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#1
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Different types of parallel port cables
I have a relative who owns a Epson C60 inkjet printer. It is about four
years old and is connected to a desktop PC running Windows 2000. Previous to that the printer was connected to a desktop PC running Windows 98SE. With both of these computers, the Epson printer was connected via a parallel port cable, which it shares with a flatbed scanner. In fact, the parallel port cable came with the scanner. The print quality with the Epson C60 has never been very good, especially with color images. I've noticed that retail stores sell different types of parallel port cables, some with gold plated connectors. Is it possible that buying a more expensive parallel port cable will improve the print quality? I realize the problem could be 500 other things. I'm just wondering if the type of parallel cable has an impact on print quality. The one that came with the scanner appears to be a basic one. |
#3
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History Fan wrote: I have a relative who owns a Epson C60 inkjet printer. It is about four years old and is connected to a desktop PC running Windows 2000. Previous to that the printer was connected to a desktop PC running Windows 98SE. With both of these computers, the Epson printer was connected via a parallel port cable, which it shares with a flatbed scanner. In fact, the parallel port cable came with the scanner. The print quality with the Epson C60 has never been very good, especially with color images. I've noticed that retail stores sell different types of parallel port cables, some with gold plated connectors. Is it possible that buying a more expensive parallel port cable will improve the print quality? NOT AT ALL. A better cable will last longer and may reduce lost bits. I realize the problem could be 500 other things. Maybe its AfterMarket ink???? I'm just wondering if the type of parallel cable has an impact on print quality. The one that came with the scanner appears to be a basic one. |
#4
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History Fan wrote:
I have a relative who owns a Epson C60 inkjet printer. It is about four years old and is connected to a desktop PC running Windows 2000. Previous to that the printer was connected to a desktop PC running Windows 98SE. With both of these computers, the Epson printer was connected via a parallel port cable, which it shares with a flatbed scanner. In fact, the parallel port cable came with the scanner. The print quality with the Epson C60 has never been very good, especially with color images. I've noticed that retail stores sell different types of parallel port cables, some with gold plated connectors. Is it possible that buying a more expensive parallel port cable will improve the print quality? I realize the problem could be 500 other things. I'm just wondering if the type of parallel cable has an impact on print quality. The one that came with the scanner appears to be a basic one. Buying a more expensive cable won't do a thing for you in terms of quality, or speed for that mater. The newer parallel cables were certified for bi-directional communication where as the older ones were not. In reality, most shorter pre bi-directional cables worked fine for bi-directional tasks such as ink level reporting. Save your money and put it towards a replacement printer, preferably one without chipped cartridges. |
#5
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Leaving the cable question aside for the moment.
What kind of paper is used? Regular economy copy paper does not allow high quality on most printers. Epson's and other makes of printers have changed quite a bit in the last few years. The size of the ink drop has decreased to about half of what it was. one to two peculators seems to be the current range for photo printers. The number of ink colors has increased on many printers to a total of six or even eight. Besides this, the ability to precisely position the ink dot has improved. A good high quality parallel cable isn't exactly cheap. The common parallel port printer modes are SPP (old slower reliable) ECP (Now very common) and EPP. A scanner- printer daisy chain may use any of the modes. Some of the drivers actually tested the parallel port data link to see which mode worked, and selected the best to use. In short, a better parallel cable is more likely to speed up printing slightly than to change printing quality. I'm also assuming that the parallel cable is six feet or less. Based on past experience with printers such as HP's high end business quality color printers, and several Cannon printer models, I'd say that an acceptable photo can be made with the older color printers with some effort. The newer printers can produce a higher quality result with much less effort, although optimizing a new printer involves the same sort of "tweak and tune" process that was used with the older printers. Software and inks have also improved. Most of the newer drivers do a better job of matching the sRGB color gamut to a printer's capability. Out of the box, with the recommended papers, and a new printer, I would expect to see the brighter 80% of a reference picture printed correctly, and the darker 20% to be darker than is correct. With proper tweaking, this can be improved, to the point that The lightest shade (white) and the next lightest shade by 10% can be seen, and the difference between 100 % black and a 90% black shade is visable. Out of the box settings seem to favor a bolder more contrasty picture than is actually technically correct. The better paper sources usually provide printer specific information. For instance Kodak provides correction factors for thier paper and my Epson R300. Epson provides a driver compatable file that sets an Epson driver up for Epson papers. All of the above aside-- With some effort, I can setup an older Canon S750 to provide a quality printed photo that will be very difficult to tell from the same photo printed by the R300. The R300 has slightly better droplet positioning capability, and a slightly smaller droplet. Even so, the differences can only be utilized internally within each printers driver. "History Fan" wrote in message ... I have a relative who owns a Epson C60 inkjet printer. It is about four years old and is connected to a desktop PC running Windows 2000. Previous to that the printer was connected to a desktop PC running Windows 98SE. With both of these computers, the Epson printer was connected via a parallel port cable, which it shares with a flatbed scanner. In fact, the parallel port cable came with the scanner. The print quality with the Epson C60 has never been very good, especially with color images. I've noticed that retail stores sell different types of parallel port cables, some with gold plated connectors. Is it possible that buying a more expensive parallel port cable will improve the print quality? I realize the problem could be 500 other things. I'm just wondering if the type of parallel cable has an impact on print quality. The one that came with the scanner appears to be a basic one. |
#6
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Is it possible that buying a more
expensive parallel port cable will improve the print quality? In the olden days of daisy wheel and dot matrix printers where a single bit error would result in the wrong character being printed, I never ever saw this happen unless it was an extra long, and we're talking 20ft huge ass cable, where IIRC the max distance is 6ft or so for the old centronics standard. In all fairness, high speed bi directional does require a good solid cable, but I never upgraded mine, never had a problem. But a bad cable shouldn't affect quality of the output image but rather mangle the data going to the printer, resulting in either intermittent failure, garbage data, or plain old wouldn't work at all. Good thing to troubleshoot, but not very likely. The only cable that wouldn't work for me was one I bought at radio shack, but this was when their clone of the HP laserjet II had a different pinout than the rest of the world and the cable was useless unless you happened to own a Tandy laser. If you must buy a cable, see if it's marked IEEE-1284. You could buy a 6ft gold one from Dalco.com for $6.00 or so, or a Belkin tin one for under $10.00. Typicaly speaking retail stores mark up their cables by at least 100% if not more. "Would you like a cable with your printer, it doesn't come with one". |
#7
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The cable is not likely to improve the results you are getting. Unlike
the dubious report of improved sound quality with gold plated audio cables, the information transferred from your computer to your printer is digital in nature, so it is unlikely that errors would manifest as problems with color fidelity. More common problems related to cables are, sudden loss of the connection, causing the print to be kicked out before completion, loss of the computer recognizing the printer as being on line, a sudden offset line of image or text in the midst of the print, loss of ink level monitoring, unexplained out of ink messages and the like. If you can better describe the nature of the color defects you see, I may be able to help you to point to the issue and maybe even the fix. It could be color management issues, misuse of driver adjustments, need to realign the heads or timing, partially clogged heads and so on. Art History Fan wrote: I have a relative who owns a Epson C60 inkjet printer. It is about four years old and is connected to a desktop PC running Windows 2000. Previous to that the printer was connected to a desktop PC running Windows 98SE. With both of these computers, the Epson printer was connected via a parallel port cable, which it shares with a flatbed scanner. In fact, the parallel port cable came with the scanner. The print quality with the Epson C60 has never been very good, especially with color images. I've noticed that retail stores sell different types of parallel port cables, some with gold plated connectors. Is it possible that buying a more expensive parallel port cable will improve the print quality? I realize the problem could be 500 other things. I'm just wondering if the type of parallel cable has an impact on print quality. The one that came with the scanner appears to be a basic one. |
#8
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"History Fan" wrote in message ... I have a relative who owns a Epson C60 inkjet printer. It is about four years old and is connected to a desktop PC running Windows 2000. Previous to that the printer was connected to a desktop PC running Windows 98SE. With both of these computers, the Epson printer was connected via a parallel port cable, which it shares with a flatbed scanner. In fact, the parallel port cable came with the scanner. The print quality with the Epson C60 has never been very good, especially with color images. I've noticed that retail stores sell different types of parallel port cables, some with gold plated connectors. Is it possible that buying a more expensive parallel port cable will improve the print quality? I realize the problem could be 500 other things. I'm just wondering if the type of parallel cable has an impact on print quality. The one that came with the scanner appears to be a basic one. Although there may be many types of parallel cables available, it is unlikely the cause of the print quality. It would be a good idea to have the printer on a separate port from the scanner since this more often than not results in communication issues (printer not responding to print commands or false 'out of paper' errors). I own a C60 and have given it to my sister who uses it quite frequently to print photos. They are usually good quality depending on the image and other factors, so it may be that either your driver settings are not appropriate for the image quality you want or the nozzles are plugged. It could, of course, also be due to needing new ink cartridges, but this would result in an 'ink out' condition. If you haven't already done so, try running the nozzle check to see if the pattern is complete (the driver has a maintenance tab that allows this function). If not, run the head cleanings as needed and/or replace the ink cartridge(s). BTW, the print head alignment is almost never helpful in cases where print quality is poor. The head alignment only works if your printer is printing text and the top half of the letter is slightly offset from the bottom half. Many people spend way too much time running head alignments for this very same issue and, if anything, makes matters worse when it's not done properly. Hope this helps... |
#9
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I think I might have mentioned print head alignment in replying to the
O.P. , and you are correct... I wasn't thinking about it, but most current Epson printers use only one ganged head which contains the color and black ink head as one unit. Older Epson printers have a color head and a black head, and these do suffer from print quality loss if not aligned to each other. Only older machines with separate or and black heads can be effected Marky wrote: BTW, the print head alignment is almost never helpful in cases where print quality is poor. The head alignment only works if your printer is printing text and the top half of the letter is slightly offset from the bottom half. Many people spend way too much time running head alignments for this very same issue and, if anything, makes matters worse when it's not done properly. Hope this helps... |
#10
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"Arthur Entlich" wrote in message news:05Ape.1599652$6l.224705@pd7tw2no... I think I might have mentioned print head alignment in replying to the O.P. , and you are correct... I wasn't thinking about it, but most current Epson printers use only one ganged head which contains the color and black ink head as one unit. Older Epson printers have a color head and a black head, and these do suffer from print quality loss if not aligned to each other. Only older machines with separate or and black heads can be effected You're probably correct about the heads since it appears you actually read the service manuals. I was never inclined to pick one up and too busy to bother with the mechanics. I just learned from experience in support that alignments don't work or don't apply if the nozzles are not firing. I was always amused when people complained that they couldn't read the alignment patterns because the printer was not putting any ink on the paper. It took me a bit of practice to learn to immediately divert customers from the alignment and get them to focus on the real issue. Time was money in support, after all. Marky Marky wrote: BTW, the print head alignment is almost never helpful in cases where quality is poor. The head alignment only works if your printer is printing text and the top half of the letter is slightly offset from the bottom half. Many people spend way too much time running head alignments for this very same issue and, if anything, makes matters worse when it's not done properly. Hope this helps... |
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