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epson 9900 horizontal banding

J

john_baltimore

Guest
Hi,

I am printing 2 large black and white prints with large expanses of solid black on smooth matte fine art paper on the Epson 9900 using the Epson driver. I am getting very regular horizontal banding. The print heads are clean, and the banding is to broad to be caused by malfunctioning heads anyway. The files look perfect. I have tried 2 different papers, printing at both 1440, and 2880, high speed on and off. I looked in the "advanced media control" where I can change the "drying time", "color density", and "paper feed", but haven't tried any of that yet. I should mention that the lighter, grey areas of the print look fine, and show no evidence of the banding. So I'm wondering if you anyone has any suggestions.

Thanks,

John
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
First comment is look at your nozzle check pattern with a loupe and make sure one channel isn't clogged and hiding -- I had that happen once, it was the lower left corner patch so I didn't notice it at first.

Second comment is to try increasing platen gap clearance for that paper, especially if it is a thicker paper. Try one point of change at a time and test print a black patch to see if it is enough.
 

Mike Z

Member
Hi John,
I'm usually a lurker around here but may be able to help with your banding problem.
I don't use epson software (I use Imageprint) I have found that three things can help reduce banding.
1) I change my file from the normal 300 dpi resolution we use to 360 dpi. This has helped many time to reduce banding and eliminate moire patterns.
2) I have had some reduction of banding when I print from a 16 bit file.
3) I change the print settings from 4 pass to 8 pass. I suspect you may have done this when you turned off high speed.

Hope some of this helps.
Mike
 

kdphotography

Well-known member
Sometimes a partially clogged nozzle is difficult to detect on a nozzle check. I recall something similar and it cleared up after a simple head cleaning. You can also try a head alignment. You can also try adjusting the feed, but that didn't work for me in similar circumstances. Definitely turn high speed off.

Matte fine art papers and canvas can put out a bit of media dust making these issues (albeit rare) more common than with photo papers.
 

Mr.Gale

Member
I had a similar banding problem with my 9900 printing large very dark areas. The problem turned out to be the paper was rippling because of the ink load. If you have a heat press cook a test print and see if that helps.
Just a thought,

Mr.Gale
 

Wayne Fox

Workshop Member
as mentioned, banding can show up from a single missing nozzle, easy to miss in a nozzle check. Another cause of banding could be a non optimum setting for paper thickness and platen gap, overloading the ink as mentioned, as paper advance can also be an issue. You didn't mentioned what exact paper you are using as well as what paper type you are using in the driver. Those might help narrow it down. I assume you've done a full head alignment when you set up the printed as recommended.
 

BANKER1

Member
I think Wayne is on to something. After experiencing banding problems on my 7880, i did a print head alignment, and that solved the problem.

Greg
 

Duk2

New member
I print using an Epson 9890, Epson driver at 2880dpi, tested fast and slow speeds, head cleanings, head alignments and I really got mad on that horizontal banding (lighter bands), when using very thick, mate paper (350gms) on very dark/black images.

What it seems finally worked for me is to check all three notches: Bidirectional, Smooth and Fine Detail, platten gap to the Widest and definetily paper feed to -70.

On some occasion I have also tried adding drying time which helps, but I'm most convinced what solves the problem im my case is paper feed to -70. On the other hand, this paper feed setting, causes the print not to mesure exactly as expected.
 
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