hp315 printing grays as tan

[Geneva Olson]

I've been printing the same company's graphics for years. and for some reason I have issues every once in a while with their graphics and I just don't know why. They have a gradient in their graphic It's blue and gray. In the past I've had issues where the gradient became reversed. I print a christmas banner for them every year. Same banner. All I do is change the date out. This year it's printing the gray like a tan color. I thought at first it was one of my ink cartridges because it was getting low. So I replaced it. Then I exported as a jpg. But I'm getting the same results. Anybody have any ideas on what possibly is wrong?

 

[balstestrat]

Do color calibration.

 

[P Wagner]

I've been printing the same company's graphics for years. and for some reason I have issues every once in a while with their graphics and I just don't know why. They have a gradient in their graphic It's blue and gray. In the past I've had issues where the gradient became reversed. I print a christmas banner for them every year. Same banner. All I do is change the date out. This year it's printing the gray like a tan color. I thought at first it was one of my ink cartridges because it was getting low. So I replaced it. Then I exported as a jpg. But I'm getting the same results. Anybody have any ideas on what possibly is wrong?

Also, ensure that your inks (particularly the light cyan) are not significantly expired. Also note that there is about 30ml of each ink color in the ink delivery system, so even after replacing ink, it takes a while for the fresh ink to get to the printhead.

 

[Geneva Olson]

Also, ensure that your inks (particularly the light cyan) are not significantly expired. Also note that there is about 30ml of each ink color in the ink delivery system, so even after replacing ink, it takes a while for the fresh ink to get to the printhead.

turns out it might be the hard drive

 

[Stacey K]

turns out it might be the hard drive

On the printer or your computer?

 

[netsol]

turns out it might be the hard drive

It doesn’t sound like a hard drive.
do that color calibration, i woukd think

 

[Geneva Olson]

On the printer or your computer?

printer

 

[Geneva Olson]

So, when I went to do the color calibration, half way through the calibration it threw a code 79:04. That's the equivalent to the blue screen. So, I unplugged and plugged it back in. Then I downloaded the new firmware. Once downloaded, I started the color calibration again and it threw the code again.
So now it's possibly the hard drive. (most probably?)

Anyway, I'm still printing and after the firmware update and the halfass color calibration, the prints are coming out more vibrant.

Question to all the techies and you might need a magic 8 ball to answer this: How long can I go before the hard drive crashes?

I'm trying to figure out if I should go ahead and get the hard drive problem corrected now or wait until it crashes....

All advice accepted!

 

[balstestrat]

You don't need to do anything with the hard drive...

More than likely you have a bad printhead or something else going on.

 

[bob]

It isn't your hard drive or anything else like that. What it is is that grays are made up from CMYK, not just K. You can color calibrate or dance around a fire at midnight shaking beads and rattles and shouting "Booga Booga! Both will have approximately the same effect. Grays tend to drift this way and that because they are CMYK. Period. You can calibrate until the next ice age and then print a series of objects varying the gray from white through 100% black in 10% increments. You'll still notice that one or two of these objects will have some sort of annoying color tinge. The best solution is to avoid grays if at all possible.

 

[Geneva Olson]

It isn't your hard drive or anything else like that. What it is is that grays are made up from CMYK, not just K. You can color calibrate or dance around a fire at midnight shaking beads and rattles and shouting "Booga Booga! Both will have approximately the same effect. Grays tend to drift this way and that because they are CMYK. Period. You can calibrate until the next ice age and then print a series of objects varying the gray from white through 100% black in 10% increments. You'll still notice that one or two of these objects will have some sort of annoying color tinge. The best solution is to avoid grays if at all possible.

how exactly does a print shop avoid printing grays?

 

[dypinc]

how exactly does a print shop avoid printing grays?

Calibration/Re-Linearization and the create your own media profile on top of that and then Re-Calibrate/Re-Linearization especially when you need to hit grays.

 

[Geneva Olson]

Calibration/Re-Linearization and the create your own media profile on top of that and then Re-Calibrate/Re-Linearization especially when you need to hit grays.

when I calibrate it only goes part way through and then throws the 79:04 code

 

[dypinc]

when I calibrate it only goes part way through and then throws the 79:04 code

Then I would create a new media preset and not attempt to calibrate it with the printer. Then create a Linearization and Profile with your RIP.

 

[Tim Miller]

A bad magenta print head will wreak havoc with grays. Our 360 could do great grays, but not with an expired or bad magenta print head. I would replace print heads, do a calibration, and then print. Recalibrate every time you replace the print heads.

 

[myront]

I'd try replacing the cmyk/rgb colors with a pantone equivalent.

example

 

[BigNate]

Calibration/Re-Linearization and the create your own media profile on top of that and then Re-Calibrate/Re-Linearization especially when you need to hit grays.

So how exactly does this calibration/Re-Linearization allow a Print Shop to avoid printing greys? sounds more like a HOW TO print grey....

 

[dypinc]

So how exactly does this calibration/Re-Linearization allow a Print Shop to avoid printing greys? sounds more like a HOW TO print grey....

Yes you are correct so no need to avoid printing grays. Or build your file and set your RIP to use K only.

 

[Morten CHristensen]

Gray consisting of colorbuilds are problematic on Latex printers, if they are not calibrated regularly. As the heads ages they seem to drift quite a but, it is just in the nature of these printers.
Use an external spectrophotometer instead of the build in will also give you a slightly better calibration.

 

[Geneva Olson]

A bad magenta print head will wreak havoc with grays. Our 360 could do great grays, but not with an expired or bad magenta print head. I would replace print heads, do a calibration, and then print. Recalibrate every time you replace the print heads.

I replaced all the heads in september. what's the likelihood that I got a bad printhead right out of the box?