greys cannot solve problem

[benski]

Wanted to see if anybody can give me any advice. Have been experiencing the same problem for years and still cannot resolve.
Long story short just printed 4 jerseys so in total 12 pieces and I have like 4 different greys. Sleeves do not match and front and back differ its a mess.
Ive always had this issue sometimes I get lucky but more often colors change or dont match which leaves me redoing jobs.
What confuses me it was a single print. When I print several different times I just assume conditions change but this is single print job. All pressed at the same time. using same paper, same ink etc. Same temp, same pressure, same duration. I have an ICC profile made for the printer and paper. Printer nozzle check is excellent. I checked the RGB values of all the pieces and they all match. I use wasatch softrip. Somewhere something is causing colors not to match. I really thought the answer to my problem was wasatch softrip but it doesnt seem like it. If my ink was bad, or expired paper, or conditions like humidity cause I press in the garage wouldnt all the pieces be bad. Anyway any advice would be appreciated!!!

 

[brycesteiner]

You are printing 12 items, all the same color, at same time and getting results that are different?

Do any of the 4 parts match like all the fronts match, right sleeves match, etc?

That doesn't make any sense to me unless you are getting artwork from a source and they are creating the different sections with different specs.

 

[bannertime]

Bryce makes a good point about the artwork. That'd be a quick check to make sure the color values are all the same. Should be able to check that in the RIP.

Another thing I'd check, print a solid gray bar all the way across and see if it's related to printing in certain areas on the machine due to the print, heat, or even something weird in the material.

 

[shoresigns]

Wanted to see if anybody can give me any advice. Have been experiencing the same problem for years and still cannot resolve.
Long story short just printed 4 jerseys so in total 12 pieces and I have like 4 different greys. Sleeves do not match and front and back differ its a mess.
Ive always had this issue sometimes I get lucky but more often colors change or dont match which leaves me redoing jobs.
What confuses me it was a single print. When I print several different times I just assume conditions change but this is single print job. All pressed at the same time. using same paper, same ink etc. Same temp, same pressure, same duration. I have an ICC profile made for the printer and paper. Printer nozzle check is excellent. I checked the RGB values of all the pieces and they all match. I use wasatch softrip. Somewhere something is causing colors not to match. I really thought the answer to my problem was wasatch softrip but it doesnt seem like it. If my ink was bad, or expired paper, or conditions like humidity cause I press in the garage wouldnt all the pieces be bad. Anyway any advice would be appreciated!!!

Dumb question, but how do you make jerseys out of paper? I thought sublimation printing was normally done on fabric.

 

[Judi]

Dumb question, but how do you make jerseys out of paper? I thought sublimation printing was normally done on fabric.

The design is printed on specialty paper, then transferred to the fabric via heat press

 

[benski]

You are printing 12 items, all the same color, at same time and getting results that are different?

Do any of the 4 parts match like all the fronts match, right sleeves match, etc?

That doesn't make any sense to me unless you are getting artwork from a source and they are creating the different sections with different specs.

yes exactly.
nothing really matches some are similar but all slightly different greys. I may have to inspect my platen for cold spots

 

[benski]

Bryce makes a good point about the artwork. That'd be a quick check to make sure the color values are all the same. Should be able to check that in the RIP.

Another thing I'd check, print a solid gray bar all the way across and see if it's related to printing in certain areas on the machine due to the print, heat, or even something weird in the material.

Ive checked the RGB value in both Illustrator and my soft rip. all good. I save files as PDF.
Yeah will do...Im starting to think maybe its my heat press.

 

[brycesteiner]

Do you have the full acrobat? It will also tell you if the CMYK values are the same in the color separation window.

 

[DesireeM]

Are you loading RGB files and letting your rip software convert them to CMYK?

 

[Andy_warp]

Are you heat setting this with a calendar? Clamshell? All in one printer?

Do you sublimate each piece individually?

I would say if you're doing it as pieces...your smallest print should be put on the same size piece of fabric as the larger piece. You could be keeping the dwell time the same, but if the pieces of fabric are different sizes, the dwell time should probably be different, as a smaller piece of fabric will heat up faster...right?

We use a calendar (Kleiverik) and all of our prints stay on the rolled stock until finishing.

 

[benski]

Are you loading RGB files and letting your rip software convert them to CMYK?

yes exactly. Do you recommend just kepping designing in cmyk and eliminating rgb? I always get nicer colors in RGB design.

 

[benski]

Are you heat setting this with a calendar? Clamshell? All in one printer?

Do you sublimate each piece individually?

I would say if you're doing it as pieces...your smallest print should be put on the same size piece of fabric as the larger piece. You could be keeping the dwell time the same, but if the pieces of fabric are different sizes, the dwell time should probably be different, as a smaller piece of fabric will heat up faster...right?

We use a calendar (Kleiverik) and all of our prints stay on the rolled stock until finishing.

Thank you, you nailed it

 

[benski]

All resolved. My inks were not stable. Poor color consistency. Soon as I paid for a high end ink all good now. And what Andy said above smaller pieced need less dwell time as they heat up quicker.