1400 two bandings in one picture

[wlachan]

Okay this must be beaten to the death for such old model but I have not found much useful info after lengthy google so I have decided to ask before having mine refund for good.

Basically what happens is that after a few dozen realignment, cleaning and nozzle check, there are still banding on the whole frame of glossy papers of different makes (printer settings are properly set, ultra glossy, thick paper, slow speed, 360dpi etc). To make matter worse, the banding gets worse toward the bottom of every print (4x6" if it matters). I don't have other bigger size photo papers for testing and not planning to dump more money as I am on the edge of refund. But before doing so, am I unrealistic to expect this printer to be 100% banding free? Is severe banding toward the bottom of the prints a known issue with this model, or even every Epson with sheet papers? Below is a scan of the actual prints and you may download it for full size viewing. Thank you in advance.

 

[qwertydude]

If you can post a nozzle check vs printouts it'll give us a better idea of what's going on.

 

[wlachan]

I have done a few nozzle checks and always looked fine upon close inspection. I went so far using a 10x loupe checking. The pics in the 1st post are original prints with banding. I have done everything I can think of w/o success to reduce the banding any further. I wish to know if this is the best 1400 can do, or mine is a lemon?

 

[jtoolman]

What quality setting are you using. Try Photo RPM

 

[Big_Al]

I have done a few nozzle checks and always looked fine upon close inspection. I went so far using a 10x loupe checking. The pics in the 1st post are original prints with banding. I have done everything I can think of w/o success to reduce the banding any further. I wish to know if this is the best 1400 can do, or mine is a lemon?

Is it possible that the Epson 1400 wide format printer doesn't handle 4" wide paper very well? I would try wider paper. You might have a feeding problem with 4" paper.
Al

 

[wlachan]

What quality setting are you using. Try Photo RPM

I tried Photo Paper Glossy, Ultra Premium Glossy, Photo RPM, High Speed off with identical bandings.

 

[wlachan]

Is it possible that the Epson 1400 wide format printer doesn't handle 4" wide paper very well? I would try wider paper. You might have a feeding problem with 4" paper.
Al

I have no way to tell because I don't have bigger photo papers but since I will be printing a lot of 4x6 too, I would like to know if anyone using this printer w/o issue. The only reference I can find is this (http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1003&message=34119670) and seems strange only 2 or 3 people had this problem over the years.

 

[wlachan]

I think I may have found the reason. It was by design? I looked up the service manual and it actually states the print quality of the bottom 1.7in will suffer. This is shocking because 1.7in is a lot. Boy who in their right minds would design a printer this way? Still, the global banding exists even with ongoing realignment so the printer is going back. Guess I will have to consider Canon only in the future.

 

[jtoolman]

Printing borderless always brings the possibility of decreased quality at the leading and trailing edges due to the exact reasons shown on the diagram you posted.

I never use a large format printer to just print 4x6 because of that very possibility. Just about any of the Epson Artisan series AIO printers also does a fantastic job at printing 4x6 bordeless prints. I use my Artisan 725 almost exclusively for that. Also one of the older R300 through R380 series of letter size printers. You can find them on Craigslist and or Ebay for cheap.

 

[wlachan]

But I have never printed borderless. All my 4x6 have 3mm white borders. The annoying part is both the top and bottom of the prints suffer from visible banding while area A looks alright. Does that mean all Epson printers behave this way even the newer ones? Or is the 1400 considered low-end so banding is acceptable?