Epson S30 having problems with skin tones

[Felix Sepulveda]

Hi all !!!, I don't have it yet but I'm close to buy a new printer (long time debating between S30 and Roland VS-640i..... and now maybe the HP L360). I like the Epson because of the speed, I've done test prints in both machines (The Roland is set as double CMYK) and I find the Epson have hard transitions in subtles skin tones. Maybe it is a profiling issue.

My question are:

1. I have a long time without reading a post about the S30 in this forum, are you long time S30 users happy with the printer ?

2. I know it is only a 4 color printer, but are you satisfied with skin tones (from light colored skins to dark) ?

God bless you all !!!

 

[fozzie]

Have had a s30670 since dec 2012. A few hiccups out of gate but Epson solved them. Great machine. We do our profiles (but found the onyx canned ones good). IMHO the 4 colors is as good or better than a lot of 6 color machines. You won't go wrong getting one. Have no experience with rolands.

 

[a77]

Hi,
I have the s30 and skin tones look great.

BUT I recently just came across some hard transitions on skin tones on some banner material I profiled. Maybe a combination of too low an ink limit and some patch reading issues with the i1 on the banner material. I thought rendering intents should have been able to help me get through this issue but was not able to save it - using caldera. So swapped out the material for the customer and came out great. Your post reminded me that I have to investigate this more ! One thing I will be doing for sure from now on is printing a "test" image with lots of faces after each profile creation process to validate.

Are you seeing these issues on a demo machine ?

 

[Felix Sepulveda]

Thanks to both of you guys !!!

I made the test prints in two different production machines (different owners), but that were set up by the same vendor and using the same media (some medium quality vinyl). I used a test image for printers that has patches, gradients, faces, landscapes, details, flowers.... Some of the magenta/orange/red/light red colors looked like watercolor painted or with harsh transitions. Sorry that I don't have a printed test image to show.

 

[a77]

Send me the test file?
Makes sense that if the two machines are using the same (stock) profile, they would look the same.

 

[Felix Sepulveda]

I will send you the image a77, can you give me an email ?

 

[Felix Sepulveda]

Test file sent. Thanks !!!

 

[a77]

I increased its size to exaggerate any issues, I think it turned out well (excuse the phone photo):



I think if you are seeing obvious gradations in skin tones, it is for sure the profile -> ink is limited.

(Can someone chime in here, I think by choosing the proper rendering intent we SHOULD NOT see this type of problem - but I have not had luck with my setup?)

I have found the challenge to profiling my S30 is getting something that isn't soaking wet with ink, but still decent colour gamut. For me, it takes a few tries to get it right, then I find a balance. I also generally have two profiles: one with conservative ink limit where you can have very fine text with no ink bleeding whatsoever, but maybe a slight reduced gamut; and another with higher ink limit, but you can't really do 5pt text on a solid background.

When restricting ink, I find the deepness of the reds are what are lacking the most. 032 and 185 doesn't look right when ink limit low. But it is possible to get very bright and nice reds if you are setup correctly.

Hope this helps.

 

[Felix Sepulveda]

Thanks a lot A77, certainly they look good, without the issues I had in my tests. This gives me relief about the S30 handling those tones. Thanks a lot again. In my case the S30 is competing against a 7 color printer VS-640i (cmkylclmlk) (that was configured only as double cmyk for my test) and was given better transitions....

Thanks again