Fading Blacks with Mimaki

[artbywesley]

I have had trouble printing blacks on canvas with the Mimaki. Anyone else?

When I print an image or a graphic with black, it never feels like a rich black it just looks like a dark grey. I don't know if its because the ink is absorbing into the fabric or the ink alone. Could it be my file?

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[bloobird0]

what's the CMYK code you use for black?

 

[genericname]

I have had trouble printing blacks on canvas with the Mimaki. Anyone else?

When I print an image or a graphic with black, it never feels like a rich black it just looks like a dark grey. I don't know if its because the ink is absorbing into the fabric or the ink alone. Could it be my file?

Anyone have any ideas?

Could be a lot of things. Most common, I would think, is that you need to redo your profile. More than likely, you're artificially limiting your black.

Also, psst... head over to the welcome forum and introduce yourself. Good form!

 

[Letterbox Mike]

Try running at a higher resolution and slowing the printer down. Canvas is really hard to print on our JV33 and was on our JV3s also, the ink likes to puddle in the low spots of the canvas washing it out a bit. We found going to a high number of passes and unidirectional gave us the best results. On our JV33 going to 540x1080 24-pass unidirectional gives us good results but it's super slow.

 

[Circleville Signs]

If you want a "rich" black, you can't print 0C 0M 0Y 100K. Try 15/15/15/100

 

[ChicagoGraphics]

The best black so far on a JV3 is C60 M40 Y40 K100

 

[artbywesley]

Hey Everyone, thanks for the replies!

Some other key information.. We are using an ADOBE RGB (1998) color profile
As for the CMYK Black color mix.. I am not sure what we are using.. we will have to play around with this
Also here is an image that shows a print out with a black marker to show a rich black. Everything seems to be a dull.

It seems to me that it is more the ink is just being absorbed by the canvas. Is there special ink you need for canvas printing?

IMAGE: (sorry it is kinda small)

Cheers

 

[Letterbox Mike]

Is it just me or am I seeing some nozzles out? It looks like there are some white lines in the passes, either missing nozzles or your media comp is off.

What profile are you using? Is it appropriate for canvas?

 

[artbywesley]

Is it just me or am I seeing some nozzles out? It looks like there are some white lines in the passes, either missing nozzles or your media comp is off.

What profile are you using? Is it appropriate for canvas?

The color profile is: ADOBE RGB (1998)
There are some white lines in that print but we fixed that up.

 

[J Hill Designs]

no the printer profile not the embedded color profile of the image...

 

[SightLine]

If you are printing RGB files make sure your blacks are RGB 0,0,0. But as Insignia said - canvas is porous. You are going to have to slow the machine down a little and increase the passes. Setup right these print great on canvas but you do have to adjust for it.