Piezography® Install procedures for 4900, 7900, 9900

*As of this writing, QuadTone RIP has not yet been updated by Roy Harrington. It will appear that it does not support the 4900/7900/9900. If this is the case, please download the curves here and follow this instruction for updating QuadTone RIP on your own - but please follow the rest of the instructions on this page for setting up your printer: 4900/7900/9900-K7 matte and glossy curves click here. Instructions for installation of above curves: (MAC) Uncompress the 4900-7900-9900-K7.zip, drag and drop it into your QuadToneRIP> Profiles folder, then install the printer model by double clicking the K7install.command specific to your printer model. Now, when you go to print you should have a 4900-K7, 7900-K7or 9900-K7 printer model to select, which should show the list of curves in the QTR curve pull down list. (WINDOWS) Drag and drop the 4900-7900-9900-K7 folder to your C\ProgramFiles\QuadToneRIP\QuadTone folder. Now, when you open QTR you should have a 4900-K7, 7900-K7 or 9900-K7 printer model listed and the curves available to select.

Summary

Use these procedures to convert your color printer to a Piezography printer. If you are installing user refillable cartridges, please refer to the installation instructions provided with the refillable cartridges.

The placement of the shades of Piezography ink are critical and not arbitrary. You must refer to the shade location table provided here on this document. A Piezography system depends upon software with which to control the ink shades. Installation instructions and support of that software is provided by the manufacturers of those software. After installing the QTR software, you can not use the QTR recommended workflow. Piezography uses a proprietary QTR workflow and this is detailed in our Piezography manual. Please follow our workflow so that you can get the best results from our product.

Printer Testing

We recommend that you verify that your printer functions perfectly with Epson inks before installing Piezography inks. In addition to printing a perfect nozzle check, make certain that the printer does not have unfix-able banding problems by making test prints. Take the time to scrutinize your printer’s performance before the next step. It can become more difficult to diagnose many printing problems on a printer that has not first been tested with Epson inks. Of course, it is more complex to do this - so we leave it to your decision. But, when we sell Deluxe kits we include two sets of carts and PiezoFlush and Inks. We realize the expense of this best practice. That is what it is - a best practice rather than a requirement.

However, with MacOS users and the 4900 - the testing of the printer with Epson color inks will make for a more difficult installation process. Not impossible, just more difficult. And because this printer is the first Pro style printer to be released without a true Power Clean function, changing over inks is a different procedure from any previous installation instructions. So even if you are a seasoned Piezographer and this is your umpteenth printer - please pay close attention to how Piezography inks can be installed in the Pro 4900.

Use of flush cartridges with the 4900 / 7900/ 9900 printer

The use of flush cartridges is suggested when switching to Piezography Neutral K7 inks from a non-Epson or non-Piezography ink set, or if you have been experiencing clogging problems with your current ink set. Otherwise, the actual Piezography K7 inks can be used to "flush" out the pre-existing color inks from your printer. Usually two flushings are required. If you do not use flush carts, you may need to print some additional media before all traces of color ink have been removed.

Items needed to have on hand when changing inks

A set of ink cartridges; a set of flush cartridges (if used); an eighth cartridge, either ink or flush fluid for the Photo Black slot; a spare maintenance tank (available through Epson), or a large format cartridge and waste tank chip resetter.

Note about the maintenance tank: Instead of replacing a full maintenance tank, you may use a large format chip resetter to reset your maintenance tank chip to read empty. It is safe to reset the maintenance tank chip one time; if you wish to do it more than once, periodically check the waste ink level in the tank, to ensure that it does not overfill with waste ink. It is possible to dis-assemble the maintenance tank and replace the filling with some absorbent material. Chip resetters are available on-line. Be sure to purchase one specifically for large format Epson printers.

Changing inks in your printer introduction.

The new EPSON Pro 4900 (and also the R3000) is the first generation of Epson LF printers to not have a true POWER CLEAN function or INIT FILL function built in to the printer controls or supplied printer utilities. Previous generation X800 and X880 printers have always had these superlative cleaning functions. With the new X900 printers a power clean moves only a few ml of ink. It might take 20-50 "power cleans" to empty an X900 printer. Because the X900 printers feature a short-life, delicate print head - the use of too many Powerful Paired Cleanings or the cycle called "Power Clean" is thought by several sources to considerably reduce print head life. These cleaning cycles now provide stimulus to the print head we do not recommend applying more than 2-3 of the Power Cleans or Powerful Paired Cleanings at one time, without allowing an hour rest to the print head. You can not be too cautious with the X900 print heads. (We also recommend that these printers only be purchased with extended warranties).

The 7900 and 9900 printers do have a built-in Initial Fill cycle within the Serviceman Mode. The Initial Fill allows the print head to move over to the capping station where strong suction is applied in order to drain the printer of its inks. There is considerable amount of ink inside the 4900, 7900 and 9900 printer contained in the long ink lines and ink dampers. For example, there is 40ml of ink inside each ink channel of the 9900 printer. To use regular head cleanings to move this ink out would certainly damage the print head. The 7900 contains about 30ml ink per channel. The 4900 contains about 20ml ink per channel. This ink should be vacated from the printer by using the Initial Fill cycle.

Initial Fill Cycle for Epson pro 7900, 9900:

1. Start with the printer power OFF
2. Hold the Menu/Right, Paper Feed/Down and OK buttons while turning the printer on. The printer will start in "Serviceman Mode".
3. Push the Menu button, scroll to and select CLEANING.
4. Scroll and select INIT FILL.
5. When finished, exit Serviceman Mode by turning the printer off, then back on regularly.

The recommended best practice for the 7900, 9900 printers is:

1. Install PiezoFlush into a set of refillable cartridges and insert these into the printer.
2. Run the Initial Fill Cycle.
3. Test the printer to make certain that the flush is at the print head and a manual nozzle check reveals the "pink" PiezoFlush.
4. Install a set of Piezography ink filled refillable cartridges into the printer. The cartridges must be filled according to the chart at the bottom of this document.
5. Run the Initial Fill Cycle.
6. Test the printer to make certain that the inks are at the print head using a manual nozzle check.

Normally this will remove all traces of pigment from the ink dampers. If you decide instead to use Piezography inks to flush your printer, it may require two Initial Fill cycles. One is not enough. If you decide to do only one, you will need to print through the yellow and magenta ink casts in the shades 7 and 6 positions. These are the lightest shades of Piezography and yellow and magenta inks have the strongest tinting properties. It will eventually run clean of these casts and you must weigh the costs of using PiezoFlush against the time required to remove stain from your printer using only the Piezography inks.

Removing the color ink from the 4900 printer:

There is no Power Clean or Initial Fill cycle available for the 4900 printer. The only way in which you can perform an Initial Fill is using the Epson Service Adjustment Software that is available from 2manuals.com by clicking here. We have no affiliation with 2manuals.com, but we notice that they provide software and manuals for nearly all the hardware and equipment from the most popular manufacturers in the world. The cost is reasonable. It provides all of the functions that an Epson repair technician would use to adjust your printer. It runs only on Windows, but we use it by running Windows on top of Parallels for Mac. There is a video instructions on the 2manuals.com website that shows how to run the Initial Fill.

This is Ink Change Procedure:

1. Beg, borrow, or procure a Windows PC or laptop. (Inexpensive PCs are available on eBay for under $100 which can be used to run the Epson Service Adjustment Software.
   
   
2. Test the printer with Epson inks to verify that it functions perfectly, as described above.
   
   
3. Obtain or download and install the Epson Service Adjustment Software. This software may be available from many sources, but we find it convenient that 2manuals.com offers these software utilities and also Epson printer Service Manuals. The cost is reasonable and they also offer a free Waste Ink Counter reset utility.
   
   
4. Remove the Epson ink cartridges and replace with the Piezography filled or PiezoFlush filled refillable cartridges. The cartridges must be filled according to the chart at the bottom of this document.
   
   
5. Make sure that the printer is in the Ready state.
   
   
6. Launch the Epson Service Adjustment Software and click on the Particular Adjustment Mode.
   
   
7. Click on Ink Charge on the Maintenance Menu. In the Ink Charge Menu click on the Ink Charge button. The printer will now perform the original ink initialization. It takes several minutes. About 20ml of ink in each position will be charged through the system. Do not interrupt the printer or system. You will see a confirmation that the ink charge has been completed when it is finished.
   
   
8. From this same window you can perform head cleanings and nozzle checks. You may wish to do so. However, if you can not get a clean nozzle check within 3 tries. Allow the printer to settle down for several hours. You can use the regular Epson utility software or the printer's maintenance menu to perform nozzle checks and head cleans.
   
   
   
9. Verify that you have a perfect nozzle check pattern before printing images. The pattern will consist of six sections, of different shades of gray. The lightest shade, shade #7, is faint. GO is invisible except on glossy inkjet paper.
   
   Note: We recommend first flushing the printer to remove the color ink stain from the dampers. You would perform the Ink Charge to move the PiezoFlush through the printer and then a second Ink Charge to move the Piezography inks into the printer. Because shade 7 is such a light gray and is installed in the yellow position, you may see a yellow cast if you do not flush or perform at least two ink charges. The same is with shade 6 which is installed in the light magenta position.
   
   
10. Screen shots for Epson Service Adjustment Software (these screen shots are for the R3000 utility but are similar to what you would see in the 4900 utility.

The recommended best practice for the 4900 printers is:

1. Install PiezoFlush into a set of refillable cartridges and insert these into the printer.
2. Run the Windows only Epson Service Adjustment Utility in order to perform an Initial Fill Cycle.
3. Test the printer to make certain that the flush is at the print head and a manual nozzle check reveals the "pink" PiezoFlush.
4. Install a set of Piezography ink filled refillable cartridges into the printer. The cartridges must be filled according to the chart at the bottom of this document.
5. Run the Windows only Epson Service Adjustment Utility in order to perform an Initial Fill Cycle.
6. Test the printer to make certain that the inks are at the print head using a manual nozzle check.

Normally this will remove all traces of pigment from the ink dampers. If you decide instead to use Piezography inks to flush your printer, it may require two Initial Fill cycles. One is not enough. If you decide to do only one, you will need to print through the yellow and magenta ink casts in the shades 7 and 6 positions. These are the lightest shades of Piezography and yellow and magenta inks have the strongest tinting properties. It will eventually run clean of these casts and you must weigh the costs of using PiezoFlush against the time required to remove stain from your printer using only the Piezography inks.

Shade location table:
"Color" ink cartridge position in printer, from left to right	Piezography Ink Shade used in this position
Cyan	Shade #2
Orange	Optional Dig Neg Shade #2.5 or install a PiezoFlush filled cart
Yellow	Shade #7
Light Cyan	Shade #3
Matte Black	NU Shade #1 (matte black)
Photo Black	WN or Sel Shade #1 (photo blacks)
Vivid Magenta	Shade #4
Light Black	Shade #6
Green	Optional Dig Neg Shade #4.5 or install a PiezoFlush filled cart
Light Light Black	Piezography Gloss Optimizer or PiezoFlush if no glossy or baryta is desirable
Light Magenta	Shade #5

* Gloss Optimizer is supported with all of the Piezography ink sets and requires the use of either Selenium Shade 1 (a neutral Photo Black) or Warm Neutral Shade 1 (a warm Photo Black). Soon we will only offer one Photo Black to minimize confusion. There are no differences in the use of either Selenium or Warm Neutral Shade 1.

Storage of previously used ink cartridges

You may wish to remove and save one or more cartridges that you have removed from your printer, for use in the future. If you want to store your cartridges for later use, place the removed cartridges in plastic bags, close the bags tightly to minimize ink evaporation, and place the cartridges in a box so that they sit upright, as they do when they are in the printer. Storing a previously opened cartridge on its side or upside down will allow ink to leak out of the air vent holes. We recommend taping over the vent holes to prevent evaporation.

Printing images with Piezography inks and QuadTone RIP software

In order to use these inks correctly, you must print your images through QuadTone RIP shareware. QuadTone RIP contains pre made curves (profiles) to use the correct shades of ink in different regions of a print. It is not possible to achieve good results without using QuadTone RIP

We provide the pre made curves that are included in the download of QuadTone RIP software. Our pre made curves follow this format: K6-2880-HahnGermEtch where K6 is the inkset, 2880 is the dpi setting in the printer, and HahnGermEtch is the paper. A complete list of provided media curves is located below.

• QuadTone RIP is downloaded from this website: http://www.quadtonerip.com
  
  
• Note: Do not use the QTR manual that is part of the QuadTone RIP download. Piezography workflow is quite different.
  
  
• A new comprehensive Piezography workflow guide for QuadTone RIP is found here: The NEW Piezography Manual.
  

Pre-made media curves provided by Piezography for this printer model

Abbreviated Profile Name	Actual Paper Name
Bergger PN32	Bergger PN32
Bergger PN33	Bergger PN33
Bergger PN61	Bergger PN61
Bergger PN62	Bergger PN62
CansonArchesAqua	Canson Arches Aquarelle
CansonArchesVelin	Canson Arches Velin
CansonBFKrives	Canson BFK Rives
CansonEditionEtchRag	Canson Edition Etching Rag
CansonMiTeintes	Canson Mi Teintes
CansonMontvalAqua	Canson Montcal Aquarelle
CansonRagPhoto	Canson Rag Photographique
EpEnhancedMatte	Epson Enhanced Matte (a.k.a. Epson Archival Matte)
EpsonVFA	Epson Velvet Fine Art
HahnBamboo	Hahnemuhle Bamboo
HahnGermanEtch	Hahnemuhle German Etching
HahnMuseumEtch	Hahnemuhle Museum Etching
HahnNatArtDuo	Hahnemuhle Natural Art Duo
HanPhotoRag	Hahnemuhle Photo Rag
HanPhotoRagBrtW	Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Bright White
HanWhiteVelvet	Hahnemuhle White Velvet
HanWilliamTurner	Hahnemuhle William Turner
IlfordSmoothMatte	Ilford Smooth Matte
InnovaPhotoSmoothC	Innova Photo Smooth Cotton
JCStype2	JonCone Studio Type 2
MoabEntradaFABW	Moab Entrada Fine Art Bright White
MoabEntradaFANat	Moab Entrada Fine Art Natural
MoabLasalMattePM	Moab Lasal Photo Matte
GLOSSY	Requires GO and the use of either Selenium Shade 1 (a neutral Photo Black) or Warm Neutral Shade 1 (a warm Photo Black)
CansonBarytaSatin	Canson Baryta Infinity Photographique
InfBaryta	Canson Infinity Baryta Satin
EPexhibitFiber	Epson Exhibition Fiber
HANptoRagBaryta	Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Baryta
HarmonGlFbWt	Harmon Photo Baryta FB Warm
InkpressBarytaWT	InkPress Baryta WarmTone
JonCone Studio Type5	JonCone Studio Type5

Additional Custom media curves are available here: InkjetMall custom K6 and K7 curves

Glossy Curves are available for download here: Piezography Glossy Curves Library

How to install R3000-K7 driver for QuadTone RIP

You must have installed the QuadTone RIP software which is available at quadtonerip.com. Please pay the author his shareware fee directly on the quadtonerip.com website.

(MAC) Uncompress the QuadR3000-K7 zip file (click here for zip file). It will create a folder, drag and drop it into your Applications>QuadTone RIP> Profiles folder. Install the R3000-K7 printer model by double clicking the R3000-K7install.command. When you go to print you should have a R3000-K7 printer model to select, which will show the list of pre-made curves in the QTR curve pull down list. Make sure to follow The NEW Piezography Manual rather than the QuadTone RIP manual. Piezography is not compatible with traditional QuadTone RIP workflow. Piezography uses a different workflow described in our manual.

(WINDOWS) Uncompress the QuadR3000-K7 zip file (click here for zip file). It will create a folder, drag and drop the folder into your C:\ProgramFiles\QuadToneRIP\QuadTone folder. Now, when you open the QTR application, you will have a R3000-K7 printer model and pre-made curves available to select. Make sure to follow The NEW Piezography Manual rather than the QuadTone RIP manual. Piezography is not compatible with traditional QuadTone RIP workflow. Piezography uses a different workflow described in our manual.