Epson 2200 won't align on duplex

[Gary]

I just bought an Epson Photo 2200. It is a dream compared to my old
1200. But, it has failed the reason I purchased it. It won't duplex.

Or it will. But the front and back are improperly aligned. Vertically (
that is, in the 11 inches of an 8.5 x 11 sheet), it's perfect.
Horizontally (along the 8.5 inches), it is about 1/16th of an inch off.

Here is what I have done to test:

From Photoshop, I have printed a 4 x 5 image, centered in the page with
crops first on one side, then the other. Since it was the same image on
the same page aligned the same way, you would expect it to center the
image in the same place, no?

No. Perfectly aligned along the length. 1/16 off along the width.

It does this in landscape or portrait. It does it printing from
InDesign via a RIP. Always perfect vertically and the same 1/16th inch
off horizontally. It's as if the right hand paper guide or the print
head alignment is 1/32nd off.

I have downloaded the latest drivers. I have tried various
configurations (borderless, minimal margins, etc). BTW, I'm doing this
on OS X 10.3.

Is anyone else experiencing anything like this? Is anyone out there
happy with duplexing and seeing their crops align on the 2200? I want
to return it as a defective unit if there are people doing this
successfully.

Thanks,

Gary

 

[Kevin McMurtrie]

I just bought an Epson Photo 2200. It is a dream compared to my old
1200. But, it has failed the reason I purchased it. It won't duplex.

Or it will. But the front and back are improperly aligned. Vertically (
that is, in the 11 inches of an 8.5 x 11 sheet), it's perfect.
Horizontally (along the 8.5 inches), it is about 1/16th of an inch off.

Here is what I have done to test:

From Photoshop, I have printed a 4 x 5 image, centered in the page with
crops first on one side, then the other. Since it was the same image on
the same page aligned the same way, you would expect it to center the
image in the same place, no?

No. Perfectly aligned along the length. 1/16 off along the width.

It does this in landscape or portrait. It does it printing from
InDesign via a RIP. Always perfect vertically and the same 1/16th inch
off horizontally. It's as if the right hand paper guide or the print
head alignment is 1/32nd off.

I have downloaded the latest drivers. I have tried various
configurations (borderless, minimal margins, etc). BTW, I'm doing this
on OS X 10.3.

Is anyone else experiencing anything like this? Is anyone out there
happy with duplexing and seeing their crops align on the 2200? I want
to return it as a defective unit if there are people doing this
successfully.

Thanks,

Gary

The Epson 2200 doesn't have that grade of alignment. In fact it sprays
a good amount of the image off the edges of the paper and into a gutter
when printing borderless. That slop compensation crops about 1/8 inch
off the image.

 

[CWatters]

From Photoshop, I have printed a 4 x 5 image, centered in the page with
crops first on one side, then the other. Since it was the same image on
the same page aligned the same way, you would expect it to center the
image in the same place, no?

It's not exactly the same if you are croping it two different ways. Try
printing the same image twice without changing anything. Better still set
copies = 2 in the printer driver. Does that work?

 

[GB]

The Epson 2200 doesn't have that grade of alignment. In fact it sprays
a good amount of the image off the edges of the paper and into a gutter
when printing borderless. That slop compensation crops about 1/8 inch
off the image.

What's amazing about this is that it is always off exactly the same
amount. The printer seems to have pretty predictable control from
what I see. It feels as if the right hand guide on the printer is
1/32th inch too far left. That's pushing the image 16th off on each
side, giving me a 1/16th inch gap.

I called Epson. They gave me the usual runaround about drivers.
Installing the updated drivers did nothing.

How do you deal with tech support issues that never get resolved?
It's gets so dissatisfying that you give up and learn to live with
substandard quality. I guess that explains Windows, too.

Gary