SC P5000 prints nicely for the first two inches down, then quits

[perkin-warbeck]

After printing approximately two inches, the printer stops and, after pausing for a few seconds, gives a "Paper Eject" error.

Now here's what's unusual about the way I'm printing. I'm printing in color over a cyanotype print in order to "colorize" the print. The cyanotype print is on 8.5 x 11" Arches Platine 145 GSM, a "fine art" paper (i.e., not an inkjet paper) and I'm printing with matte ink.

Any idea what could be making the printer stop printing?

 

[Shadowman]

The printer is sensing different texture, are you getting any other warning message.

 

[perkin-warbeck]

The printer is sensing different texture, are you getting any other warning message.

I'm not getting any error other than the "Paper Eject Error."

I have attached a photo of the partial print. You can see where the printer stopped. The blue background is the cyanotype. The bright green (and orange) was printed by the P5000. There is no change in the texture of the paper as far as I can tell. Cyanotype does not lie on the surface of the paper. It embeds itself in the fibers, so the paper is uniformly smooth to the touch. As far as my fingers can tell, there is no change in texture.

 

[Shadowman]

Were any of the lights for the paper/ink check flashing or on?

 

[perkin-warbeck]

I remember that there were one or more low ink lights. I will check the lights as soon as I can and let you know exactly which ones are flashing/on. The printer is at our local community college.

I will also see if I can print on a blank sheet of Arches paper. That should tell us something!

 

[perkin-warbeck]

There were three low ink lights: LC, VM, and C. No other warning lights or symbols were flashing.

Today I printed the "color layer" on a BLANK sheet of Arches paper. The print was perfect and the paper ejected normally when the print was done. This means the paper is not the problem. It's what's ON the paper.

I called Epson support. The only advice from them was to print from Photoshop rather than Lightroom. So I printed from Photoshop over cyanotype and got the same partial print followed by a Paper Eject error. This means the application is not the problem. It's what's ON the paper!

What is it about printing on paper that has some color on it that would cause A P5000 to give up in such a strange way? Surely the P5000 doesn't demand a clean white sheet of paper.

 

[Shadowman]

To me it would seem that the printer is sensing glossy paper while you are using matte ink, however the P5000 usually would give you the message that ink set does not match, however if the printer senses matte paper at the very edge then senses matte; this could be the issue.

 

[perkin-warbeck]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I know you can print on glossy paper with matte ink and you can print on matte paper with photo black ink (you can, but that's not saying you should). The printer doesn't know and doesn't care. If paper/ink mismatch was an error, there would be an appropriate error message, and there would be a warning in the manual. There is no such error error message and nothing in the manual suggests that it is an error to do so.

There is no glossiness in a cyanotype print. Cyanotype embeds itself in the fibers; it does not remain on the surface. The printed image has the same texture and reflectivity as the unprinted border.

The fact that the printer stops two inches into the print, shuts off the drive motor, waits 15 seconds, and then issues a "Paper Eject" error suggests this is an Epson bug (a.k.a. "undocumented feature").

I really appreciate hearing your ideas.

 

[Shadowman]

I've printed with some Epson papers labeled as glossy, didn't have an ICC profile available, and received error message "check LCD panel-incorrect media chosen", when I switched black ink the image printed. But I agree with you that its what's on the paper that's causing the error.

 

[perkin-warbeck]

I'll try printing on an Epson 3880 and see what happens.

 

[Shadowman]

You might find this link helpful, or perhaps not.
https://patents.google.com/patent/US20040028825A1/en

 

[perkin-warbeck]

Thank you Shadowman. My goal at the moment is less lofty. I just want to get the printer to lay down some ink.

I think I'm getting close to a solution. I printed the color image on the cyanotype side of the paper, but this time I fed the paper upside-down. The printer had no problem laying down the color. So I think the problem is the something at the top of the paper. The difference between the top and bottom edge is hard to explain without referring back to the photo I posted earlier in this discussion. As you can see, the top of the page has a dark blue line running horizontally 0.88 inches from the top edge. This line resulted from imperfect masking of the negative when I exposed the print. I'm going to see what happens when I use white-out on this edge. I'll cover it with tape so it doesn't gum up the print head.

Edit: nothing I that I tried (including covering up the dark blue line, as described above) got the printer to print beyond the first couple of inches when I loaded the paper with the correct orientation (it fails with a "Paper Eject" error). Meanwhile the printer always succeeds when I load the paper upside down.

 

[Shadowman]

Glad you got it figured out.

 

[perkin-warbeck]

Thanks, I wish I had! But a mystery remains as to why the printer is happy with one paper orientation but not the other. When cyanotype print is put in upside down, the printer adds the color perfectly (of course the color is in the wrong places). But when the print is right-side-up, I always get a Paper Eject Error.

I'm making a new cyanotype print and will start again from the beginning. Until then, thanks for your help and suggestions!

 

[perkin-warbeck]

I did some more research and discovered that my problem has nothing to do with the fact that I'm overprinting a cyanotype print. I'm going to start a new discussion.

 

[perkin-warbeck]

I called Epson support and got the answer. See this discussion.