Tech: printing wobbly staff lines - sometimes

Subject: Tech: printing wobbly staff lines - sometimes
From: leeneia
Date: 09 Jul 16 - 12:20 PM

It's funny. I have a Canon printer, and sometimes when I tell it to print music, the staff lines start to wobble up and down a bit partway down the page. The wobbling starts at different places on different pieces.

I just received jpg's of music via Gmail, and when I printed straight from Gmail, by clicking on the attachment, the problem occurred. But if I downloaded the pages and printed them as if they were a photograph, they came out perfectly.

The wobbling also occurs when I use NoteworthyComposer. If I seek customer service, I will get fobbed off with a forum, where I don't suppose anybody will know anything.

Why would my lines wobble sometimes but not other times?

Subject: RE: Tech: printing wobbly staff lines - sometimes
From: Mr Red
Date: 09 Jul 16 - 03:34 PM

could be alliasing. If there is an approximation going on and the image is not aligned horizontally precisely. One app may be printing at a lower resolution or the smoothing software is hiding the problem in one app and not in another.

How wobbly?

Subject: RE: Tech: printing wobbly staff lines - sometimes
From: leeneia
Date: 09 Jul 16 - 06:08 PM

Going down the length of a piece, the lines are offset up or down about a millimeter every 1.5 cms. Makes for a noticeably wavy piece of music.

Subject: RE: Tech: printing wobbly staff lines - sometimes
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 10 Jul 16 - 12:39 AM

Have you checked the printer's alignment recently?

Subject: RE: Tech: printing wobbly staff lines - sometimes
From: Mr Red
Date: 10 Jul 16 - 01:13 AM

Printer alignment may be the answer but at 600 dpi and with some apps printing it OK - less likely. But try in the printer s/w there is sure to be a printout to prove it, maybe an adjustment.

I would say your best hope is to stick with downloading then printing. with Noteworthy Composer - if there is an option to save as jpg - try that, then print with the best printing software. A bit of a bind but...

You could try updating s/w and printer driver but if you have success one way I would stick with that.

Canon misalignment but it refers ti vertical lines.

another webpage

Then there is the subject of the paper, are the guides that feed the paper snug to the edges? is there a stack of paper in the tray ( or shute) or only one? My current printer has a tray and it can do funny things with only a few sheets left. Though lately it is better, something to do with paper and moisture content (I think).
Try thicker paper just for the music, it will be more robust too.

Subject: RE: Tech: printing wobbly staff lines - sometimes
From: Mr Red
Date: 10 Jul 16 - 01:35 AM

Canon USA - a more comprehensive answer

Just a thought, but have you tried head cleaning ? It will be in the Canon apps or on the printer control panel.

Subject: RE: Tech: printing wobbly staff lines - sometimes
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 10 Jul 16 - 05:33 AM

But if I downloaded the pages and printed them as if they were a photograph, they came out perfectly.

This looks as if your printer hardware is OK, just the software does not re-scale properly if the information arrives in a different way than a photograph would.

What I would try is

1. look for up-to-date driver software
2. check through all printer settings

<end-of-my-expertise>.

Subject: RE: Tech: printing wobbly staff lines - sometimes
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 10 Jul 16 - 12:58 PM

The photograph will be using gray scale and the process might be using all four ink cartridges to achieve it unless you tell it not to. Even switching to another photo software will change the palette. Infinite shades of grey (and dark, dark, dark brown.)

Documents are black. The printer won't print gray unless you select a specific scale of gray for the character and then it will print that character only in that one specific shade of gray. No scale. No in betweens.

Big difference in demand on the black cartridge alignment.

It's all just speculation of course... but a head cleaning and alignment would be where I would start, esp if maintenance hasn't been done recently and/or the printer went unused for any length of time.

Subject: RE: Tech: printing wobbly staff lines - sometimes
From: leeneia
Date: 10 Jul 16 - 09:41 PM

I'm familiar with head alignment, because that comes up every time I put in a new cartridge.

The afternoon, the Help Gremlins overheard me say to my husband, "I may stop at Office Depot to buy a new printer." This scared them so bad, they allowed Help to lead me to instructions (neither complete nor accurate) for how to clean the rollers, deep clean the nozzles and do a print-head alignment from the computer, rather than from the buttons on the printer.

I think cleaning the rollers has solved the problem. They may have been jiggling paper from side to side as printing proceeded. For a test, I just printed 5 separate copies of "The Galician Waltz", and each one is perfect.

Not only is the wavy effect gone, but the tiny vertical blank column that's been there for weeks has filled in. I suppose that was the result of today's deep cleaning of the nozzles, though I just did that procedure yesterday. I imagine the Help Gremlins had something to do with the final success.

After all, in the room where my printer is, the gremlins can hear cardinals sing and see lightning bugs. Can't do that in a landfill!

Thanks everybody, for your suggestions and encouragement. Come back for a link to the beautiful Galician Waltz. If you like it, PM me, and I will send you a jpg or MIDI. If it works.

Subject: RE: Tech: printing wobbly staff lines - sometimes
From: leeneia
Date: 10 Jul 16 - 09:43 PM

Galician Waltz