The sky with lines

I'm trying to print out an image.

The lighter parts of the sky have an irritating series of darker lines
across them; the lines match the path of the print head across the
paper.

http://emberapp.com/evildmp/images/scan-1/sizes/o

The lines are almost exactly 1mm apart in the actual print. In this
cropped section of a photograh, they are horizontal and disappear
towards the top of the image.

I don't think that the problem is a blocked head, because a test print
shows no problems of that kind. Also the problem is dark lines, not
missing lines, so I think it's an alignment problem, where the printer
is overprinting in stripes.

However, my attempts at fixing the alignment have not borne fruit -
whether I align it manually, using an 8x magnifier to help analyse the
alignment printouts, or automatically, which gives slightly different
results, the lines remain, even if they seem to shift slightly.

At the moment I'm just wasting paper and ink trying to troubleshoot
this.

The printer is a Canon MP970.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Daniele

"D.M. Procida" wrote in
message
...
I'm trying to print out an image.

The lighter parts of the sky have an irritating series of darker lines
across them; the lines match the path of the print head across the
paper.

http://emberapp.com/evildmp/images/scan-1/sizes/o

The lines are almost exactly 1mm apart in the actual print. In this
cropped section of a photograh, they are horizontal and disappear
towards the top of the image.

I don't think that the problem is a blocked head, because a test print
shows no problems of that kind. Also the problem is dark lines, not
missing lines, so I think it's an alignment problem, where the printer
is overprinting in stripes.

However, my attempts at fixing the alignment have not borne fruit -
whether I align it manually, using an 8x magnifier to help analyse the
alignment printouts, or automatically, which gives slightly different
results, the lines remain, even if they seem to shift slightly.

At the moment I'm just wasting paper and ink trying to troubleshoot
this.

The printer is a Canon MP970.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Daniele


Sorry, I have no experience of this printer. Have you seen the thread in
this forum?:
http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/vie....php?pid=21360
Loads of different advice there.

HTH
Richard

D.M. Procida wrote:
I'm trying to print out an image.

The lighter parts of the sky have an irritating series of darker lines
across them; the lines match the path of the print head across the
paper.

http://emberapp.com/evildmp/images/scan-1/sizes/o

The lines are almost exactly 1mm apart in the actual print. In this
cropped section of a photograh, they are horizontal and disappear
towards the top of the image.

I don't think that the problem is a blocked head, because a test print
shows no problems of that kind. Also the problem is dark lines, not
missing lines, so I think it's an alignment problem, where the printer
is overprinting in stripes.

However, my attempts at fixing the alignment have not borne fruit -
whether I align it manually, using an 8x magnifier to help analyse the
alignment printouts, or automatically, which gives slightly different
results, the lines remain, even if they seem to shift slightly.

At the moment I'm just wasting paper and ink trying to troubleshoot
this.

The printer is a Canon MP970.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Daniele

Is your printer driver set at HIGHEST Quality?
Is the image size at least 300 pixels per inch?
Are you using Photo quality printing paper?
I have had similar results when violating one or more of the above criteria.
Bob Williams

On Sun, 7 Mar 2010 20:54:15 +0000,
(D.M. Procida) wrote:

I'm trying to print out an image.

The lighter parts of the sky have an irritating series of darker lines
across them; the lines match the path of the print head across the
paper.

http://emberapp.com/evildmp/images/scan-1/sizes/o

The lines are almost exactly 1mm apart in the actual print. In this
cropped section of a photograh, they are horizontal and disappear
towards the top of the image.

I don't think that the problem is a blocked head, because a test print
shows no problems of that kind. Also the problem is dark lines, not
missing lines, so I think it's an alignment problem, where the printer
is overprinting in stripes.

However, my attempts at fixing the alignment have not borne fruit -
whether I align it manually, using an 8x magnifier to help analyse the
alignment printouts, or automatically, which gives slightly different
results, the lines remain, even if they seem to shift slightly.

At the moment I'm just wasting paper and ink trying to troubleshoot
this.

The printer is a Canon MP970.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Daniele

This is a known, but not too often encountered, issue with some of Canon's
printers and drivers. It is caused by certain hues and brightness levels of
blues and greens where the adjoining passes of color-dot dithering patterns
match. An aliasing artifact. The dithering patterns for some particular
hues aren't random enough. They will appear and disappear depending on
color and luminosity level. Note how they disappear as the sky gets darker
and more blue. Download the latest printer-drivers from Canon and see if
that clears it up. Also try turning on and off any of the image-enhancement
options in the print setup options to see if that clears it up. Various
options might trigger alternate ink-dot dithering patterns, or at least
alter the area where they appear by enough light or color-shift to evade
this.

You might also try printer-drivers from other Canon printers that use the
very same ink-cartridges as your own, from newer printers with more options
and more enhancements. I have been able to successfully upgrade one
wide-bed printer from 2400 dpi to 4800dpi with this method. The vertical
dpi being nothing more than a paper-feed issue as a simple stepper-motor
command. The three-year later printer driver also adding in four more
borderless printing options and many more color correction controls. A
$1300 photo-printer upgraded to the latest model by just installing a newer
printer-driver. This "hardware" upgrade method also works with many
scanners.

On Mon, 29 Mar 2010 03:23:07 -0500, John Turco wrote:

Better Info wrote:

heavily edited for brevity

You might also try printer-drivers from other Canon printers that use the
very same ink-cartridges as your own, from newer printers with more options
and more enhancements. I have been able to successfully upgrade one
wide-bed printer from 2400 dpi to 4800dpi with this method. The vertical
dpi being nothing more than a paper-feed issue as a simple stepper-motor
command. The three-year later printer driver also adding in four more
borderless printing options and many more color correction controls. A
$1300 photo-printer upgraded to the latest model by just installing a
newer printer-driver. This "hardware" upgrade method also works with
many scanners.


Would Hewlett-Packard scanners and/or printers also benefit by your idea,
by any chance?

Yes. I also have an older HP printer (that I no longer use). Though I did
like the feature set on a friend's HP wide-bed printer. So I tried using
those drivers with the printer I had. They worked just fine. But I had to
bypass the installation setup.exe file and load them directly by using the
INF file method.