Gauging Interest
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I recently replaced my last color ink jet printer because the last printer fried itself. It was also having a problem with clogged nozzles, and was starting to refuse to print the color yellow. At the same time, I ordered a continuous ink system (CIS) for the printer. The CIS comes with a CD that includes a command line utility that you can schedule to run using the built-in Windows scheduler. This utility prints a full-page nozzle "exercise", consisting of a color-bar for each nozzle in your printer. I think printing a full-page image is wasteful (both paper and ink), so I wrote a little program that allows you to a) run with a command line parameter to "exercise" your print head nozzles, or b) run as a WinForms app that lets you change certain applicable settings that affect what is printed, and unlike the previously mentioned utility that came with the CIS, my app generates the exercise image itself. I print from this application once every couple of days just to push some ink through the print head, which prevents nozzle clogging. The beauty of it is that I can use the same sheet of paper 140 times before I need to change paper (you have to manually re-feed the sheet into the paper tray of course). If anyone else would be interested in this program, I'd be happy to post an article about it.
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001 -
I recently replaced my last color ink jet printer because the last printer fried itself. It was also having a problem with clogged nozzles, and was starting to refuse to print the color yellow. At the same time, I ordered a continuous ink system (CIS) for the printer. The CIS comes with a CD that includes a command line utility that you can schedule to run using the built-in Windows scheduler. This utility prints a full-page nozzle "exercise", consisting of a color-bar for each nozzle in your printer. I think printing a full-page image is wasteful (both paper and ink), so I wrote a little program that allows you to a) run with a command line parameter to "exercise" your print head nozzles, or b) run as a WinForms app that lets you change certain applicable settings that affect what is printed, and unlike the previously mentioned utility that came with the CIS, my app generates the exercise image itself. I print from this application once every couple of days just to push some ink through the print head, which prevents nozzle clogging. The beauty of it is that I can use the same sheet of paper 140 times before I need to change paper (you have to manually re-feed the sheet into the paper tray of course). If anyone else would be interested in this program, I'd be happy to post an article about it.
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote:
just to push some ink through the print head, which prevents nozzle clogging
Unfortunately, that's a fact of life with 'drop-on-demand' ink jet technology. Water-based inks tend to clog the nozzles due to concentration problems and cycling issues. If you stop running ink out of a nozzle for an extended period, any residual can dry out, causing the defects you're seeing. My employer's systems use continuous ink jet, which maintains a constant flow of drops out of the orifices. We then divert and recycle the drops we don't want to print. Unfortunately, we're not too desktop friendly, as our systems require a full-on printing press and run $1.5M or so :-D. We do have one nice feature, though: we can print full color data at around 17 feet of paper per second.
Software Zen:
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I recently replaced my last color ink jet printer because the last printer fried itself. It was also having a problem with clogged nozzles, and was starting to refuse to print the color yellow. At the same time, I ordered a continuous ink system (CIS) for the printer. The CIS comes with a CD that includes a command line utility that you can schedule to run using the built-in Windows scheduler. This utility prints a full-page nozzle "exercise", consisting of a color-bar for each nozzle in your printer. I think printing a full-page image is wasteful (both paper and ink), so I wrote a little program that allows you to a) run with a command line parameter to "exercise" your print head nozzles, or b) run as a WinForms app that lets you change certain applicable settings that affect what is printed, and unlike the previously mentioned utility that came with the CIS, my app generates the exercise image itself. I print from this application once every couple of days just to push some ink through the print head, which prevents nozzle clogging. The beauty of it is that I can use the same sheet of paper 140 times before I need to change paper (you have to manually re-feed the sheet into the paper tray of course). If anyone else would be interested in this program, I'd be happy to post an article about it.
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001Yeah I'm interested, mostly because I work for the people who make most of the worlds CIJ printers and they're certainly not the sort of thing you'd want on your desktop, unless you routinely were an NBC suit in your office :) . Anything related to tech which claims to be a continuous ink system immediately raises my interest. Also on a personal level I've given up buying Epson printers because they clog up whenever they're not used for a few days and the whole printer ends up in the bin as the heads are not replaceable.
"The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom, courage." Thucydides (B.C. 460-400)
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I recently replaced my last color ink jet printer because the last printer fried itself. It was also having a problem with clogged nozzles, and was starting to refuse to print the color yellow. At the same time, I ordered a continuous ink system (CIS) for the printer. The CIS comes with a CD that includes a command line utility that you can schedule to run using the built-in Windows scheduler. This utility prints a full-page nozzle "exercise", consisting of a color-bar for each nozzle in your printer. I think printing a full-page image is wasteful (both paper and ink), so I wrote a little program that allows you to a) run with a command line parameter to "exercise" your print head nozzles, or b) run as a WinForms app that lets you change certain applicable settings that affect what is printed, and unlike the previously mentioned utility that came with the CIS, my app generates the exercise image itself. I print from this application once every couple of days just to push some ink through the print head, which prevents nozzle clogging. The beauty of it is that I can use the same sheet of paper 140 times before I need to change paper (you have to manually re-feed the sheet into the paper tray of course). If anyone else would be interested in this program, I'd be happy to post an article about it.
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001Yes, I would be interested in reading about your program. Please post.
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I recently replaced my last color ink jet printer because the last printer fried itself. It was also having a problem with clogged nozzles, and was starting to refuse to print the color yellow. At the same time, I ordered a continuous ink system (CIS) for the printer. The CIS comes with a CD that includes a command line utility that you can schedule to run using the built-in Windows scheduler. This utility prints a full-page nozzle "exercise", consisting of a color-bar for each nozzle in your printer. I think printing a full-page image is wasteful (both paper and ink), so I wrote a little program that allows you to a) run with a command line parameter to "exercise" your print head nozzles, or b) run as a WinForms app that lets you change certain applicable settings that affect what is printed, and unlike the previously mentioned utility that came with the CIS, my app generates the exercise image itself. I print from this application once every couple of days just to push some ink through the print head, which prevents nozzle clogging. The beauty of it is that I can use the same sheet of paper 140 times before I need to change paper (you have to manually re-feed the sheet into the paper tray of course). If anyone else would be interested in this program, I'd be happy to post an article about it.
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001Many Websites contain images suitable for exercising my nozzle, thank you. :-D
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Many Websites contain images suitable for exercising my nozzle, thank you. :-D
But that's a single-color nozzle, and it's typically used often enough to avoid clogging.
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001 -
But that's a single-color nozzle, and it's typically used often enough to avoid clogging.
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001Print job gets a new meaning ...
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Many Websites contain images suitable for exercising my nozzle, thank you. :-D
The problem with those sites is that the processes required to avoid Concentrated Horrendous Endemic Extreme Spout Effluvia take up too much time.
Henry Minute Never read Medical books. You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain
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I recently replaced my last color ink jet printer because the last printer fried itself. It was also having a problem with clogged nozzles, and was starting to refuse to print the color yellow. At the same time, I ordered a continuous ink system (CIS) for the printer. The CIS comes with a CD that includes a command line utility that you can schedule to run using the built-in Windows scheduler. This utility prints a full-page nozzle "exercise", consisting of a color-bar for each nozzle in your printer. I think printing a full-page image is wasteful (both paper and ink), so I wrote a little program that allows you to a) run with a command line parameter to "exercise" your print head nozzles, or b) run as a WinForms app that lets you change certain applicable settings that affect what is printed, and unlike the previously mentioned utility that came with the CIS, my app generates the exercise image itself. I print from this application once every couple of days just to push some ink through the print head, which prevents nozzle clogging. The beauty of it is that I can use the same sheet of paper 140 times before I need to change paper (you have to manually re-feed the sheet into the paper tray of course). If anyone else would be interested in this program, I'd be happy to post an article about it.
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001 -
Inkjet? Wow, that's so 20th century grandpa. :)
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." -Sam Levenson
Color lasers still lag badly in image quality, and other high quality photo printing techniques are too expensive for the desktop.
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall
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But that's a single-color nozzle, and it's typically used often enough to avoid clogging.
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001My nozzle does two colors (but not at the same time) :cool:
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Color lasers still lag badly in image quality, and other high quality photo printing techniques are too expensive for the desktop.
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall
Inkjets are bad economy and there is no excuse at all to use one in this day and age. 99% of printing is probably still black only for most people so just buy a speedy monochrome laser for that. They're cheap to buy and cheap in ongoing costs versus inkjet. For those that print colour it generally falls into two categories: quick and dirty stuff that you don't care if it's museum quality or not, you just need a quick poster or something, a cheap colour laser again is far cheaper in the long run for this purpose and the quality is perfectly adequate for anything below art gallery requirements. Finally the other colour printing category being stuff you want to frame and put on a wall which is best handled by your local or online repro shop anyway, they have far better quality equipment than the average home user could ever afford, the inks and paper can be archival quality and it's far cheaper to get them to print it than the ongoing costs of silly inkjet printers designed for no other purpose than to suck money out of your wallet perpetually.
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." -Sam Levenson
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But that's a single-color nozzle, and it's typically used often enough to avoid clogging.
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001*applauds*
--Mike-- Visual C++ MVP :cool: LINKS~! CP SearchBar v3.0 | C++ Forum FAQ "That's what's great about doing user interface work. No matter what you do, people will say that what you did was idiotic." -- Raymond Chen
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Inkjets are bad economy and there is no excuse at all to use one in this day and age. 99% of printing is probably still black only for most people so just buy a speedy monochrome laser for that. They're cheap to buy and cheap in ongoing costs versus inkjet. For those that print colour it generally falls into two categories: quick and dirty stuff that you don't care if it's museum quality or not, you just need a quick poster or something, a cheap colour laser again is far cheaper in the long run for this purpose and the quality is perfectly adequate for anything below art gallery requirements. Finally the other colour printing category being stuff you want to frame and put on a wall which is best handled by your local or online repro shop anyway, they have far better quality equipment than the average home user could ever afford, the inks and paper can be archival quality and it's far cheaper to get them to print it than the ongoing costs of silly inkjet printers designed for no other purpose than to suck money out of your wallet perpetually.
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." -Sam Levenson
John C wrote:
Inkjets are bad economy and there is no excuse at all to use one in this day and age.
Only if you do alot of printing. My home volume is a bit under one set of ink cartridges/year, and some of that I do need color for. A quick check on google shows no color laser all in ones for under $400ish. Assuming an inkjet dies after 1 cart change, costs $100 for the printer and $50 for the ink; my amortized cost for IJ printing is $75/year. Assuming it doesn't break and doesn't need new toner at any point the laser would take over 5 years to become more economical.
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall
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Inkjets are bad economy and there is no excuse at all to use one in this day and age. 99% of printing is probably still black only for most people so just buy a speedy monochrome laser for that. They're cheap to buy and cheap in ongoing costs versus inkjet. For those that print colour it generally falls into two categories: quick and dirty stuff that you don't care if it's museum quality or not, you just need a quick poster or something, a cheap colour laser again is far cheaper in the long run for this purpose and the quality is perfectly adequate for anything below art gallery requirements. Finally the other colour printing category being stuff you want to frame and put on a wall which is best handled by your local or online repro shop anyway, they have far better quality equipment than the average home user could ever afford, the inks and paper can be archival quality and it's far cheaper to get them to print it than the ongoing costs of silly inkjet printers designed for no other purpose than to suck money out of your wallet perpetually.
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." -Sam Levenson
I print one-off DVD labels, and there are only two brands of printer than can print directly to a DVD - Epson and Canon (and the Canon requires a hardware mod). I printed a photo on that high-quality paper that costs $30 for 50 sheets, and I was amazed at the quality - it really is suitable for framing. The continuous ink system saves me a LOT of money on ink because I only have to buy bottles of ink instead of having to but those itsy-bitsy cartridges from the manufacturer. Everyone knows that factory replacement cartridges are a rip-off.
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001 -
I print one-off DVD labels, and there are only two brands of printer than can print directly to a DVD - Epson and Canon (and the Canon requires a hardware mod). I printed a photo on that high-quality paper that costs $30 for 50 sheets, and I was amazed at the quality - it really is suitable for framing. The continuous ink system saves me a LOT of money on ink because I only have to buy bottles of ink instead of having to but those itsy-bitsy cartridges from the manufacturer. Everyone knows that factory replacement cartridges are a rip-off.
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001Hp now has a CD printer - model C5550. We just bought it but have not started using it yet.
