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Latex 360 and 365 cannot print neutral grays

Zendavor Signs

Zendavor Signs

Mmmmm....signs
We have a Latex 360 and 365 printer. It seems since we did a firmware update (whatever the latest one is now) a couple weeks ago, our colors are off. Printing on Orajet 3651 Gloss White. Not too noticeable except grays - they are awful. Very purple tint to them. We run Onyx ProductionHouse 12.1 We have created new profiles from scratch on the printers, pretty much the same results. I don't remember this ever being an issue before. We downloaded profiles from Oracal's website, it is an OML file (for Onyx). So I can get it into Onyx but I don't know how to get the profile to the printer. There was another thread on here where someone talked about it, but it does not make sense to me. Help
 
dypinc

dypinc

New Member
This is a must read to get a better understanding of what is and has gone on with the L300 series in regards to color issues after firmware upgrades.

Latex 360 color consistency is not there

Create a new media preset and not cloning an existing one is a must. Then create a new calibration for that preset. After that you can create a new output profile with the printer or your RIP profiling software. For better control of your neutral grays you need to look at how you are setting your black generation when create the output profile. This is is where the onboard printer generation of output profiles is terribly lacking. How much graininess are you willing to live with you will have to decide in your black generation settings and also you can choose to eliminate the use of lc/lm inks by choosing CMYK instead of CMYKcm in your media preset.

Also make sure you don't have a printhead problem, especially the lc/lm head as it can show neutral gray issues the quickest because your printer has only one lc/lm printhead. The use the lc/lm inks to print grays can be problematic at 10 pass or faster if you laying a lot of ink down as there is a chance of ink starvation with only one printhead. For those type of job the recommendation is to slow the printer down either by more passes and setting the inter-pass delay higher. Black start at 0% can help lower the use of the lc/lm but with a graininess trade off. As a rule I don't use lc/lm inks for a jobs unless I really need them. You will see less color problems at 10 pass and faster.
 
P Wagner

P Wagner

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Start with the HP Media Solutions Locator site. It is accessed from the printer's front panel, or a computer browser. There are a number of Orafol/ Oracal medias there, but I don't believe that 3651 was there the last time I checked. It is a calendared polymeric vinyl, and there are several similar Oracal films available to be downloaded to the printer (either model). If a PC accessed the OMS, you will to push the data over to the printer via the EWS. Once the media has been installed on the printer itself, run Color Calibration on the media, from the front panel of the printer. It takes about 10 inches of media, and takes about 10 minutes to complete. This entire process takes roughly 15 minutes. Once the RIP synchronizes the media name and ICC, you should be good to go.

The other option is to start a brand new media preset from a ground zero position. Takes a bit longer (30-45 minutes), but puts you in complete control over how the printer is outputting to that media. Here is a link to that procedure:


PW
 

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Zendavor Signs

Zendavor Signs

Mmmmm....signs
P Wagner said:
Start with the HP Media Solutions Locator site. It is accessed from the printer's front panel, or a computer browser. There are a number of Orafol/ Oracal medias there, but I don't believe that 3651 was there the last time I checked. It is a calendared polymeric vinyl, and there are several similar Oracal films available to be downloaded to the printer (either model). If a PC accessed the OMS, you will to push the data over to the printer via the EWS. Once the media has been installed on the printer itself, run Color Calibration on the media, from the front panel of the printer. It takes about 10 inches of media, and takes about 10 minutes to complete. This entire process takes roughly 15 minutes. Once the RIP synchronizes the media name and ICC, you should be good to go.

The other option is to start a brand new media preset from a ground zero position. Takes a bit longer (30-45 minutes), but puts you in complete control over how the printer is outputting to that media. Here is a link to that procedure:


PW
Click to expand...
Thank you and dypinc for your help. I did create profiles from scratch on both machines, pretty much the same result. I have not tried printing with just cmyk. I could try downloading one of the other orafol profiles, I wasn't sure if that would work since the white points can be quite different. I'm just not understanding what happened. For 6 months everything is hunky dory. I can even understand having to build new profiles from scratch, but why that is still not working....and identical problem on 2 different machines.

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk
 
FrankW

FrankW

New Member
One possible reason for prints not showing up neutral grays is the light source which is used to check the printed gray.

Colour is reflected light, and depending on the light source colour could differ a lot. In addition, due to metamerism colours could match under one light source, and could not match under another. I have no daylight were my printer stands, and grays show up reddish. Taking the print to daylight, the grays are much better. ICC-Profiles are created under a standard illuminant which is near to regular daylight, and there are lamps avaiable which simulate that.

Don't trust you eyes if checking colour under any office lamps.
 
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