Print head starting & stopping points

[gographics]

I have been wondering if this is common or not for most people in the business...

I have a Roland SP-540V and I saw recently in a video someone using it to print and the print head would stop just after the media and return direction to continue printing rather than traveling the entire way down the machine before returning direction.

I asked the distributor we got it from if I can set the printer up that way so it would print faster, he said that is not good for the machine and will waer the parts out faster, better to have it travel the full range every time it prints reguardless of media size.

I am wondering what everyone else does, do you change the settings so it returns at the other side of the media you are using or does it travel the full length of the machine all the time.

Does it hurt the printer/internals by changing this setting?

If it is ok to use the printer this way, where do I change the settings etc? and what do I set them at?

Thanks for any help.

[slangsc]

The setting is in the printer menu under Full Width Scan. If you want it to travel all the way, choose "FULL". If you want it to travel the size of your media, choose "MEDIA". It will change how fast you print and thus increases the speed of ink being laid down, and the media spends less time on the platen heater, so it can change how your image looks in the end. I only use this setting for sheets of decals printed onto 15" colored vinyl for example, using black ink only, since the dot gain won't matter. It shouldn't cause any more wear on the parts since it has to stop and start no matter what the setting is.

[gographics]

So you recommend leaving it at full scan? I guess I'll have to [play with it and see how it prints...any other suggestions? Do you have to start changing profiles based on that if the media will be feeding faster and laying ink quicker?

Learn new things every hour let alone every day

This board is priceless!!

Thanks

[slangsc]

I would say the color won't shift noticably, but you may find that some colors start to bleed together or you may get banding or some artifacts, especially in areas with heavy ink. I recommend leaving it at full-scan unless these are things you can live with. Full-scan basically ensures that every print is printed at the same speed, no matter the size, so your results are more consistent.

[ziggytim]

you know how to do that on a mimaki?

[James605]

I had my printer set up and it does not use full width scan and i have never had any problems. My thinking was it would print faster since it didnt have to go all the way across the printer. Im not saying this is right or wrong, but i was curious to see what others were doing also.

[slangsc]

Again, it comes down to whether your media profile allows for the quicker time between passes. I do print like this when image quality is not as important, such as on 36" banners. But I've profiled my media myself to allow for it.