L26500 Color matching

[david lewicki]

Guys,
I dont know where to begin. But here is what I need. Somebody anybody willing to go over my machine with me. I have a L26500. I use Flexisign pro 10.5.1 I use the production manager for flexi. Sometimes when I print my colors dont match. Like a dark blue will come out light purple. I dont know if I should make things in illustrator as cmyk, or rgb, and either save it as a illustrator file or pdf for better quality or more reliability for color matching. Or send it right into production manager and bypass flexi if I dont need it. Im choosing the correct output media. But maybe there is something I am not doing properly. If someone was willing to help me over the phone and let me describe from a start to a print to a finish what I need to do and help me understand what I am doing wrong. I could pay them through paypal or venmo for their time. It just seems like it would be easier that way than troubleshooting on this message board. But I am willing to try over the message board as well. I think I need a good tutorial on my machine and someone to look over my steps from start to finish when I want to print something and see where my error is. Please Help.

 

[MelloImagingTechnologies]

Buy yourself an EPSON

 

[FrankW]

A suggestion to buy an other printer is not really solution-oriented.

What do you mean with "choosing the correct output media"? The settings in the printer only defines some technical details, the colors are determined by the color management of the RIP-Software. And there are a a lot of settings which can be done wrong (with Flexi or other software too). It is really hard to estimate from distance, and unfortunately the optimal settings are variable depending on the job.

Is the printer technically ok? Even overaged printheads could lead to color deviation. Firing all nozzles? While the HP thermal printers have known problems with color consistency even in good technical shape.

Do you use your printer very often? Are the inks expired? Specially with expired inks, if the printer is not used even for a few weeks only, the pigments are settling in the cartridges, and the ink which reaches the printheads are of much lower density than they should have. This could be a propable cause if you want to print dark blue, but gets light purple.

 

[MelloImagingTechnologies]

If you want to have consistent accurate color, buying the right printer is completely solution oriented.

I’ve sold many HP latex printers back in the days it was new but dealing with customer’s constant problems I have no desire to carry.
Frank- you point out the problem HP has and we have known that heating up thermal printheads with massive curing temps is not a good design for firing inks consistently.
Bruce

 

[FrankW]

I have sold and have supported them too. But I never have told my customers later that they have bought the wrong printer, it depends on the requirements. A lot of people have printed with the Latex 26500 for years, and were satisfied.

If the questioner have problems like "I want to print deep blue, but gets a light purple", thats NOT in the range of a typical "color consistency"-problem of the HP´s. So it will make sense to give some hints.

 

[balstestrat]

Frank you must know Bruce already. He's the one annoying sales guy who always tries to sell you something and can't shut it up.

 

[MelloImagingTechnologies]

I haven’t told them they bought the wrong printer.
Can you get parts for these now?
Heads?
26500 was a great model.
My hint is:
Buy a better printer!
Good luck to all the HP people!

 

[MelloImagingTechnologies]

Frank you must know Bruce already. He's the one annoying sales guy who always tries to sell you something and can't shut it up.

You obviously don’t know me.
I only sell the most reliable and only local here in ny.
And we always service what we sell.
And what do you do?

 

[bteifeld]

Just to help out:

When you have a color matching problem, the first question to consider is whether
you have done the normal steps of color management:

1. Make sure you have made a valid ICC profile for your monitor. What you see on your monitor is a mysterious and meaningless nothing without this.
2. Create a good printing condition by proper media configuration/linearization.
3. In the context of (2), create an ICC profile.

Have you done all three of these things? Do you need to learn how these steps are done?

Please accept these questions in the spirit of honest troubleshooting, because your message
expressing your problem description says nothing about these three essential aspects of color
management.

 

[david lewicki]

Just to help out:

When you have a color matching problem, the first question to consider is whether
you have done the normal steps of color management:

1. Make sure you have made a valid ICC profile for your monitor. What you see on your monitor is a mysterious and meaningless nothing without this.
2. Create a good printing condition by proper media configuration/linearization.
3. In the context of (2), create an ICC profile.

Have you done all three of these things? Do you need to learn how these steps are done?

Please accept these questions in the spirit of honest troubleshooting, because your message
expressing your problem description says nothing about these three essential aspects of color
management.

Thanks for your reply. I have not done these three steps and would love to learn how. Would you by chance be willing to share how to?