Caldera Profiling, greys seem to have a lot of magenta.

[IvanDD]

I've profiled plenty with Caldera. However my greys always end up looking like they have too much magenta in them. Anyone familiar enough with 9.2 to maybe suggest something I'm missing?

Thanks!

 

[GaSouthpaw]

I've never used Caldera, but I can tell you I've always had to tweak greys manually. They come out varying CMYK tints all the time for me. Unfortunately, we don't have a spectrophotometer, so my color tests are eye tests- kind of like mixing paint in the old days.
I'd wonder if there was a way you could add or subtract a percentage of one ink or the other in the program and see if that helps- or if you'd have to do it on a case by case basis.
Last year, I started keeping a file of what I consider "accurate" colors to refer to when printing that saves me a lot of time.
Don't know if my suggestion will help you at all, but it's early and I just started drinking my coffee. Good luck.

 

[dypinc]

I've profiled plenty with Caldera. However my greys always end up looking like they have too much magenta in them. Anyone familiar enough with 9.2 to maybe suggest something I'm missing?

Thanks!

Check to see if you have a choice of light condition settings either when making the profile or in your CM settings when printing. Or maybe it is your shop lighting that is making your grays look magenta. Take them outside and look at the grays.

 

[IvanDD]

Check to see if you have a choice of light condition settings either when making the profile or in your CM settings when printing. Or maybe it is your shop lighting that is making your grays look magenta. Take them outside and look at the grays.

I do have light settings. D50, d70, incandescent, florescent, and I've tried those and nothing.

 

[IvanDD]

I've never used Caldera, but I can tell you I've always had to tweak greys manually. They come out varying CMYK tints all the time for me. Unfortunately, we don't have a spectrophotometer, so my color tests are eye tests- kind of like mixing paint in the old days.
I'd wonder if there was a way you could add or subtract a percentage of one ink or the other in the program and see if that helps- or if you'd have to do it on a case by case basis.
Last year, I started keeping a file of what I consider "accurate" colors to refer to when printing that saves me a lot of time.
Don't know if my suggestion will help you at all, but it's early and I just started drinking my coffee. Good luck.

Yea, I end up having to make manual tweaks as well, and its fine, it works, but I feel like I shouldnt have to do that.

 

[heyskull]

I had a similar issue on a van we wrapped this week.
I spent two days setting the grey up as it would swing green or magenta.
The biggest issue this vehicle was for a printing company and should no the issues with printing greys!!

SC

 

[IvanDD]

I had a similar issue on a van we wrapped this week.
I spent two days setting the grey up as it would swing green or magenta.
The biggest issue this vehicle was for a printing company and should no the issues with printing greys!!

SC

Well if my decals went outside, it wouldnt be an issue. I profile for d50 and everything looks great in the sunlight, but I know my customers decals are going inside under who knows what kind of light. I can make it look grey under ****ty indoor light, but if you take that outside its green.

So do i profile for correct color, or do i profile for realistic indoor appearance?

 

[heyskull]

Ivan

I think you are going to have to contact your customer and explain the issues.
Also stating that greys printed on any CMYK printer can shift due to the lighting used.
In our print room which has daylight fluorescent tube lighting it seems to show a lot more green but when taken into the prep room with normal tubes it is more pink/magenta.
Seems that this will become a nightmare of a job if you have to specify the lighting used in a room to view it as it was intended.

I have a job that was printed last year which is a gold colour but due to the sodium street lighting it show up as green and looks very spooky.
This freaked me out when I first saw it, but luckily the customer has never commented.

SC

 

[UVRay]

Are you using Gracol 7 methodology? It's very neutral in the grays, I've never had problems with grays once G7 was dialed in to my RIPS.

 

[IvanDD]

Are you using Gracol 7 methodology? It's very neutral in the grays, I've never had problems with grays once G7 was dialed in to my RIPS.

Yea we're hitting G7 standards.

 

[P Wagner]

Yea, I end up having to make manual tweaks as well, and its fine, it works, but I feel like I shouldnt have to do that.

In the ICC Profile component, there is a function called Black Generation. It has to do with the amount of CMY ink versus the K ink that is being used when printing neutrals like grays. It is often times referred to as GCR (Gray Component Replacement) or UCR (Under Color Removal). Starting the K ink down lower (closer to 0), and using a more aggressive GCR setting will cause the printer to print grays using more K ink, and correspondingly less CMY ink. It also can reduce the amount of ink used in shadows and blacks.

This will reduce the metamerism (conditional match) caused by the light source, and make the gray look more consistent across various light sources.