imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 Leaves Light Band at end of Page

[Craigd104]

Hello. I am getting a single light band across the end of the print from my new printer, about 1 inch from the trailing edge of the paper - the part that comes out of the printer last. So far, all my testing has been letter size, but I expect it will happen no matter what the paper size. It occurs the same size and location no matter what paper I use, different files, top or rear feed, etc. The one exception so far is that when using Canon Pro Luster paper, it does not occur. The band is only visible to the naked eye when there is a dark, solid color in that area, like blue sky in my case.  When there is a lot of detail, no-one could ever see it without a microscope, but I have no doubt that it is still there. Here is a link to another post which illustrates (with some great photos of prints) the exact problem I see. I replied to that post as well, but I thought I would re-post here since more people may see it this way.

https://community.usa.canon.com/t5/Professional-Photo-Printers/PRO-1000-Single-band-on-end-of-dark-p...

Based on some vague wording in the manual, I believe this is a limitation of the printer hardware. The manual indicates that printing within 25mm of the end of the paper "can affect the print quality or the paper feed precision". I think the safety margin here is actually more like 30mm, but that’s another discussion. Now wishing I’d bought a printer that takes roll paper…

I was attempting to find out from Canon tech support exactly what kind of degradation of the print quality we might expect, but I got nothing from them so far.

I do not believe this has anything to do with print head clogging or head height since if it did, there would be problems all over the page, not just in one band near the edge.

So, can anyone confirm my hypothesis that this is a limitation of the printer?  (one that they don't really want to talk about)  Is this, in fact, the print quality issue they are alluding to in the manual?

[Craigd104 · Accepted solution]

Well, this has been solved by Canon replacing the printer under warranty. It should not do that, and my new one does not.

[lagers86]

I'm having this exact same issue. A faint band across the last bit of paper, it goes back to colour just before the end of the page. I believe its just one ink colour thats doing it as I tested multiple lines of colour and just the yellow that seems to be doing this. But you're right, I cant see how it would be the print head as the rest of the page is fine and the band appears in the same spot on each print.

My printer is just over a year old and I bought it from an online print shop, not direct from Canon. Was yours over a year old and did you buy it from canon? 

[Nightfae]

I have the exact same issue. All other prints are fine. On A2 borderless using the manual feed I am getting band of about 1 inch about an inch away from the bottom of the print. There is no striping. It is as some colors stop there and resume shortly before the paper finally ends. I can put 2 prints side by side, both having the same issue at the exact same place. Image prints fine on smaller sizes.

Unfortunately, the printer is older than the warranty.

[Craigd104]

When mine started showing this problem it was only 2 or 3 months old. I had purchased it from B&H Photo. And I had also purchased extended warranty coverage from Canon (CarePAK). When you have Canon Care PAK, they take care of you. I never discovered any correlation between feed, paper type, etc. It just always did it except, as I noted above, on Canon Pro Luster.  I don't know what it is. It's a strange problem. It's not the head hitting the paper - there's no evidence of that. The print does not seem to be stretched like if the feed were advancing the paper too much. The ink is just not there.

[Nightfae]

I could solve the issue ok-ish for me. The problem seesm to occur when chosing the paper definition of Hahnemühle PhotoRag Baryta. The thickness of the paper forces you to use the manual feed. The problem ONLY occurs on the manual feed. 
If I instead use the canon paper color profile for semi gloss paper, use the setting of higher print head distance to avoid headstrikes, I can print the photo rag paper with no problems up to A2 in the auto feed. This does not exhibit the problem. This is not ideal as the color profile made for the paper would be preferable, however, canon semi gloss does an ok job here. 

It seems that there is something in the paper handling which is causing the problem between the manual feed and certain paper handling settings that get set in the color profile.