Printing for ME!

I've wrapped up my backlog of printing jobs and other client work. I have a show coming up around the middle of next month at a local gallery. I've selected the pieces I'll print for this, to add to the inventory of framed work I already have laid out for the exhibit, but I've simply not had time to do any printing of my own work.

Today I made one print, an assembly of three horizontal frames into a nearly square photo. As usual I printed a nozzle check, and found no clogs. The last clog was 3 January, 22 days ago, and was cleared by cleaning the appropriate nozzle pair. I've used the printer two days each week since 3 Jan, sometimes making a number of prints, other days making only one or two. During this period the relative humidity in the room has been between 36% and 40%, and somewhat cool, rarely over 62° F (17 C). The 7900 seems happy with that!

The arrow points to the flaw on the sheet, but it's nearly
impossible to see at the size of this jpeg. The signature is
only for this jpeg. I don't sign my prints like this!

I made the print on a 13 x 19 inch sheet ("Super A3 / B 13 x 19 inch (sheet)" in Epson's terms) of EEF*. The sheet had a small flaw, a problem I've been seeing in the last few sheets of this paper I've used. EEF isn't cheap; small dark spots or other flaws in the paper are unacceptable. I've got 13 x 19 and 17 x 22 sheets in inventory; I've learned to check each sheet carefully before printing. I'm not alone in having this problem. I plan to contact Epson about it, as I know others have done. As things stand now, I'm unlikely to continue to purchase this paper. It's a shame; I love the surface, the print quality, and the fairly bright white of the paper. My other favorite "soft-gloss" paper, GGFS*, is much warmer in tone, but I find it works well for the majority of my images, and in several years of use I've found no flawed sheets.

In this case, because the image is about 12 inches (30cm) square, it was easy to set the top margin to 1.5 inches (4cm), which left a wide bottom margin which contained the flaw. It will disappear when I cut the sheet prior to matting it.

The LK* ink is still at 1%. With each print I make I'm prepared to install a new LK tank. I'll be making some large panorama prints tomorrow; given how long LK has been showing 1%, I full expect to replace that ink during tomorrow's printing.

  --Jay

* See the "Shortcuts used" box in the right column.