Please help - my new printer developed a "smudging" problem"

[Pavel]

A black uneven smudge-like strip appears about 1 cm (1/2.5") from the front part of the printed image and along the direction the head is moving (back and forth)The strip appears to be black and is uneven, appearing more prominent towards the center than towards the edges. It seems aboput 2 to 3 mm wide. It looks like a dirty ink deposited on some part of the printer which is deposited only at the begining of the printing cycle and does not reappear. It is perpendicular to the movement of the paper. I tride repeatedly to clean nozzles and run a nozzle check. Nozzle check doe not show any problem and the strip does not appear during nozzle check operation. The pattern during nozzle check and the photos appear fine with the exception of the strip of dirt. Forgot to ention Epson R 1900 using Epson # 87 inks. Please help.

Pavel

[EnglishBob]

My Canon stated doing that and i could only stop it by setting "prevent paper abration" not sure if that last word is spelled right LOL.

[Pavel]

Thank you Bob, I will see if I can find a setting like that on my Epson driver. Thanks again. Pavel

[NT73]

My epson was great for about 12 months and then sort of started doing allsorts of wrongs. It was replaced under warranty for a new one which did the same again after about 12 months.
The epson cleaning cycle fills a pad with ink, presumably drying out after, and costing money for unused ink.
I had prints with black on the corners (not all the time) but every now and then, which was frustrating more than anything.

My current printer is a canon and touch wood, so far no problems. The heads are in the cartridge rather than the printer so if they go funny you dont need a cleaning cycle, just change the cartridge.

[Pavel]

You are scaring me NT. I hope this is not the fate of my printer. My problem seems to have corrected itself and the printer is fine. How long do you have the Canon? It seems that the Canon has a better design, if the cartridges are not more expensive. Pavel

[NT73]

I got a lot of banding with the epson, unless I used the highest quality printing. I still have it in the workshop to take to bits sometime to see what makes it tick.

How long the Canon.? At least since before last Xmas as my wife does the calendars on it.
So far I have only used canon original inks, but by hunting on the net you can pick up bargains. Price wise a bit cheaper than epson. Lengthwise quite a bit longer. So 12 months and 2 sets of inks at a guess.
The first cartridge to run out I changed when the printer said ink was running low, and then I thought I would see how long it would run without changing. It is still in the printer. It does not stop you using it like the epson does. Having said that you can buy a chipsetter for the epson to increase cartridge life (about 15-20%), but not as long as this Canon does.(
My cartridges are 4 x Canon no 8 (M. C. Y. Bl.) and 1 x no 5 Blk.
The epson does envelopes much better though. The canon chews them up, better than my dog used to do).

Last year I did a few Xmas cards and found I could use both the Canon and Epson setup progs. You know, moving the pictures around on the paper etc. and for disc labels as well.

[Pavel]

Thank you NT. Epson R 1900 is not cheap, but it is a lot cheaper than having the photos printed in a colour-managed lab. (about US $3.50 at current exchange rate for 13" by 19" at home on my colour-managed system versus $ 40 to 50 in commercial labs which somebody recommended and under $ 10 in Wallmart, where the chief technical guru there has no idea what ICC profile or colour managment means.)

[EnglishBob]

I have had my Canon i9900 since February of 2005, printed hundreds of 19*13 and 8*10 photo's and a fair number of 6*4's. Only issue I have ever had is the paper abration (sp?) setting I had to change.

[Pavel]

Craig, your printer has probably paid for itself. I hope I will be as lucky. My smudge problem dissapeared the following day, as somebody said it probably will (when the ink dries). Besides that one problem and the small and expensive ink which needs frequent replacement and my current print rate (one cartridge at a time - 8 cartridges), I am very happy with the image quality and with the effectiveness of colour managment. Thank you guys. Pavel