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My Latex Colors Look Like $h*t

Brands Imaging

Brands Imaging

New Member
I wish that someone would have told me before I bought this printer...."Hey man, the colors on this thing look like crap!".
Everything is just washed out....I mean, the blacks look good but everything else seems to look flat. I know the inks are more matted than my solvent machine but I just dont get it.

The other main issue is we cannot print red no matter what we do, they all come out orange/red. Changed profiles, changed print heads changed CMYK formulas - all to no avail.
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
I thought it was said that the colors are really good on these new latex machines ??

Do you use the same red for anything regardless of what material you are printing to ?? I know we hafta use a different red if we're printing to vinyl, vs banner material vs reflective to achieve the same red for a single customer/project. Our flatbed is the same. It all depends what substrate we're printing to for the correct color.
 
Dennis422

Dennis422

New Member
No Issues here on my L25500. Yours should be much better!
Make sure all the files are in CMYK. For black use just a black, no rich black.

That is how it works for me through Flexi.
Also, do not try printing anything under 8 pass.
Very detailed decals I print at 16 or 20 pass. Very nice colors and saturation.

Good luck
 
Brands Imaging

Brands Imaging

New Member
No Issues here on my L25500. Yours should be much better!
Make sure all the files are in CMYK. For black use just a black, no rich black.

That is how it works for me through Flexi.
Also, do not try printing anything under 8 pass.
Very detailed decals I print at 16 or 20 pass. Very nice colors and saturation.
Click to expand...

We always print CMYK - And we aren't having issues with the black.
Also, we print a standard 8 pass on everything. We tried 10 pass for red and got the same results..
I shouldnt have to DUMP a **** ton of ink on there to get a normal red color..
 
eahicks

eahicks

Magna Cum Laude - School of Hard Knocks
Profiling...profiling..profiling. I get the best reds I have ever printed on our latex, after years of struggling to get away form the orange-red that every other machine I ran gets. Even grays are superb.
 
Dennis422

Dennis422

New Member
Mine prints great red with 100% Yellow and 100% Magenta.
Sometimes, I add maybe 3-5% of black to the mix
 
A

astraios

New Member
Do you have 'color correction' enabled under color management when you print from flexi? Check:

[video=youtube;ILstaAg9DAg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILstaAg9DAg&feature=youtu.be[/video]

(around 3:00 in video)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
danno

danno

New Member
We have a L26500 and colours are pleasant. We can still hit coke red. I would check profiles and how the file is ripped.
 
P Wagner

P Wagner

--
Brands Imaging said:
I wish that someone would have told me before I bought this printer...."Hey man, the colors on this thing look like crap!".
Everything is just washed out....I mean, the blacks look good but everything else seems to look flat. I know the inks are more matted than my solvent machine but I just dont get it.

The other main issue is we cannot print red no matter what we do, they all come out orange/red. Changed profiles, changed print heads changed CMYK formulas - all to no avail.
Click to expand...

I would agree with the others who have posted in this thread that there is something very wrong with your workflow if you are dissatisfied with the color that your HP Latex printer is producing (or your expectations for CMYK-based printers are out of line with reality).

Which model of HP Latex are you running, which RIP are you using, and what application(s) are you using to create print files in?
 
ProColorGraphics

ProColorGraphics

New Member
Which latex do you have? If it is the 360, I made my own profiles and had the ink limit at 110-120. The colors come out great. I like using pantones to get good reds. Usually 186.
 
Brands Imaging

Brands Imaging

New Member
we have the 330 and are running flexi / my expectations are not unreasonable, it's really having trouble hitting even 1/2 decent red.


we're just using the appropriate Avery and 3M profiles on flexi and the corresponding profiles on the printer. Flexi kinda sucks and I never thought to even try to create a custom profile.

PLEASE HELP!
 
FrankW

FrankW

New Member
The reds are working fine with that printers. There must be an issue with yours.

Tipp 1: One time I had an issue with a Latex 280 which won't be used much. The yellow ink have looked totally washed out (was in the machine for nearly two years), what guides to heavy colour deviations. Is everything ok with your inks?

Tipp 2: Because of the larger amount of nozzles, missing nozzles often don't show up as banding (as on Rolands, Mimakis etc.), but on color deviations. You should check the test in the image quality menu, where you can clean the print heads, if there are larger amounts of nozzles missing.
 
Brands Imaging

Brands Imaging

New Member
We print a ton of material and we've been using this thing so it's certainly not bad ink. We've also just changed the print heads again and still no Bueno. Advantage had us run all the tests but we've yet to go over them
 
PRS Bryan

PRS Bryan

Member
Brands Imaging said:
we have the 330 and are running flexi / my expectations are not unreasonable, it's really having trouble hitting even 1/2 decent red.


we're just using the appropriate Avery and 3M profiles on flexi and the corresponding profiles on the printer. Flexi kinda sucks and I never thought to even try to create a custom profile.

PLEASE HELP!
Click to expand...


Again, you need to alter the profiles. The profiles that came with the machine are crap.

If you expect to use profiles designed to create quick economical prints to achieve bright saturated prints, then you are in for a boat load of frustration.
 
ProColorGraphics

ProColorGraphics

New Member
Brands Imaging said:
we have the 330 and are running flexi / my expectations are not unreasonable, it's really having trouble hitting even 1/2 decent red.


we're just using the appropriate Avery and 3M profiles on flexi and the corresponding profiles on the printer. Flexi kinda sucks and I never thought to even try to create a custom profile.

PLEASE HELP!
Click to expand...

I think there is a way I can save out the profile I made on my L360. I will try to figure that out and send it to you.
 
Brands Imaging

Brands Imaging

New Member
ProColorGraphics said:
I think there is a way I can save out the profile I made on my L360. I will try to figure that out and send it to you.
Click to expand...

that would be HUGE and I'd appreciate it. We've had our mimaki for 7 years and that thing is a workhorse!! Through raster link and flexi alike we've almost NEVER had a problem with color. It was just great what whatever we threw at it.

Im totally fine with profiling and spending the time to make this right but I have no idea how to make custom profiles or tweaking existing ones....I thought that was only for onyx groupies. It sounds like I'm getting close.

is there a screen to use in flexi? A drop down menu? A plug in? A separate software?
 
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