File Format: .tiff 16bit
DPI: 360
OS: Windows 11
Printer: Epson 3880
Ink: Piezography Pro
I’ve been noticing some odd outlining in certain areas of my printed images and I’m trying to understand what it is. I’ve attached two magnified images of a test print I made. On the picture of the cat nose there is a white outline around the left nostril and the image of the fur has some white outlines next to some of the fur.
This has been a present on many of my prints around fine details and can make some things look a little strange or crunchy. Is this something produced by QuadToneRIP? At a glance it looks like certain sections of the image are oversharpened, but the original image file has no such sharpening artifacts. It also isn’t present across the whole image, only specific details. I wouldn’t think QuadToneRIP or the Epson 3880 would add sharpening so I’m wondering if this is something QuadToneRip is doing to attempt to preserve fine details that would normally be too small to render.
Anyone know what this is and how I might be able to stop this from happening?
QTR does not sharpen… Can you send your full resolution image file from above to Rachel at [email protected]. Use wetransfer or similar so that the file ks not compressed during the send.
Jon
@jon-cone
I just sent an email. Thanks!
Hi Connor,
I received the image file and it is not over sharpened. It is quite smooth. Can you send me screen shot of your QuadTone RIP settings including curves that was used to print the artifact-ed print.
Rachel - IJM TechSupport
Hi Rachel,
Here is the exact settings I used. I also repeated this print from a Mac using the same settings. The results were the same. As part of a different test I did invert the curves for warm shadows and cool highlights. This also produced the same artifacts.
-Connor
Hi Connor,
It is really unusual from my experience. I asked Jon and he said Ordered dithering is the norm and should not be adding such a large amount of visible dithering and artifacts to the printing. He suggests trying the adaptive to see if makes a difference. He then asked whether your printer is in alignment as that could be responsible for what it happening. In other words, some dots of ink are not printing where they should be.
Is this a printer that you have been using regularly and this problem just began, or are you resurrecting a used printer for this purpose? Have you performed a recent alignment?
Rachel - IJM TechSupport
Hi Rachel,
I did try adaptive dithering and that didn’t change anything. I also performed a manual print alignment and nozzle check before printing that image.
I just dug through some of my test prints when setting up the printer and maybe this will be helpful. This is a different image on matte paper. The first was printed using the Epson Inks using Epson ABW. The second was using Epson Inks using QTR. And the third was using the Piezography inks with QTR.
The third Piezography ink image shows a white line under the eye. The Epson inks are not. Could it be something with the ink curves? The underline is visible without magnification and is a bit more obvious than what I managed to capture with my phone.
