U of S | Mailing List Archive | alt-photo-process-l | Re: Pictorico pinholes

Re: Pictorico pinholes



Hey Jack,

Thanks so much. I've decided that it might be the static electricity. The humidity is currently 100% outside (pouring rain), and I wouldn't have thought it was that dry in here, but I do have a humidifier I use in my darkroom. So I moved it to the room where the computer is, and I'm running it in there now. I'm gonna see if this makes any difference at all; if not, I'll try some of these options you mention (and, at the same time, try to remember not to stick any stray wires into my wall plug outlets!) :)

Thanks again; I'll let you know if I have any success at all with the humidifier.

Diana
On Dec 3, 2006, at 7:38 PM, Jack Fulton wrote:

Diana:
Every once in a while occurrences such as this happen . . and, watch out, you will go crazy.
Some thoughts:
1. Sometimes, particularly during the winter, voltage varies in the home . . . a voltage stabilizer can aid by stopping spikes and
drops in the voltage coming into the home. A rather inexpensive one, made in China (of course) is the OPTI/UPS Model #
SS1200 . . . I think the cost is around $35

2. You mention static electricity and if it is very dry where you live that might be a part of the problem. Can you walk across your
rug, shuffling your feet, and then when touching a doorknob make a spark? That indicates static electricity. An aid to that is to
take a metal portion of your printer and screw a wire (such as telephone wire available @ a good hardware or electronics store) and run it to a ground such as a pipe for water. Do not stick it into your wall plug outlet.

These things might help. Surges in home voltage can cause a piezo- electric head to spurt more or not spurt. I noticed various errors while running 2 Epson 7800 printers of my one G5 Macintosh.
Another colleague had similar glitches and was printing of large 36 x 48 inch paper. It would print and then run a bad line or two, therefore ruining the paper. He actually had to purchase a new computer (a used Mac G4 with tons of great software) and that cured his problem. Everything else on the computer worked but when printing. And, he downloaded al new drivers, cleaned, etc. just as you have done.

So, that is three things to think about.
Best of fortune with this pesky problem
Jack Fulton




On December2006, at 3:58 PM, Diana Bloomfield wrote:

Hi all,

I have a question maybe someone can answer here. I have used Pictorico for a while, with an Epson 2200. I have been working on one particular negative, and every single time I print it, on Pictorico, I get these little pinholes (always always up in the blank sky area). I have cleaned everything-- my house, the dog, the computer/scanner/printer, the room itself, and I've cleaned the original negative obsessively. The entire room/computer/ scanner/printer/negative/dog are cleaner than they've ever been. I opened up a new packet of Pictorico, thinking that maybe something was wrong with the original packet I was using. But the first one out of the box--I printed it, and it was all clean, except for about 6 little pinholes in the sky. Well, they vary in size. I'm going crazy with this.

They don't seem to be dust marks; they just look more like little places where the ink isn't going down properly--or something. So I don't know if this is a static electricity problem or a humidity problem or what. I really haven't a clue. So if anyone else has suffered from this, please tell me what to do about these little pinholes. I'm going crazy here.

Thanks for any help!

Diana