Never seen that problem here. Plain Z3100 + PCL3 driver?

My best guess is that there is something wrong with the Z3100. Driver, firmware or hardware. There is a Service manual on the Z3100 Wiki pages.

http://z3100users.wikispaces.com/


met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinkla

Try: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/

The best dye and pigment ink prints are already beyond the analogue color paper fade resistance results, Fuji's Crystal and Ilfo/Cibachrome included. The pigment inks way beyond them. If you have them printed ask at least for Crystal paper otherwise you have no guarantee on the fade resistance, archivability, etc. Big Yellow isn't known to have print longevity high on its agenda, it was like that in the seventies and hasn't changed much since. Wilhelm's reputation is founded on his battle with Kodak.
Genuine analogue B&W prints processed carefully will survive a very long time but the monochrome pigment (carbon) inkjet inks on suitable papers are getting closer to similar numbers in years. Few shops will print a true analogue B&W these days and chromogenic processing is probably the worst method to get long lasting B&W prints, not to mention their look.

There's another thing you have to think about. More and more minilab manufacturers have an inkjet model in the range. The advantage is that less chemicals have to be used which makes it easier for shops in relation to local  environmental legislation. Epson, Fuji, Noritsu (all Epson technology), HP and more companies. Long lasting dye + compatible papers. On the Photokina of 2008 it was quite a trend. The Fuji  prints were very good in image quality.

http://www.google.nl/search?q=Inkjet+minilab&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls

Whether you like it or not, inkjet technology will play an important role if you like to have your images printed.


met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinkla

Try: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/

Peter,

I know that there are a few exceptions. In general the dye printers are 4 or 6 channel models. Sufficient gamut and a lower price.


met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinkla

Try: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/

Mike,

The summary surprises me.

I can agree with most remarks in the article till the summary. Though metamerism with dye inks is quite common too, not the least because the dye printers are 4 or 6 channel models without extra grey inks. Not to mention the OBA content of all longer lasting dye ink compatible papers.

The industry more or less advises the split: (long lasting) dye for albums, pigment for display. Going against the grain of that advice will be difficult as sketched below. In practice people tend to have one printer that does all and they have to cope with the limitations of one system. With the split between dye inks for display and pigment inks for albums you run into many practical problems too.


If you would like to have a matte paper in your frame with glass at the front then dye + matte papers is the worst combination for aging, the compatible papers for the longer lasting dye inks of the big three are all satin or gloss. All with a PVA or gelatine inkjet coating that embeds the dye and protects it more against gas fading. Without glass the prints will face more gas fading and dyes are less UV light resistent. The compatible papers all have OBA content which grays/yellows the paper white fast if displayed unprotected, gas fading is again the usual cause as the OBAs are dyes as well. Overall color shifts can happen fast, including skin colors going all the way.

Dye ink prints in albums have a considerably longer archivability than when they are on display. They can be used with compatible satin or gloss papers that give a good gamut and contrast which is nice the way they are used. Gloss differential and bronzing are almost non existent with dye inks on gloss papers.

Pigment inks can be used succesfully on matte papers. They have better visible- and UV light resistance. The gamut is now at the same level or better  if compared to 6 channel dye inks. On some printers the gloss enhancer allows equally good gloss and satin printing and the prints made that way survive indoor display without glass for much longer times. Papers with low OBA content exist for pigment inks. There are hardly any dye based wide formats anymore. So whether you like it or not above A3+ it will be pigment mainly. Few excepions, the HP DJ 130 etc.

The split between dye and pigment inks is less hard than it seems. Pigment particles are very related to the dye inks around and are more or less rolled up dye molecules, the best pigment inks  have each particle coated with a protective transparant polymer coating that is more or less gel like to give better gloss, a better bond and better penetration of the inkjet coating on papers. Dyes like the longer lasting Epson Claria are hybrids in between dye and pigment, early Epson documents had several hints to pigment while it is officialy declared a dye ink. The Wilhelm test results for that ink correspond to that hybrid status.

I would recommend Aardenburg as the better test institute. The method is better, the business model more suited for an independent test institute. More tests with third party papers and even third party inks.

http://www.aardenburg-imaging.com/documents.html


met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinkla

Try: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/

What you should keep in mind is that the physical size of the sheet or roll you print on is one thing. The next shape is the size you select or customise in the Z3100 driver, it can be exactly the size of the sheet (or have the width of the roll) but can also be smaller (or even larger but I wouldn't advise to use that), The third is the Print Page as presented in Qimage, on the preview window with the print margins subtracted, in the Edit Page window with the print margins included.

There's a difference between the Z3100 PCL3 and PS3 driver in the way the print margins are handled, I base this message on the PCL3 driver.

Driving a plain Z3100 (not PS) with the PCL3 driver you will get: on rolls 5mm print margins all around on the print page size you select or make in the driver, on sheets the same 5mm for 3 sides and 17mm for the trailing edge of the sheets. On the main window of Qimage at the top, click on Page Formatting>Page Margins and you will see the print margins for the current sheet or roll selection in the driver. All near the numbers I gave. Click on centre to see the adaption numbers added to get the print page centered with sheet feeding. No change will be shown for roll as the centering is already quite good. Click on Clear margins there to get the original placing again.

When you open the printer driver in Qimage go the route Properties>Paper Quality you will see the dimensions of the Roll or Sheet loaded on the printer (the Z3100 measures them, sheet in the transport dimension too for Skew check on mode) and above that you select a custom size paper (say 600x600mm with a 24" wide roll)(On a 24" roll you could use 609,6 mm wide if you want all), save it as Custom, apply it and okay further driver settings. In Qimage the dimensions with the print margins subtracted will appear above the print page preview window. 589,9 x 589,9 mm for a print page on the roll, 589,9 x 578 mm on a sheet.

If you want to print a single image on that custom size print page then you select Fit to page in Qimage and load the image. In the print queue below the thumbnails you will see the size of the image to be printed. Depending on its aspect ratio (square, rectangular) you will see it fills the 589,9 (rectangular) or 578 mm (sheet+square format) print page dimensions. Crop function (scissors) not applied, auto-rotate applied).

If the image is rectangular and you do not want to waste paper you place the image off center with the Optimal Print Placement (nesting) setting below the preview window, right click on the preview window, go to  Edit Page and check the wasted paper dimension at the bottom. Use that number to reduce the custom print page length in the Z3100 driver but add 5 mm at the same time to keep the print margin. A bit odd, I agree.

The latest Z3100 PCL3 driver will utter a warning when you select a height that is more than the width on the print page. Continue the normal routine but select landscape instead of portrait in the driver. The rest adapts itself.

The Z drivers tend to fall back to their default settings, including sizes. That was worse in the beginning but they have improved. Nevertheless I would advise you to make some Printing Shortcuts in the driver for the color management settings and print qualities you use most often. An activated Printing Shortcut usually sticks better than temporary driver changes.

Qimage knows a lot of features and without doubt you will make mistakes using it. Keep an eye on the numbers above the preview window, on the numbers in the print queue, on the border settings + the scissors icon and you can eliminate almost any size faults.
The settings can be saved for repeat jobs or you can recall a job entirely from the interactive log.

Read the manual, follow the Learn by Example course in the manual.


met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinkla

Try: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/

I must have written a request like that more than a year ago. Signature and title space. Addition of extra border space to a selectable side (or two sides), keep the other sides at the normal border width and keep the corner marks to cut the overall size. Right now I do the Photoshop canvas edit or give all the borders an extra cm to cut off later on or do not use the corner marks and add border at that side what would have been wasted paper with corner marks.

I'm not that happy with the coloring method for corner marks. There is a risk that (small) borders on a next print get that color if one isn't alert enough. Maybe Mike could transfer the corner mark color choice to preferences and the user can save that choice as a default for all jobs. It will suit my work better.

I'm not in favor of adding aspect ratio chang in Qimage.


met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinkla

Try: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/

The normal print margin (PCL3 driver) is slightly less than 0.2". Your 23.6" image width on a 24" wide roll should leave just enough for that. If you set a custom size of 24" wide in the driver you will get something like 23.7-23.6" as the maximum size for the print page above the preview window of Qimage. If you set "fit to page" for the image size the image should center with a 0.2" margin at both sides, actually a bit less than 5 mm. That is if the aspect ratio of the image fits also within the length of the print page you selected minus print margins. Check the Edit page menu.

If you added compensations on the Z3100 print margins in Qimage's Page Formatting>Page Margins you will get less space for the print page and it may offset the image.

The printer measures the right edge of the roll and the width with the sensor on the head. If the roll is slightly smaller than 24" you may have a problem. If the roll isn't straight right after inserting but still within printer tolerances you will see that in a slightly rotated image. If you print a lot of images on one print page right after the roll has been inserted you may notice that the margins have shifted between the first and the last image, the roll hadn't settled to a straight path on the first prints and the paper sensor on the head only measures the paper edge at the start of a print page.

In general: if you like to keep paper waste very low on a roll printer it usually asks for more attention and more time. Whether that is worth it is another question. I like the border + corner marks of Qimage.


met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinkla

Try: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/

Looks like a printer driver issue then. What is the minimum print page length possible on that printer? What custom size of paper did you make in the printer driver? I guess it is one of the two that gives you the 4" extra.

If I had to do that in your style on the Z3100 (PCL3 driver) I would set a custom size in the printer driver 13X17.5 inch on 13" roll. Auto cutter off. It will display a maximum print page size above Qimage preview of 12.6x16.9 inch (Z3100 5mm print margins and if my conversion between metrics-imperial is correct). I would select a custom image size of 11 x 15.5 inch and place the image centered. There is no way that I can use the corner mark feature for cutting later on as the marks wouldn't print in the margins at that roll width and not in the length with that driver's custom size. Adding borders has little sense too, the print margin white will be used in the borders too. Images should have the aspect ratio of 11:15.5, no cropping set, no borders. The prints will roll out with a 0.2" white print margin at the front, sides and trailing edge but you will not see that. The overall dimension should be 13x17.5 inch. The image (more or less) centered and 10x15.5 inch. I would have to manually cut each print off the roll.

What I actually would do is place ten images on a longer custom size and make sure the distance between the prints is 2 inches, the control for that is in the page edit menu and a separate calculator. Works a lot faster at printing. So does a wider roll. I would let the printer cut the roll at the end and cut the individual prints after that. Save that Qimage setting for job repeats.


met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinkla

Try: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/

They must be in the market for at least two years. There is a test done by Image Engineering of the HP G4010 or G4050 and Epson scanners etc. The color accuracy was higher but not that significantly higher. I do not think the scan time was also compared which is much longer if you need two scans to get the result. Another thing to mention is the register between two scans, if off it will influence the detail sharpness. In itself it is an interesting technology. On full spectrum: hardly any flatbed scanner has a full spectrum lighting. They are usually designed to scan CMY(K) composed originals (Photos, Films, Prints) and not nature and within that limitation they perform well. In that sense the two HP models are actually better as the two fluorescent tubes compensate their individual spectral output, not just overlaying the spectral curves bur some smart software can do better than that. Whether it is worth it has to be distilled from the 3rd report on this page:

http://www.image-engineering.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=57&Itemid=91


met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinkla

Try: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/

Why should there be more paper waste with rolls compared to sheets ?  With rolls at least one dimension of your print page can be adapted to the actual image(s) size and the trailing edge print margin is usually half an inch shorter than that of a sheet. Use a custom size in the driver that suits both the roll width and the Qimage print page size. Use the nesting of Qimage and have more rolls of different widths at hand. I do not see how that should deliver more waste.


met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinklahtml

Try: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/

Terry,

There have been and there still are HP inkjet printers with the head+cart integrated. But they are now the exceptions in the HP range. Many HP inkjet printers have separate carts + tube feeding to the heads. One thing remains of that older concept: the heads are still user replaceable but they last very long now in normal use. For example on the B9180 and B8800 are the same heads used that are on the Z3100-Z3200, Z2100. My Z3100 had no clogs in 28 months and no heads needed a replacement. That's a 44" wide roll printer, the B9180 is an A3+ printer.


met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinkla

Try: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/

With "let printer handle color" the attached profile passes to the CM of the printer driver. If there wasn't an attached profile to the file the  result will be like "No CM".  With "No CM" only the image data goes to printer driver.


met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinkla

Try: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/

As far as I know Qimage will convert a greyscale image to RGB on the fly and will respect an embedded "profile" like Gamma 2.2 but possibly not the Dotgain etc descriptions which in my opinion no B&W photographer should use in an inkjet workflow. Not that I use either. Normally I convert the greyscale image in Photoshop (P2P) from Gamma 2.2 to a custom QTR B&W profile and feed the greyscale image to Qimage with its CM off.

addition: PSD files and on top of that layers included isn't the best choice for feeding Qimage. Stay with Tiff's and JPEG.


met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinkla

Try: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/

It happens more often now that I have to print proofs of several odd sized images on one print page.  It would be convenient to set one percentage number for the reduction of the original size and nest the smaller images on the print page size. That way the size relation between the prints is kept and they are all printed at the same size reduction. I checked whether that could be done another way but I do not see a method that does it on the fly without creating extra files of the originals.
The other way around: setting a percentage in the driver so the print page shrinks creates other problems with the driver itself as it checks the maximum width of the roll or sheet possible. I like to use the full width of a roll and shrink the total of proof prints to that size.

Is there a solution I didn't see in the menus ?


met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinkla

Try: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/

Be aware that in the Edit Page window the metric measurements are rounded off at 1 mm, the inch values are more precise there.

The precision of your conversion as described above has a flaw too :-)


met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinkla

Try: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/