Trouble-shooting poor quality prints
Most of the quality problems you will run into will be selecting the correct printer settings. Make sure you have the correct media chosen! Always, always use only paper made for your type of printer. Laser printer paper will not work for inkjets and visa versa. Paper that claims to be laser and inkjet compatible means only ‘uncoated,’ and will look mediocre with either kind of printer.
One problem that is very counter-intuitive to correcting is finding inconsistent puddly- or clumpy- looking bits on high-resolution papers. Try increasing the dpi of your output! It’s not that your paper is refusing the amount of ink you are laying down in it; quite the opposite, it is absorbing too much of it some areas and needs more ink to produce a rich, even color everywhere.
The second most common quality problem is caused by clogged or mis-aligned cartridges. Nearly all printers have maintenance software that will allow you to check this. My Epson is particularly picky about clogged heads, and I will often find myself doing a head cleaning three, four, even up to eight or nine times in a row before the clog is cleared. It’s a terrible ‘waste’ of ink, but microbanding (teensy lines missing one particular color) will be noticeable if one of the heads is clogged.
You might find that you are getting black smears across your prints. This is usually caused by the cartridge head dragging excessive ink across your print. If you are lucky, thoroughly cleaning the inside of your printer, running your print head through a cleaning cycle will clear up the problem. The next try would be to change your cartridges completely, as a flawed cartridge can develop leaks, particularly near the end of its life. In the worst of circumstances, this can be caused by a cracked carriage head (the thingy that holds the cartridges), which is a replace-the-printer offense. Fortunately, this is covered by warranties, and if you haven’t had your printer long, you should be able to get it replaced without trouble. (Of the four Epsons I’ve owned, two of them have been warranty replacements.) Inkjet printers are rarely worth repairing.
The other thing you might notice on your prints is ‘tracking,’ or little teensy paths down the print where the ink has been lifted off by the wheels inside your printer that guide the paper. This is caused by the ink not drying fast enough on your media, and is most common on textured, thick material where the teeth bite into it deeply. The best solution is to buy faster-drying material, or to set your print speed on slow. In some varieties of printers, the worst offenders of these guide wheels (pizza wheels, so named for their similarity to the utensils) can be removed, but that does strongly affect the feeding properties of the printer and will almost always void your warranty.
A Few Recommended Sites on the Subject
http://www.wilhelm-research.com has a large archive of research on the stability of photographs and digital prints.
For news about fine-art papers and inks that come available, I recommend joining the newsletter list at this site: http://www.digitalartsupplies.com. They send updates once or twice a month which are always full of user-tested advice about the latest and greatest in digital printing.
For more about small press lithographic printing, check here: http://www.unm.edu/~tamarind/process.html
To compare that with a major commercial lithographic press, take the Anderson Lithograph plant tour here: http://www.andlitho.com/tour_set.html
http://www.fineartgicleeprinters.org is another useful comparison site and they have links to several other more specific printing organizations. (Pop-ups warning).
Coming in part two: The fun stuff! Cards, mousepads, t-shirts, mugs, magnets and more…
Article by Ellen Million.
