Over a year ago Eric Gulbransen started a most amazing thread on Luminous Landscape's Printers, Papers and Inks forum. I mentioned it in this posting here, in January of 2012. The thread Eric started has become huge. For those who care about the minutia of the 7900/9900 print heads, and a great deal more of the mechanical workings of these printers, this thread is a gold mine of information. Unfortunately, as often happens, many pages of the postings add nothing to the discussion, devolving into rants about the tone of various postings, arguments about facts vs. hearsay, and general complaints about other peoples' postings, perceived attitudes, and even word choices. Typical forum stuff, alas, the usual junk one must wade through to find the good stuff. Since that thread is, as of today, over 66 pages long, it can take a very long time to find that good stuff.
Recently, Eric started a new site on which he's collected some of the information presented in the LuLa thread, minus all the usual forum detritus. Here he's collected information, tips, and instructional videos. The site is new; there's not a great deal of content yet, but what's there is good. One can assume this will grow as Eric has time for it, and as he learns more by working with his wayward x900 printers.
Very nice, Eric. Thank you for another great resource.
--Jay
Monday, February 18, 2013
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Larger Small Prints, 2-up on 13x19 Inch Sheets
Most gallery sales here are made during "tourist season", which seems to be that short period between 4 July and Labor Day (the first Monday in September). This is a beautiful place; there's lots to do here, especially outdoor activities—hunting, fishing, boating, hiking, climbing, camping, and much more. People come from around the world to visit Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks, spend time on Flathead Lake, and visit the many other points of interest in Montana and surrounding states. Many of those people fly in, rent a car, have their vacations, and then fly home. Traffic at our local shops and galleries is quite high during summer.
Logistics get in the way of selling large framed prints to these visitors. It's certainly possible to sell a large print and ship it to the buyer's home location, and it happens now and then. But people seem reluctant to do that, perhaps because of the cost of adequately packaging and then shipping the item. More often, people buy small things, things that fit in their luggage, or in the overhead bin on the airplane.
I love making large prints. I didn't buy the 7900 to make small ones. Likewise, I didn't buy previous printer, the 17-inch Canon iPF 5000, to make small prints. The Canon was my first large-format printer. I learned a great deal using it—I considered it an excellent "starter" printer.
With the Canon I made a lot of small prints, generally on 8.5x11 inch (US A) size sheets. I settled on a print size that resulted in a finished, framed and matted picture, with acrylic glazing, about 13x17 inches (33x43 cm). I could sell these at a price that seemed acceptable to buyers, and make a decent profit, despite the need for a custom frame and mat. My cost for these, with a white-core paper mat, was under $30.00. I've purchased dozens of these frames and mats.
Since getting the 7900 it's become less and less satisfying to make these small prints, but I need something to replace them, something to maintain that revenue stream. My experiment has been to increase the size, while (I hope!) keeping it easy for buyers to transport these pictures.
I now buy custom frames (Nielsen profile 11, graphite) that are about 15x19 inches (38x48 cm). The mat opening is 8x12 inches (20x30 cm). I continue to use acrylic glazing. These present very nicely. They are clearly larger than what one can make from the typical "kitchen table" inkjet printer, but small enough to fit in luggage or the overhead bin, and small enough to sell at a comfortable price for most buyers (although substantially higher than the smaller versions I made before). My cost is very close to that of the smaller prints.
I make the prints 2-up on 13x19 (Super B/A3) sheets. I made a template for Photoshop, a very simple document with guides set up to leave appropriate borders when the images are pasted in. I size and sharpen my individual files as usual, copy, paste into the template, and drag them so they snap to the guides. I then print as usual using the standard 13x19 sheet layout in the printer driver. If I uncheck the "center" box, I can adjust the top border by eye (thanks to the preview in Photoshop CS6) and get the image pair almost perfectly centered on the sheet.
After printing I cut the sheet down the center, sign the prints, and they're ready to frame.
--Jay
Logistics get in the way of selling large framed prints to these visitors. It's certainly possible to sell a large print and ship it to the buyer's home location, and it happens now and then. But people seem reluctant to do that, perhaps because of the cost of adequately packaging and then shipping the item. More often, people buy small things, things that fit in their luggage, or in the overhead bin on the airplane.
I love making large prints. I didn't buy the 7900 to make small ones. Likewise, I didn't buy previous printer, the 17-inch Canon iPF 5000, to make small prints. The Canon was my first large-format printer. I learned a great deal using it—I considered it an excellent "starter" printer.
With the Canon I made a lot of small prints, generally on 8.5x11 inch (US A) size sheets. I settled on a print size that resulted in a finished, framed and matted picture, with acrylic glazing, about 13x17 inches (33x43 cm). I could sell these at a price that seemed acceptable to buyers, and make a decent profit, despite the need for a custom frame and mat. My cost for these, with a white-core paper mat, was under $30.00. I've purchased dozens of these frames and mats.
Since getting the 7900 it's become less and less satisfying to make these small prints, but I need something to replace them, something to maintain that revenue stream. My experiment has been to increase the size, while (I hope!) keeping it easy for buyers to transport these pictures.
I now buy custom frames (Nielsen profile 11, graphite) that are about 15x19 inches (38x48 cm). The mat opening is 8x12 inches (20x30 cm). I continue to use acrylic glazing. These present very nicely. They are clearly larger than what one can make from the typical "kitchen table" inkjet printer, but small enough to fit in luggage or the overhead bin, and small enough to sell at a comfortable price for most buyers (although substantially higher than the smaller versions I made before). My cost is very close to that of the smaller prints.
I make the prints 2-up on 13x19 (Super B/A3) sheets. I made a template for Photoshop, a very simple document with guides set up to leave appropriate borders when the images are pasted in. I size and sharpen my individual files as usual, copy, paste into the template, and drag them so they snap to the guides. I then print as usual using the standard 13x19 sheet layout in the printer driver. If I uncheck the "center" box, I can adjust the top border by eye (thanks to the preview in Photoshop CS6) and get the image pair almost perfectly centered on the sheet.
 |
| 13x19 sheet (on a gray countertop) with two images |
--Jay
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Stubborn Clog
Later this week I need to change my display area at a local gallery. I have plenty of framed inventory on-hand, but these periodic refreshes at area galleries provide opportunities to print new things, or to make prints of older pictures I've not previously had time to work with.
Last February I spent a day and a night in Hot Springs, Montana. I wrote an article for my Web site about the experience of judging a photography show there. The black and white photo used in that article, of a window in the Symes Hotel, is the picture I printed today. I did a little work on it today to remove some distortion (perspective tool) and adjust the contrast a bit. I then set up to make a print on an 11 x 17 inch (US B) sheet of EEF.
I'd last printed with the 7900 on 1 February; it's not getting much use lately. When I ran a nozzle check print today I found a small clogged area in the LC channel. I did a standard pair clean (LC/VLM), and then ran another nozzle check print. This showed the LC problem had been solved, but now the LLK channel was almost entirely gone. I did a standard clean on the LLK/Y pair, which made very little improvement in the LLK channel. Thanks to a phone call, the machine sat for about 15 minutes. When I got off the phone I ran another standard cleaning of the LLK/Y pair, again with no improvement. Finally, I did a "powerful" cleaning of that pair, which eliminated the clog.
All of this took half an hour (not counting the telephone delay) and required five nozzle check prints. Wasted time, and more than a little frustrating. I've seldom had this level of difficulty clearing an ink supply problem.
Fortunately, the problem did clear, and I was able to make what turned out to be a very nice print.
--Jay
Last February I spent a day and a night in Hot Springs, Montana. I wrote an article for my Web site about the experience of judging a photography show there. The black and white photo used in that article, of a window in the Symes Hotel, is the picture I printed today. I did a little work on it today to remove some distortion (perspective tool) and adjust the contrast a bit. I then set up to make a print on an 11 x 17 inch (US B) sheet of EEF.
I'd last printed with the 7900 on 1 February; it's not getting much use lately. When I ran a nozzle check print today I found a small clogged area in the LC channel. I did a standard pair clean (LC/VLM), and then ran another nozzle check print. This showed the LC problem had been solved, but now the LLK channel was almost entirely gone. I did a standard clean on the LLK/Y pair, which made very little improvement in the LLK channel. Thanks to a phone call, the machine sat for about 15 minutes. When I got off the phone I ran another standard cleaning of the LLK/Y pair, again with no improvement. Finally, I did a "powerful" cleaning of that pair, which eliminated the clog.
All of this took half an hour (not counting the telephone delay) and required five nozzle check prints. Wasted time, and more than a little frustrating. I've seldom had this level of difficulty clearing an ink supply problem.
Fortunately, the problem did clear, and I was able to make what turned out to be a very nice print.
--Jay
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Fun With Fog
Winter often brings foggy conditions to the valleys here in western Montana. I explain the phenomenon, describe some of the interesting shooting conditions I encounter in the fog, and show a few examples in my January article on my Web site. The photo of the wheel-line irrigator in the fog intrigues me. I made the picture just a few days ago, and spent some time working on it in Photoshop to enhance the contrast a bit in the foreground metal while letting the distant parts remain ephemeral. The picture is a good candidate for a frame and mat I have on-hand, so I decided to make a print.
The mat opening is about 15.75 inches wide x 8 inches high (40 x 20 cm). I made the print about half an inch larger than that in both dimensions. This forced me to crop a large area from the top of the frame. Creatively, that worked out well, since much of that area added nothing to the photo.
I cut a 17x22 inch (US C) sheet of EEF in half. Unlike the problem I mentioned in a 1 November, 2012, posting, I had no trouble with the paper curling this time.
I printed a nozzle check, as usual, and found VM completely missing. VM is paired with C. Both of these ink cartridges have been showing 1% for a very long time. I put new cartridges in the 7900, and then initiated a standard pair cleaning. That solved the problem. I returned the 1% cartridges to the machine.
Because the end margins would be narrow and would probably clip if I fed the sheet in the normal way, I made a custom sheet size in the driver, 17x11 inches. I fed the wide end of the sheet into the printer, and then set up the print job as usual, using portrait (vertical) orientation. The print looks fine-nice detail in the hoar-frost on the close metal section, with the detail fading away in the distance. If you're counting, there are nine wheels visible on the irrigator before it disappears completely in the fog. The print has wide top and bottom margins, with fairly narrow margins left and right. Feeding the sheet the "wrong" way allowed for those narrow end margins without clipping.
--Jay
The mat opening is about 15.75 inches wide x 8 inches high (40 x 20 cm). I made the print about half an inch larger than that in both dimensions. This forced me to crop a large area from the top of the frame. Creatively, that worked out well, since much of that area added nothing to the photo.
I cut a 17x22 inch (US C) sheet of EEF in half. Unlike the problem I mentioned in a 1 November, 2012, posting, I had no trouble with the paper curling this time.
I printed a nozzle check, as usual, and found VM completely missing. VM is paired with C. Both of these ink cartridges have been showing 1% for a very long time. I put new cartridges in the 7900, and then initiated a standard pair cleaning. That solved the problem. I returned the 1% cartridges to the machine.
Because the end margins would be narrow and would probably clip if I fed the sheet in the normal way, I made a custom sheet size in the driver, 17x11 inches. I fed the wide end of the sheet into the printer, and then set up the print job as usual, using portrait (vertical) orientation. The print looks fine-nice detail in the hoar-frost on the close metal section, with the detail fading away in the distance. If you're counting, there are nine wheels visible on the irrigator before it disappears completely in the fog. The print has wide top and bottom margins, with fairly narrow margins left and right. Feeding the sheet the "wrong" way allowed for those narrow end margins without clipping.
--Jay
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