Granularity

Printed photo © Stephen E. Ross.

A couple of days ago I made another print for my client who shoots only multi-frame panoramas. As usual, prior to printing the job I made a nozzle check print on plain bond paper. I unloaded the roll paper, printed the nozzle check (no clogs), and then loaded the same roll back into the printer.

While doing this I didn't notice anything unusual on the 7900's LCD. For some time it's been showing three inks, C, VM, and LK, as low, flashing a warning icon above each color on the display. This icon appears when the ink level drops below 20%. I have occasionally looked at the ink levels in the status display. Most of the inks are in the 30%—40% range. This should last quite a while considering the number of prints I'm likely to make over the next several months. The three colors flashing the warnings have been in the low teens each time I've checked, and are clearly the ones I'll need to replace soonest.

Since making the panoramic print I've not needed the printer. When it sleeps the LCD turns off, but the low ink LED continues to flash. Unless I'm setting up to make a print, I generally don't pay much attention. Apparently one learns to ignore the presence even of something as large as the 7900.

Today I was quite surprised to learn that the LK ink level was at 2%. I don't recall it's level the last time I looked at the status menu on the LCD or the printer utility on the computer, but I'm sure it was 8%, maybe 9%. I'd guess that was a week or perhaps ten days ago. In any case, I need to order ink right now.

What's interesting about all of this is the granularity of ink level, and remaining maintenance cartridge capacity, as reported by the 7900. Unless and until I learn otherwise, I'll assume these levels are reported fairly accurately. My Canon iPF 5000 reported these data in 20% increments. When a new ink tank was installed, the printer's LCD would display a "full bar" for that color, and the status report would show 100%, just as one would expect. However, neither the bar nor the status report would change until the ink level dropped to 80%. Then, the bar would shorten by two pixels, and the printed status report would show 80%. These would not change again until the level had dropped to 60%. This limited the usefulness of the information. Once the level reached 20%, there was no way to know when the level had dropped to a point where one should order ink. To be fair to Canon, a later firmware update added a new "level", helpfully shown as "replace soon". I operated that printer long enough to learn when, during the period between 20% and "replace soon", to order ink.

The Epson's 1% granularity is nice, but I need to develop the habit of checking ink status a little more regularly. The LK seems to have dropped suddenly, or rapidly, from the high single digits to 2%. That could indicate some kind of problem, but it's more likely I simply missed seeing levels in between.

  --Jay