HP latex 310 Print Quality? Grainy?

[xkellyx]

I understand. I was asking to see what his reasoning was. I haven't had a chance to try your suggestion yet as I have been on the phone and teamviewer with my tech all afternoon. I'm feeling a little discouraged. My rep is printing my files at his location to compare.

You can be shure if you ask such questions to more people you will get "the only one I will ever suggest" recommendation for every RIP on the market today .

Flexi is a good choice, for some of the latex printers it is the OEM-RIP HP delivers in the box. Flexi can't be the cause for grainy prints because of, in opposite to other printers on the market and older HP Latex too, all driver options and the dithering will not be managed anymore in the RIP, but in the printer itself: they are contone printers.

I work at a dealer and we deliver and support officially Onyx and SAi (Flexi), upon request Ergosoft Posterprint and Caldera. And they have all their pros and cons: Flexi is very easy to use and inexpensive, Onyx have Advantages in Color Replacement and Contour Cutting Automatisation, Caldera works on Macs (what some people request) and so on ...

Have you tried to adjust the media advancement, as I have suggested yesterday? It is easy to do, and could be worth trying it.

 

[Andriy]

I understand. I was asking to see what his reasoning was. I haven't had a chance to try your suggestion yet as I have been on the phone and teamviewer with my tech all afternoon. I'm feeling a little discouraged. My rep is printing my files at his location to compare.

Do you get the same effect on different media?

 

[Vinyldog]

I had the same issue with the print heads on my 310 when they set it up, but since replacing them, the image quality as been as least as good as my Roland.
10P / 100 seems to work best on what I print, which is almost the exact same materials you listed. I've rarely used 8 or 6P and never anything over 10Pass.
The only thing I modify on the profiles is the heat, which is always too high at factory settings. I like to use the file I'm printing as the test, start much cooler and increase the heat until the ink stays put.
Maybe I just lucked out but I don't think you should be having to try this hard to get a good print.
My rip is FlexiPrint basic.

 

[FrankW]

I understand. I was asking to see what his reasoning was. I haven't had a chance to try your suggestion yet as I have been on the phone and teamviewer with my tech all afternoon. I'm feeling a little discouraged. My rep is printing my files at his location to compare.

Something about comparison: if he uses a 360 at his location, this printer will do the media advancement calibration automatically. Could be confusing.

 

[RelocatedEER]

From whom did you purchase the printer?

Did you install the printer yourself?

Did they not provide any training?

Have they provided any assistance with this issue?

- JD

 

[Stephenedwardgraphic]

We have a 310. Our prints don't look like. We are running Onyx 12.

We purchase a bunch of our media's from Lexjet.com. They have a bunch of pre-built color profiles for their medias that seem to work pretty good.

I have a few custom profiles that I made and they look good also.

To me looks like you either are having a print head issue or the optimizer and heat settings aren't just right.

PM me and I'll give you my contact info -- you can send me the file you are printing and I'll run a copy on my printer to see what it looks like.

 

[xkellyx]

I am so appreciative. Thank you everyone for all your advice and suggestions!

I spent most of yesterday working with my Tech that installed the machine, and the rest of today going back and forth with HP via phone support. They are going to be sending out a rep to sort this out. I will post what they find, and hopefully it will help someone else down the line.

 

[Tim Aucoin]

Those test prints are terrible. I've run many on my L360, and they look nothing like those.
My guess is there is a problem with the media being incompatible with the latex inks OR there is a problem with the set of inks themselves. It almost looks like the ink is watered down... I am assuming they are OEM HP inks, and that they are within warranty and expiry date. There's more to this issue than simple resolution and pass settings in my humble opinion. Hopefully your rep and HP can get to the bottom of this for you. If it continues on too long, I'd demand a different printer!!

 

[schwarzmuller]

If you look at this official video from hp, I do not see much difference between the quality of your print and what they are outputting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJ7DHd1PQCw
The image can be seen starting at 1:04
I also don't understand why your rep is coming, if you think you have a problem, then you need a tech not a rep.

 

[xkellyx]

I have been working with HP and although we were able to decrease the grain by adjusting the advance factor (as suggested earlier in this post) the grain is still, to my standards, too much.

HP has been very helpful, and supportive. However, after making a number of adjustments and tests, and sending samples, the response I have gotten is "This is as good as it gets" and if you don't like it, "This is not the machine for you".

Going into this process we were looking at the Rolands and Epsons. I explained to my rep the work we do and want to do. We do not want to print banners or do car wraps. We want to print decals and stickers, as well as our buttons if possible. He said the Latex was the best machine for these purposes. After reading gushing reviews about the HP's I went for it.

This machine print very well for items that are designed to be seen from a distance. However, our products are held in the hands of our clients and subject to close scrutiny. The prints from the HP 310 do not hold up. From an arms lengths away grain is highly visible. After years six years of business, I've learned that our clients will see the grain pattern/dots and they will complain. I can hear them now, "why are these dots here, they weren't in my proof". It will be negative review and charge back city, as they will not want to hear from us that "this is how the latex prints".

We have an order in for 35k pieces. I sent samples to the client using this machine. The client said "No Way" that if we used these prints they would not proceed with the order. So, we did didn't use the machine and kept the job.

For those of you who own and love the Latex machines, do you print decals/stickers? Am I being an ***? Are my expectations too high? Will I get the same results from other brands of printers? I honestly don't feel that we can go to market with this product. Please be candid. I really do appreciate your feedback. I feel like an idiot.

 

[xkellyx]

From whom did you purchase the printer?

Did you install the printer yourself?

Did they not provide any training?

Have they provided any assistance with this issue?

- JD

We purchased the machine through US Cutter.
No, we did not install it.
Yes, we paid $1200 for install and training. It was a long process and we were saddled with issues from the get go.
Yes, they have tried to help, but my support contact at US Cutter said that I would have to go to HP for help. I've since gone to HP and HP is telling me that this machine is not for me and that I now have to go back to US Cutter and try to return the machine, as my contact at HP suggested that the machine was "mis-represented".

 

[Correct Color]

Kelly,

I tell people all the time in this business that "profiles are everything" and usually they nod and agree, but even then, I'm not sure they understand just how completely this is true.

As I mentioned previously, there is a point in the 300 series HP latex machines where a certain amount of graininess is built in, and that's as good as you're going to get.

And again, the reason has to do entirely with how the splits between the light inks and the dark inks are managed by the printer.

In case you're not aware, the entire point of light inks is to reduce graininess. They have no other function.

However, how they are managed -- when they start and stop, and what ramps they use -- completely determines how effective they are in their task. In the previous latex machines, these settings were variables which a good profiler could adjust in order to get the maximum smoothness out of the machines, and given the nature of the latex inks, it was possible -- with a good bit of knowledge and some effort -- to produce images that were the smoothest possible out of all the mid-price mid-size outdoor-type printers (meaning basically latex and eco-solvent printers.)

However, with the 300 series, HP took all that away. The 300 series is now what is known as a "contone" printer, which means that all of those settings are pre-set inside the machine, and are not changeable, and to me, they leave a good deal to be desired.

Not knowing where you wound up, I'm not sure if you're at that point, but my guess is that you are.

What I'm kind of wondering, is given the quality level you're seeking, why you're in this arena at all.

It sounds to me like maybe you should be using aqueous.

While there have been advances in the field of eco-solvent and latex over the past few years, the fact is that neither of them is really designed to produce quality of the level you're describing. Aqueous, on the other hand, is. Did you explore aqueous machines at all?


Mike Adams
Correct Color

 

[Vinyldog]

"the entire point of light inks is to reduce graininess. They have no other function"

I believe the Light Magenta and Cyan, AKA photo magenta and Cyan might also produce more accurate skin-tones in photos.

 

[Correct Color]

I believe the Light Magenta and Cyan, AKA photo magenta and Cyan might also produce more accurate skin-tones in photos.

"Accurate"? No. Neither light cyan nor light magenta will ever enhance gamut or allow you to make a color that you couldn't make out of cyan or magenta in the same inkset. If you go, pixel by pixel, from an image to a given profile of an inkset using only dark cyan and magenta vs. the same darks with their corresponding lights, regardless of how you bring them in or whether you bring them in, they print the same L*a*b* value. Meaning that since they add no gamut, the color they print is the same.

However, as flesh-tones are usually in the ranges that are made of mostly light inks -- depending on splits -- it's certainly true that they can make better-looking flesh-tones. But that is because they are less grainy.

Mike

 

[TomK]

For those of you who own and love the Latex machines, do you print decals/stickers? Am I being an ***? Are my expectations too high? Will I get the same results from other brands of printers? I honestly don't feel that we can go to market with this product. Please be candid. I really do appreciate your feedback. I feel like an idiot.

Happy 310 user here, after I dialed in the red and yellows. All we do are small signs, decals, stickers, and planner stickers. The planner stickers are meant for very close up view, and all I get are compliments on the quality of our colors and details.

I'd be happy to print some of your source files on our 310 and send them to you so you can compare. Just PM me if you want to try this.

 

[Vinyldog]

I just printed the same file on both my Roland and the L310. The prints are on backlit material and measure 48in x 63in. The colors did not print the same, but I see no difference in the sharpness. If anything the latex seems smoother.
I think you have a problem with either your printer, the RIP or the file you are printing.

 

[Kiwisox]

Latex 310

We purchased the machine through US Cutter.
No, we did not install it.
Yes, we paid $1200 for install and training. It was a long process and we were saddled with issues from the get go.
Yes, they have tried to help, but my support contact at US Cutter said that I would have to go to HP for help. I've since gone to HP and HP is telling me that this machine is not for me and that I now have to go back to US Cutter and try to return the machine, as my contact at HP suggested that the machine was "mis-represented".

Hi Kelly Wondering how you got on i have a Latex 310 they are a little graining but not normally in the blacks your image looks a lot worse than it should, the test plot images you showed always look like that, the one thing i could think of is the optimiser increasing it, also what pass rate and ink percentage was that printed using, maybe your ink percentage is really high, i would love to do a test print of that image on my printer and send you the image to compare.

 

[jbtwistmywords]

I am curious how this turned out for you? - update?

JB

 

[mx377]

I am also curious how this turned out as I'm looking at buying a 315 in the next week or so. Update Please

 

[iljubicic]

It is usually like that when the printhead is done. Change the printhead

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