Light Gray coming out grainy - HP 365

[TheBarricade]

I am printing on white vinyl (briteline air gloss release) with a light gray ([HASHTAG]#E5E5E5[/HASHTAG]) with the HP 365 latex printer. I've cleaned the printheads and used "optimize print quality" yet the gray is still coming out really grainy. Is this just how gray looks or is there a way to make it look more solid?

Thank you everyone!


Grainy Gray: https://imgur.com/a/g78Iqrt

 

[signage]

have you tried other colors on this vinyl?

 

[TheBarricade]

have you tried other colors on this vinyl?

Yep and they have all turned out great - nice solid colors across the board. It's just gray that I am having an issue with.

 

[ColoPrinthead]

If it is an option you can adjust the color build to lessen grain with greys, but Latex = grain train.

 

[Tyler Birch]

Grainy-ness usually means there's a problem with your optimizer. Make sure your OP printheads are firing correctly so that those inkdrops congeal properly.

If you need to, try copying the profile and making a version that uses more optimizer for greys/fine text.

 

[dypinc]

I am printing on white vinyl (briteline air gloss release) with a light gray ([HASHTAG]#E5E5E5[/HASHTAG]) with the HP 365 latex printer. I've cleaned the printheads and used "optimize print quality" yet the gray is still coming out really grainy. Is this just how gray looks or is there a way to make it look more solid?

What is the GCR and especially your black start of your output profile? That will affect how much black you are using in your grays. The less black (which looks pretty grainy on the HP) you use the more lc and lm will be used especially in lighter grays which will make appear it to be less grainy.

 

[Henrix Overcash]

Gray does much better as a process build opposed to only 10% black which is what you are trying to print.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

What Pass count and density are you using?

 

[myront]

Try a Pantone equivalent. Pantone's which are a mixture of cmyk are much better than just a percentage of black that's void of other colors.