink and the other used Canon pigment ink.. One printer is a iP9950 and the other is a Maxify..

 

[rajhlinux]

I used two different Canon printers, one runs Image Specialists dye ink and the other used Canon pigment ink.. One printer is a iP9950 and the other is a Maxify..

Thanks for the reply.

I’m in the talks to buy a Canon Pro 200, possibly for $200.

I’m very curious and can’t find the definitive answer as to which printer is more accurate down the micron realm in print resolution, printing accurately of very fine details, the Canon Pro 200 or Epson P600?

Color is not importance to me because I’ll be using only black ink which have highest Dmax of ~5 to block UV light.

From the samples I’ve seen on this thread by various supportive members, the canon has remarkable print resolution but would like to know the comparison between the Pro 200 and P600.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I’ll be using only black ink which have highest Dmax of ~5 to block UV light.

D as a measure for density - originally translucent density from the analogue film days - is a logarithmic ratio to the base of 10 - a D of 5 would be a ratio of 100 000 in decimal terms which you never reach with film. And another issue the spectral behaviour of the ink - a good black in the visible range does not imply that you have the same density in the UV light range.
The starting point of this thread are 'these microscopic line streaks?' - a problem to which we didn't find an explanation for yet - is it a problem with a single printer or with software-firmware or else ? I must admit that I don't have a clue at this point of time.

 

[rajhlinux]

D as a measure for density - originally translucent density from the analogue film days - is a logarithmic ratio to the base of 10 - a D of 5 would be a ratio of 100 000 in decimal terms which you never reach on film. And another issue the specctral behaviour of the ink - a good black in the visible range does not imply that you have the same density in the UV light range.
The starting point of this thread are 'these microscopic line streaks?' - a problem to which we didn't find an explanation yet - is it a problem with a single printer or with software-firmware or else ? I must admit that I don't have a clue at this point of time.

Thank you for the clarification about the behavior of UV light with relation to the D-max value. I will read more about this.

I've been extremely busy with school work and it seems like I'll never have time to troubleshoot thoroughly. I heard many suggestions to never supply the photo paper from the bottom common entrance and to supply it from the back. I guess this will prevent the photo paper from bending. I'll try that option as well.

 

[rajhlinux]

I've done more testing and switched to using Adobe acrobat and makes no difference.

So it seems I get those micro-spikes only if I use the option in the Epson driver to enable "Photo RPM (Max DPI)". If I turn off this feature, the micro-spikes disappear; however, the print resolution becomes low, and the print quality is drastically reduced, almost to the point of being unusable, with trace lines appearing jagged.

I've included the scanned print. To better inspect it, open the image in a new window (right-click and select "Open image in new tab") and zoom in.

I've also included a quick zoomed-in snap-shot:

So, from my conclusion, the micro-spikes occur only when the Epson Artisan 835 is told to print at Max DPI.

I think the printer's nozzles are misaligned or possibly one or more of its micro-piezoelectric ink pumps in the print head is not functioning properly and is dispersing more ink out from the micro-nozzle than it should.

Not sure how Epson print head and resolution functionality work in conjunction, but from an educated guess, it possibly uses all of its black ink nozzle channels to provide ultra-high resolution print when settings are set to use Max DPI and Black ink only mode, thus some of its nozzles are dysfunctional and emit micro-spikes.

If this theory holds true, what I'll do next is to use only one specific ink channel and not use the black ink channel at all, such as using only the Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow channels. I will test each of these ink channels separately and individually and see the results. If I get micro-spikes for each and every separate ink channel, this means it is an obvious driver, software, ink-type issue and not a mechanical/hardware issue.

Not sure how I'll be able to tell the printer to not use the black ink channel and only use the cyan/magenta/yellow channel... I'm sure it's possible.

By the way, if anyone is curious, I'm using a CISS on the Epson Artisan 835 printer with generic ink. I think it does really well. I bought the printer from Facebook marketplace for $25 and it came with the CISS.
However, I'm not sure if it could also be the cause of the micro-spikes during Max DPI prints. I kind of doubt it, because the Max DPI mode provides excellent prints, but with micro-spikes in a patterned form.

 

[rajhlinux]

Good news. My theory holds true.

The black ink micro-piezoelectric pump channels in the print head are dysfunctional. It is a mechanical/hardware issue within the print head, specifically with the black ink channel, as I suspected.

I've imported the original PCB PDF file into Inkscape. I then changed the vector art color to Cyan, which has the hex code #00FFFF. This, in theory, should tell the printer to only utilize the Cyan ink channel.


I then saved the vector art as a PDF in Inkscape using the following parameters:

• Rasterize filter effect turned off.
• DPI set to 500.

I then opened the saved PDF file in Acrobat Reader and used the following parameters:

Below are the glorious results, which are excellent by my standards—clean and sharp print with no artifacts. I can now move on to the next step in UV lithography. All I need to do now is obtain high-quality UV-blocking ink and flush it into the refillable color ink tanks. Any recommendations would be much obliged for professional-grade UV-blocking ink brands and models.

To better inspect it, open the image in a new window (right-click and select "Open image in new tab") and zoom in:

I've also included a quick zoomed-in snapshot:

My next tests would be to try and see if I can combine the Cyan/Magenta/Yellow ink channels to print at the same location, to provide a greater level of opacity. I would need to trick the printer to perform this, but I think I can figure something out using Inkscape. After all, I'll be using an all-black-ink system.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

O.K. - fine - that's a great step ahead to get away with these strange spikes, the RPM option is history, you won't find that option anymore in newer drivers - like in the L805 photo printer.

You may contact farbenwerk, if they would ship to your country, or you may find a local dealer with similar special black inks.

My next tests would be to try and see if I can combine the Cyan/Magenta/Yellow ink channels to print at the same location, to provide a greater level of opacity

That's pretty easy - the Epson 4 color printers - specifically those entry level workforce models like my old WF-2010W - use a black pigment ink tuned for matte papers - for a crisp and contrasty print on normal paper. This ink is not used to print black when you select glossy/photo papers , the driver mixes black from the CMY inks. This creates a weaker black level since you have the CMY inks with a lighter luminance mixed in. But if you would fill your black ink in all CMY ink channels you get what you want - printing black via the combined CMY ink channels.