HP L560

[eahicks]

Well after finally getting our printer set up after 2 weeks of it sitting here, and all the anticipation and excitement building up, we have used it 3 days now, and I am left less than impressed. Yes, it's a nice machine, and they improved MANY things on it....but the colors are HORRID. We went through the entire profile setting/calibrating/etc. and everything I print is off. I can't get a good red for the life of me. My reds on the 260 are simply spot on. This thing either prints orange, or rose. Anyone else have issues with colors on this thing?

 

[dypinc]

Post your profiling process of how you are doing it? What are your Media Preset setting? The L360 can print good reds if set it up right so the L560 should be able to print them as well.

 

[eahicks]

Post your profiling process of how you are doing it? What are your Media Preset setting? The L360 can print good reds if set it up right so the L560 should be able to print them as well.

We followed the entire onscreen process....note: we began with the profiles for the media we downloaded, and went from there.
I just readjusted the saturation level on one to try....if it doesn't fix it, I will build a new one.

 

[dypinc]

Build a new one with the highest ink density your media will allow. If you have the ability to built a linearization and profile with your RIP that will help as well. But HP knowing reds were a challenge with the L360 I would think that they would have improved on their calibration and profiling with the L560.

 

[eahicks]

Build a new one with the highest ink density your media will allow. If you have the ability to built a linearization and profile with your RIP that will help as well. But HP knowing reds were a challenge with the L360 I would think that they would have improved on their calibration and profiling with the L560.

Well that's the thing...we were like "wow! We don't need to sit and scan all these swatches anymore! the printer will do it all!" And yet here I am, hating what it is doing and ready to build my own the old way.

 

[dypinc]

Check your RIP it can probably use the onboard spectro.

 

[Lane J]

Yeah profiling on the L370 was a major hassle. I assume it would be on the 560. The only way I could get good consistent colors across all my materials (all five passing a G7 test for digital coated offset) was to:

Linearize -> create a Quick Set in Onyx stripping ALL icc profiles and setting a standard density/dpi/# passes -> rip a swatch test through the Quick Set -> read and build an icc through i1Profiler -> update the Quick Set to apply the new icc and nothing else -> then rip production files through the Quick Set.

Some of the canned profiles and downloaded profiles gave me okay colors but most would be WAAAAAAAY off. Especially the reds and greys.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

Have you tried making a 4 color profile? We find with the 360 a 4 color profile is the most efficient way of getting accurate and vibrant colors... I don't like the printers color curve for light colors.

 

[dypinc]

Don't you mean 4 color media preset? All output profiles are 4 color whether you use CMYK or CMYKcm in the media preset.

I don't understand why this confusing for a newbe habit of calling Media Presets profiles is so prevalent.

Black generation settings in your profile can make a big difference in how much the lc/lm inks are used even if you can't control the ink splits. For grays anyway the more you back off your black start the more light inks you use. Of course the earlier you start the black the more grainer it will look so it is a trade off, so at times I will have more than one output profile for the same media preset.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

Newbie?

It's still a freaking profile, it contains the presets and the icc profiles generated either externally or internally. I don't understand why you waste some much energy trying to be an elitest and complain about a single lc/lm head.

 

[dypinc]

Grow a thick skin. And I didn't call you a Newbie. But calling a Media Preset a profile can confuse them since they are not the same thing. HP documentation calls it a Media Preset. It is not the same thing as an Output Profile and never will be. Yes Output Profiles can be create on the printer for some Media Presets or can be created by color profiling software and uploaded to the printer for a Media Preset which in both case can be stored on the printer but converting to an Output Profile is not a function of the printer but the RIP which can download that profile for its conversion.

 

[Albion]

We've had our 570 on the floor for 2 weeks now and the colours ( including the reds ) are great. We've been calibrating our medias and profiling from the printer with no issues. We use Onyx12 Production House to rip all of our jobs.

 

[eahicks]

I recalibrated and upped the ink limit. Colors are looking better....printed a swatch of common PMS colors and nearly all but one were pretty dead on. Light at the end of the tunnel, folks....get these kinks worked out and I'll be loving the printer.

 

[Bly]

If reds are weak you have ink limits too low. Simple.

 

[dypinc]

If reds are weak you have ink limits too low. Simple.

Correct. I have found 170% or 150% depending on media and at that amount you really need to let the linearization on RIP process set the ink limits per channel. For what ever reason at least on the L360 the Cyan seems to default to be set too high. You will see that right away in the linearization process when it gets backed down more than the other colors. Make a big improvement to the Reds when this is done.

 

[eahicks]

So, color issues are mostly fixed for now. Now my huge complaint is the fact I have to waste a yard of vinyl EVERY TIME I want to print something. I have had substrate jam after substrate jam, because it seems with this printer you HAVE to have at least a foot hanging out from under the curing unit to begin printing. I've even had several jams WITH material hanging out. YES I am using the media clips. This machine is very frustrating. I want to love it, but right now, I am ready to push it out the door.

 

[jayhawksigns]

So, color issues are mostly fixed for now. Now my huge complaint is the fact I have to waste a yard of vinyl EVERY TIME I want to print something. I have had substrate jam after substrate jam, because it seems with this printer you HAVE to have at least a foot hanging out from under the curing unit to begin printing. I've even had several jams WITH material hanging out. YES I am using the media clips. This machine is very frustrating. I want to love it, but right now, I am ready to push it out the door.

That is slightly concerning. Know there will be new things to adapt to with a new printer, versus our L25500, but with the exception of a few cranky substrates, I never have to have the media extended beyond the heater area. Like the idea of staying with an HP, guess I need to track one down to see first.

 

[Molenbeek]

you should need less then an inch out from the print rollers to start printing. Don't close the enclosed condensation cover until after the material passes through that part.

 

[bgraphix]

So, color issues are mostly fixed for now. Now my huge complaint is the fact I have to waste a yard of vinyl EVERY TIME I want to print something. I have had substrate jam after substrate jam, because it seems with this printer you HAVE to have at least a foot hanging out from under the curing unit to begin printing. I've even had several jams WITH material hanging out. YES I am using the media clips. This machine is very frustrating. I want to love it, but right now, I am ready to push it out the door.

My substrate jams at the beginning were frustrating as well. Some were due to the curing door as I kept forgetting to open it (and sometimes still do forget). Others were due to the heat setting being way too high. I've noticed that this machine doesn't need as high of a heat setting as the 360 and way lower than the 26500. What kind of material are you running through? I consistently print on vinyl and perf with a half inch to inch lead way. When I kept getting substrate jams, I seen that my material was heating up too much and warping which caused it to stick to the top of heating/curing unit. My suggestion would be to lower your heat setting to the absolutely lowest you can go. I've adjusted 2 things on the printer as well because it was wasting material which I didn't like and it's a preset that you have to go looking for.

If you're interested, the 2 presets that I adjusted are:

1. Go to Settings
> Substrate
> Substrate handling options
> Extra top margin
> change this to 100mils or whatever your preference may be (I think it's preset to some ridiculous amount of almost 4000mils)
> Press "Ok"

2. Go to Substrate Library
> choose whatever media you want to adjust
> Modify
> press the pencil icon
> Advanced Settings in the bottom right corner
> Turn off "Leading edge release" so it is not blue anymore
> Press the arrow back button
> Press "Continue"
> Press "Continue" again
> Press "Finish"
> Press "Done"

 

[Kentucky Wraps]

Got a L560, installed yesterday and finished training today. Sweeeeet!