A Must For All Dedicated Colour Profilers

[The Hat]

All you guys that profile your monitors, inks and photo papers to get the very best out of your printer
are probably missing out on the one profile that really counts, the printer itself !

Ask yourself how many times have you’ve run a print head alignment,
manual/automatic in the last twelve months ?

To keep your printer working to its highest levels and sharpness then a head alignment
should be done at regular intervals depending on your print output, (Needs)
just like you monitor it too can alter slightly.

Most guys only think of doing a head alignment when they start to have some sort of output
quality problems which is usually caused by something else, but at least they do it
even in desperation, it’s still a good thing.

It’s good to make a schedule of it say every 3 months and you can easily check if it is needed
more often or less by printing out the (Check Settings) in the Print Head Alignment window
first and then comparing.

There are very many reasons why the nozzles can misalign and by profiling (Alignment) regularly
you can minimise the time between this happening and correcting it to print your stunning Photos..

 

[Emulator]

You have a good point there, did you find it solved a problem for you? The last time I tried it, it proved to be OK without adjustment, but I must admit it was a long time ago!
Emu

 

[The Hat]

Good head alignment is critical for producing the best sharpness in the tone and shaded areas
of your photos, the size of the ink droplets won’t matter a dam if your nozzles are not firing
into their correct position.

A head alignment may only be needed every twelve months but until you check it regularly
then you won’t know that, so after several months of checking you will have a better idea
of how often it will need a correction.

A weekly nozzle check is almost mandatory so why not a head alignment schedule. ?

The print alignment should show no more than a two point shift in any one colour segment
any more than that and you’ll need to do a re-alignment, does it make a difference,
only you can be the judge.

 

[jtoolman]

And don't forget that when you do a Manual alignment you are may be doing two levels. A horizontal and vertical alignment. That is the case with some printers older printers like the 2100 and 2200.

If your print head is not properly aligned you will not be able to take advantage of by-directional printing.

Example!

The head, depending on the quality level ( DPI setting ) chosen will print passes in one direction, advance a predetermined amount ( depending of the quality DPI chosen ) and print another pass. This is the case in by-directional printing. When the head is perfectly aligned, the printed pass it lays down will perfectly line up with the previous one without a Gap ( Light or white band between passes ) or Overlap ( darker band between passes ). That is just one of the results of a mal aligned print head. There are others as hat has stated.

You could also have vertical banding, and fine lines that should be composed of straight lines of dots may be printed as random jagged edge lines.

My current practice is to run an auto of manual alignment about every 3 months on all my children, er, I mean Printers!

With printers that feature auto alignment you should print your chart on a glossy paper which will provide a much better image detail for the printer sensors to analyze and read.
Normal copy paper has too much dot gain and will not allow the printer to accurately do it's job.

People who go from OEM carts to refillables or a CISS should realign the head as part of the set up process.

Joe