Epson Color Printing

[Mikehoch]

Hi everyone,

I am working on a senior design project that involves modifying an Epson printer. I've noticed that when the printer I'm working with (Epson C120) prints a picture, it does it in stages. It prints a strip of black & white first, advances the paper, prints another color on top of the strip, advances the paper, and finishes up that particular strip's color. Thus, at any given time in the middle of printing a picture, the cartridge is actually printing 3 strips approximately 1/3 inch in size. In other words, at any given time, the printhead is printing a strip of about 1 inch in width (containing three smaller strips of various colors).

My question is this. Do all Epson printers print like this? If not, does anyone know of printers (that are not discontinued) that print smaller sections. For my project, it is essential that the total width being printed is no more than about .5 inches. Epson piezo technology is a MUST for this project, so I can't use any other manufacturer. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Mike

 

[Trigger 37]

Mikehoch,... I remember back to the days that I was doing my senior project, but back then we had to do it all by our selves. I made a suggestion on your last thread, and got no response. I'm sure there are plenty of people that watch this forum that would like to give you help,... but you have put yourself in such a tiny little box, you have eliminated 80% of those that might give you a suggestion.

If I remember correctly, your project has to be done way before June of 08 so it can be evaluated. You are working on something that Epson, Canon, HP, and many other engineers, chemist, and developers around the world have attemped.

My suggestion is,... if you want to get something working such that you can get a grade better than "PASS", you need to expand your "BOX". Epson printer my have Pizo technology, but ask yourself why, after all these years of development, with 1000's of engineers, why are Epson printers the slowest on the market.

It is like asking, why do all printers use Sutractive ink colors of Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow. Why does it take all three of these color to make any other color. Why can't I just spray each color in one pass at the same spot or ink drop? How can I control the color of each spot by controling the distance between each of the 3 color ink drops I place? How do I enhance the color gamut? How do I increase the print speed? How do I decrease the ink drying time, but at the same time increase the shelf life of the ink. etc. etc. etc.

All I can say is good luck.

 

[Mikehoch]

Epson technology is required because we need a print cartridge technology that can utilize solvent ink. Since this is not an aqueous-based ink, thermo cartridges won't work. Sorry for not responding to your post, after receiving the first few responses our group was able to outline a strategy and move on. I'm new to these forums so I didn't think anyone would even find my post after a day or so. I appreciate your input.

With regards to my original question, though, is the printer behavior I described pretty much typical of all new Epson printers, or are there any alternatives. Do you have any suggestions outside of this "box"? Once again, any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Trigger 37]

mikehoch,..Yes all printers, including Epson pretty much print the same way. They have to lay down a series of colors to create the final color they want. Because one color ink always has "N" nozzles that take space, they can't create the colors until all printhead, nozzles, pass the same point. The "Print Drivers" are a lot of the problem as they are trying to start with a high res photo, separate it into the primary colors of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and others if they use that ink, and then try and re-create the photo, know what nozzle to fire next. They can't paint everything in one pass so the picture is further broken up into passes both left and right. To keep the print speed up this requires a very past processor on their logic card. To keep the cost down they have to compromise somewhere. After they do all this, they sell the printers at a loss, just so they can charge $7,680 per gallon for ink.

 

[Mikehoch]

Trigger 37,

No kidding on the ink prices! Hmmm...so it looks like we'll just have to work around this problem. We've come up with a few strategies that we're gonna try to pursue to constrain the overall print area. One involves splitting the image up into individual segments of the desired size and printing them one at a time. Slightly similar to the method you just described that printers have to use to print images in more than one pass...

Thanks again for your help.