hp315 printing grays as tan

[Geneva Olson]

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.

so here's an interesting conundrum. Like I said originally, I printed the same banner 4 years in a row. NOW, the graphic in this banner consists of part of the graphic as a jpg. Suddenly it started printing tan. I pulled the pdf version of the logo and replaced it. Fixed the print, but just curious why it printed consistently for 3 years and then year 4 (two months after a printhead swap) it prints funky. the rest didn't have a printhead swap.

 

[dypinc]

so here's an interesting conundrum. Like I said originally, I printed the same banner 4 years in a row. NOW, the graphic in this banner consists of part of the graphic as a jpg. Suddenly it started printing tan. I pulled the pdf version of the logo and replaced it. Fixed the print, but just curious why it printed consistently for 3 years and then year 4 (two months after a printhead swap) it prints funky. the rest didn't have a printhead swap.

The problem is lack of calibration after a new printhead. Like I said before if the printer will no longer calibrate then you need to get it fixed or use the RIP, external Spectro, Linearize and create a new profile.

 

[Graphic Extremes]

Check profile,, I check mine every two months and you would be surprised how much they change

 

[Geneva Olson]

The problem is lack of calibration after a new printhead. Like I said before if the printer will no longer calibrate then you need to get it fixed or use the RIP, external Spectro, Linearize and create a new profile.

Ok. so I calibrated it and it went through a half of the "calibration" before it threw the code. That being said, the colors started printing more vibrant. even though it didn't go through the whole process. I'm just curious how long I can get by doing that before I need to get the hard drive fixed...

 

[dypinc]

Ok. so I calibrated it and it went through a half of the "calibration" before it threw the code. That being said, the colors started printing more vibrant. even though it didn't go through the whole process. I'm just curious how long I can get by doing that before I need to get the hard drive fixed...

Did you install/reinstall the firmware from a USB thumb drive?

 

[Geneva Olson]

Did you install/reinstall the firmware from a USB thumb drive?

no, I did it from my rip station. it is hardwired to the printer.

 

[dypinc]

no, I did it from my rip station. it is hardwired to the printer.

I have always been advised from HP Techs when there is problems related to firmware issues to download the firm and install from a USB thumb drive on reboot.

 

[Geneva Olson]

the kid on the phone told me that too. I can try it. I figured since it was hard wired there wouldnt be an issue. I'll try it today. we are here with a skeleton crew as it is.

 

[richsweeney]

For sure gray on most printers is the most difficult color. If you can, just sell pleasing color. Sometimes a different profile will help.

 

[Hazzmatte]

One of the biggest drawbacks with latex is printing gray. It can be done but more than not grays are trouble. I guess your sales person failed to tell you!!

It will come down to what color profile you’re using and when you find one that works, it doesn’t always work for every gray. It’s a real PIA. We never really did master it. We just moved onto an Epson solvent printer. Good luck!

 

[cornholio]

There are different things, that can happen.
The 315 doesn't have a spectro, so it measures the density with the line sensor. This is not very precise per se.
The line sensor needs to be clean, otherwise it measures only bullsh... (the spectro sensor is closed/covered during printing, the line sensor is open to ink mist)
If the head alignment is off, I had calibrations fail as well. So do a manual alignment.
Some media with lots of whiteners fail as well. Try a different medium to cross check.

The SSD is very unlikely the culprit in your case.

 

[Geneva Olson]

One of the biggest drawbacks with latex is printing gray. It can be done but more than not grays are trouble. I guess your sales person failed to tell you!!

It will come down to what color profile you’re using and when you find one that works, it doesn’t always work for every gray. It’s a real PIA. We never really did master it. We just moved onto an Epson solvent printer. Good luck!

I've had this printer for 5 years. It's been well worth the money. I just have to deal with the grays. What's frustrating is that it's always this one customers graphics. For the most part I've had few problems...

 

[jimbug72]

Sounds like your issue might be possibly related to something else, but when our greys start printing tan (it usually has a bit of a rose/mauve tint) it's always the Lt. Cyan/Lt. Magenta head. We've had them go out before the 1 year mark twice now. We've had to replace that head 3 times in 2 years.

 

[Geneva Olson]

Sounds like your issue might be possibly related to something else, but when our greys start printing tan (it usually has a bit of a rose/mauve tint) it's always the Lt. Cyan/Lt. Magenta head. We've had them go out before the 1 year mark twice now. We've had to replace that head 3 times in 2 years.

It's only on this one customer's graphic. And I'm still baffled by their graphic overall. I have printed the same graphic 4 years in a row for their christmas party. The first 3 years the graphic printed no problem. The only thing I ever do is switch out the date and export it again as a pdf and then hit the print button. This year, the graphic decided to print differently...pink ish. mauve, like you mentioned. I did need to change out the lt cyan ink and I did that immediately. reprinted. same result. I changed out the logo to their pdf version and it printed the greys fine.

This company's logo in particular has given me fits over the years. I have seen the gradient print flipped as in light blue to dark blue and light grey to dark grey insteald of dark blue to light blue and dark grey to light grey. I'm quite confused about it period.

 

[jimbug72]

It's only on this one customer's graphic. And I'm still baffled by their graphic overall. I have printed the same graphic 4 years in a row for their christmas party. The first 3 years the graphic printed no problem. The only thing I ever do is switch out the date and export it again as a pdf and then hit the print button.

Yeah, that's pretty weird. Could you export it as a jpg or tiff file? I find pdfs can do weird stuff that I don't understand sometimes when run through a rip engine. Converting it to a raster image always seems to resolve those issues for me.

 

[JBurton]

Like I said originally, I printed the same banner 4 years in a row. NOW, the graphic in this banner consists of part of the graphic as a jpg. Suddenly it started printing tan. I pulled the pdf version of the logo and replaced it. Fixed the print

So, I think this got glossed over, but the pdf version of the logo may have had CMYK values for the gray areas, whereas the jpg had RGB or grayscale values for the gray.
For a test, export your pdf as an RGB jpg and print it side by side with your pdf.

 

[Geneva Olson]

So, I think this got glossed over, but the pdf version of the logo may have had CMYK values for the gray areas, whereas the jpg had RGB or grayscale values for the gray.
For a test, export your pdf as an RGB jpg and print it side by side with your pdf.

ha. that was my intention first but when they sent me the pdf version of the jpg it was completely different grays. I WAS able to pull the grays from the original image. Then I exported as a jpg and sent over to the rip station.