All icc profiles have color shifted

[ColorCrest]

so I just recreated the substrate profiles and everything is printing great, exactly like the old profiles printed.

It's good to know you're rolling again.

As I posted earlier in #6, "To easily visually track calibration on a routine basis, print a known control image to check for any color or mechanical variations." This basic routine of color printing is critical for quality control and trouble shooting. The "Quality Evaluation" PDF file supplied by Onyx for their RIP software is a good start to check color and mechanical performance of a printer.

 

[Mark Mooney]

It's good to know you're rolling again.

As I posted earlier in #6, "To easily visually track calibration on a routine basis, print a known control image to check for any color or mechanical variations." This basic routine of color printing is critical for quality control and trouble shooting. The "Quality Evaluation" PDF file supplied by Onyx for their RIP software is a good start to check color and mechanical performance of a printer.

I have been doing this regularly the last 2 years I've had the latex printer and have NEVER had problems getting good consistent and accurate color until after the SMK3 install. I can still get the same consistent colors from before, just only with my newly created profiles.

 

[ColorCrest]

I've had the latex printer and have NEVER had problems getting good consistent and accurate color until after the SMK3 install.

I suppose a lesson might be to know exactly how the machine in performing immediately before some serious maintenance work and then print a test immediately afterward before signing off on the service work.

 

[dypinc]

I have been doing this regularly the last 2 years I've had the latex printer and have NEVER had problems getting good consistent and accurate color until after the SMK3 install. I can still get the same consistent colors from before, just only with my newly created profiles.

Sound like something happened to your onboard spectrometer when the Service Maintenance Kit #3 was performed. Obviously functioning well enough to not throw an error. Could have been something like dust or dirt got on the onboard spectrometers calibration target or the lens when the printhead carriage was removed. Or maybe a setting could have gotten changed in the service menu when reseting after the Service Maintenance Kit #3 was performed.

I assume you are creating your profiles with the onboard spectrometer? Have you tried creating a new profile on top an old calibration after it was re-calibrated?

 

[Mark Mooney]

So, I've been able to create my own profiles from scratch with great success and perfect color. The problem now is I'm unable to create a new substrate profile on any material less than 50" width. The latex 360 will scale down the color calibration chart (step 2) that prints all 6 colors, but the ICC profile creation (step 3) color chart that prints a large range of different color swatches and brown/green bars on both sides will not print on smaller media. I tried creating a new profile for a 30" wide roll of canvas, but the 360 gave an error that the media is too small when I tried to print the ICC profile chart in step 3 of profile creation.

So, how can I create new substrate profiles for substrates that are only 30" wide? I have about 100' of 30" canvas that I can't use, and need to order a 30" wide roll of backlit material for a job, but at the moment have no way of printing good color on it since I won't be able to profile it either. Any suggestions?

 

[dypinc]

So, I've been able to create my own profiles from scratch with great success and perfect color. The problem now is I'm unable to create a new substrate profile on any material less than 50" width. The latex 360 will scale down the color calibration chart (step 2) that prints all 6 colors, but the ICC profile creation (step 3) color chart that prints a large range of different color swatches and brown/green bars on both sides will not print on smaller media. I tried creating a new profile for a 30" wide roll of canvas, but the 360 gave an error that the media is too small when I tried to print the ICC profile chart in step 3 of profile creation.

So, how can I create new substrate profiles for substrates that are only 30" wide? I have about 100' of 30" canvas that I can't use, and need to order a 30" wide roll of backlit material for a job, but at the moment have no way of printing good color on it since I won't be able to profile it either. Any suggestions?

You have to have a hand held spectrometer for that, and create your profile from your RIP software or other profile creation software if your RIP does allow doing that.

 

[P Wagner]

So, I've been able to create my own profiles from scratch with great success and perfect color. The problem now is I'm unable to create a new substrate profile on any material less than 50" width. The latex 360 will scale down the color calibration chart (step 2) that prints all 6 colors, but the ICC profile creation (step 3) color chart that prints a large range of different color swatches and brown/green bars on both sides will not print on smaller media. I tried creating a new profile for a 30" wide roll of canvas, but the 360 gave an error that the media is too small when I tried to print the ICC profile chart in step 3 of profile creation.

So, how can I create new substrate profiles for substrates that are only 30" wide? I have about 100' of 30" canvas that I can't use, and need to order a 30" wide roll of backlit material for a job, but at the moment have no way of printing good color on it since I won't be able to profile it either. Any suggestions?

To use the on-board spectro for ICC profile creation requires a minimmum media width of 36 inches. If you dont have an external spectro, get a short 36-inch wide by 5-yard roll to create the ICC and then use the 30-inch wide media for production jobs.

 

[Mark Mooney]

You have to have a hand held spectrometer for that, and create your profile from your RIP software or other profile creation software if your RIP does allow doing that.

Another option WAS creating a new profile from the RIP, using the Latex 360's built in spectrophotometer, supposed to work on media small as 24". Flexi provides a way to do that, but unfortunately the program crashes and the 1500 swatch print that's made during ICC profile creation fails at 92-95% complete every time... 3 times I tried, same result in both Flexi 19 and 21. Flexi crashes and immediately the printer completely freezes and gets stuck at 92-95%, have to switch it off and back on to reset it. Color profiling from Flexi is severely bugged, at least for me it is.

Seems like every step of attempting to calibrate on smaller material is fraught with pitfalls and roadblocks, including terrible support from both HP and Bell & Howell and buggy Flexi software. I was able to even get in touch with HP's former latex czar, who said, "HP's support is a dumpster fire on a train to nowhere." He confirmed that my best option was indeed creating all new profiles.

I've seen it on this forum again and again like a mantra... create your own profiles.

 

[ColorCrest]

Another option WAS creating a new profile

Maybe consider another tack...

Simply print your control file on the new media to compare with another setup / profile used for a like media. Are the tones satisfactory? If so, either duplicate the setup or use the setup as a substitute for the new media.

There are troves of profiles found in on-line archives which are presented in this way. The files have only been re-named but really stem from the same source.

Good luck.

 

[Mark Mooney]

Maybe consider another tack...

Simply print your control file on the new media to compare with another setup / profile used for a like media. Are the tones satisfactory? If so, either duplicate the setup or use the setup as a substitute for the new media.

There are troves of profiles found in on-line archives which are presented in this way. The files have only been re-named but really stem from the same source.

Good luck.

Yep, that's exactly what I did. I created a new generic backlit profile on a different 60" wide but similar material to the 27" wide backlit vinyl I needed calibrated. Happy to say my control print color came out great that's very close to previous prints! So, that's my new backlit profile, mission accomplished... after probably dozens of feet of vinyl and I don't even wanna know how much ink wasted.

If that didn't work I was left facing spending an extra $400 to get the backlit AND laminate I need in 60" width so I could create a new profile on the printer. But, by doing this workaround I was able to save the money and purchase the 30" rolls.

Thanks to HP for being completely useless and closing my service ticket without even once responding. Opened a second ticket a week ago, still crickets. Suppose I'll get another email in the next day or two telling me that ticket has been resolved and closed too. This is just a warning to anyone new to the forum reading this: DO NOT waste time with HP support, just come here. This community has been far more helpful than any support I've gotten anywhere else. Thanks everyone!

 

[balstestrat]

You can't make backlit profiles (ICC) on the printer.

 

[Mark Mooney]

You can't make backlit profiles (ICC) on the printer.

Well, my printer seems to think otherwise, lol. The printer even has the option for specifically creating a new SAV backlit profile that allows for heavier saturation. From what I understand you are correct that certain backlits, porous vinyls like window perf, and some fabrics won't allow you to create profiles on the printer. The process I outlined above allows for it regardless of what the material is, you're just creating the profile on a different but somewhat similar material and applying it to the backlit vinyl. Color result may not be 100% perfect, but it's pretty damned close and very satisfactory.

Without creating these new profiles, as stated in my OP, all colors using previous profiles have shifted heavily blue and no amount of re-linearization makes a difference.

 

[balstestrat]

I'm not exactly sure what you did and mean by that but simply because it's backlit wont be able to make the ICC profile on the printer. The spectro on it is not capable of doing the profile.
Same goes for textile (that has texture, if it's smooth it may pass), clear, anything else than white etc.

Sure it allows you to make a new printmode, you just wont be able to make a ICC for it. It allows you to do it so you can then profile it with an external profiler that is capable of doing backlit.

But what I was after with this was that you don't need any material for this. Doesn't matter what the material is or what the width is. You can make all the printmodes you want, just won't be able to profile them correctly because of the type.