Nozzle Clogs and Profile Evaluations

A confession: Yesterday I said I wasn't keeping score, but of course I am. I can't help but filter everything I do with the Epson through the filter of nearly five years using the Canon iPF 5000. Much of the workflow I've developed while using the Canon will remain the same for the Epson, or for any printer. The goal is to produce high-quality, fine-art prints, no matter what printer I'm using; as I climb the learning curve and get comfortable with the 7900 I'll be making lots of comparisons.

Today I wanted to print profile evaluation images for several more papers. I planned to work through my gloss papers, those that will use the printer's photo-black (PK) ink. This includes Epson Exhibition Fiber (EEF), Ilford Galerie Gloss Fiber Silk (who names these things, anyway? I'll call it GGFS), Harman Gloss FB Al, and my most recent find, Canson Infinity Platine Fiber Rag.

I inserted a sheet of EEF, which woke the printer from its power-save (sleep) mode. I followed the normal procedure for feeding the sheet. The printer gave the sheet a look, thought about it for a few seconds, adjusted the sheet's position, and then asked for the media type. From the control panel I selected the Epson-recommended media type. At the computer I loaded the test image into Photoshop and then selected File/Print.... I set up the print dialog, saved, and then clicked the Print button.

Most of the test page looked OK, but there was terrible banding in the sunset image and the red-rock arch image, and also in the orange patterns in the color grid. I loaded a sheet of plain bond paper and printed a nozzle check pattern. The orange grid had missing nozzles. The rest of the colors looked fine.

The nozzle check print showing clogs in the orange channel. Light black (LK), 

next-to-last at right, is fine, but doesn't show up well in this scan. The low-rez

scan makes the entire print look rougher than it is.

I ran a head cleaning on the channel pair that includes orange, and then ran a second nozzle check print. The cleaning cleared the clog. I then ran another profile eval print on EEF. The Epson-supplied profile is quite good, in my opinion.

The lesson here: always run a nozzle check print before printing anything that matters.

Inversion in the light-green band

There is one problem area on the eval print. The light-green band in the color ramp section shows what I'd call a severe reversal in the upper third of the band. I assume this is either a problem with the profile, or an issue with this color/tone in the printer. I've read no reports of the Epson having issues with the greens, and in fact the other green ramps and grid samples on the eval print look perfect. For now I'll file this away for future consideration after I've looked at the other papers and their profiles.

Next I made two eval prints for Ilford GGFS. These were made with two different custom profiles received from a friend who's had a 7900 for a couple of years. The two profiles are quite similar except in the reds/oranges/yellows, where one seems somewhat more saturated than the other. I think both profiles will have their uses. Both profiles exhibited the inversion in the green band, but in both this is a bit more subtle than what's shown above for the EEF.

At this point I had to stop to take care of some other business. When I have a few minutes I'll continue with my remaining gloss papers, the Harman and the Canson.

  --Jay