need some answers please on hp scitex

[Lou Wittman]

I looking for answers to a couple questions and issues with our HP scitex.

I think we are not using this printer to its full pontential in conjunction with onyx postershop. The questions I have are in regard to colr profiling and saving jobs. First should we be able to open files directly from illustrator, photoshop and flexi, and then print these files with out having to readjust the color on every file. I do not run this printer one of our other employees does. We design the files then send them to be printed and the employee running the printer readjusts all the colors we set for the job. This is extremely time consuming, especially on small jobs of 5 signs or less. . Also when we recieve artwork from a customer and then adjust it for the flatbed my concern is the colors are not correct, shouldn't we print from color profiles to avoid this. I know we do not has this issue printing on our solvent printers, as we are able to design the file and print directly for illustrator without having to adjust the color in raster. Also to save the colors we then create for our flatbed prints, we have to manually write them do in a notebook, this doesn't seem right. We save commonly printed jobs on the printer, but if it is a reprint from a year ago for a small customer we have to have either write it down or recreate as best we can. Any advice or answers would be greatly appreciated

 

[Lou Wittman]

Need help please

Could somebody please give me a quick over view to my previous post, as we a small business and really need to pick up some profitbility in this economy. We recently hired a art instuitute grad that I am thinking about having running our HP and wonder if these are issues he should be able to correct.

 

[Gino]

Welcome from the other side of the state...........................

 

[J Hill Designs]

correctly profile your equipment, and 95% of your color problems will poof

 

[johnnysigns]

Get color management in place as said.

 

[Lou Wittman]

thank-you way we are currently doing it just seems so time consuming

 

[J Hill Designs]

sounds like you arent currently doing it?

 

[ForgeInc]

Lou, it sounds like you guys need an intensive training session on how to run your equipment and what it takes to get them to output color correctly.

Just so you know, in order to achieve the the best color consistency from media to media, you will need to have profiles setup for every media you run. You will also need to have a spectrophotometer to measure your colors after they are printed, then you can create and adjust profiles as needed. You will never be able to print directly from your design program.

Did you guys have any training when the printer was installed? If not hire someone to train you guys! This is pretty basic stuff you need to know in order to be profitable with your equipment.

 

[Lou Wittman]

Thanks for all the help out there

I have been stressing the need up here for us to create profiles for our media so our set uo is not so slow on jobs. Also we a x-rite eye-one pro.

 

[artbot]

"Also we a x-rite eye-one pro" ..."we have an x-rite"? if you have an eyeone then you are ready to go. onyx is the only rip that can use that thing without the additional items/software to profile your media. if you have one guy do the sweeping of the pattern and another guy keep is eye on the screen and verify that it "took" you can profile any media in about 30 minutes. recently we built a profile for brushed aluminum dibond by profiling a carefully selected light gray piece of art paper.

 

[Lou Wittman]

Couple more questions

This forum is great and everybody has beeen very helpful. Could somebody help me explain to my boss why it is so important that we set up profiles for our media. He has been in the business for a long time, but never ran a flatbed and comes from a screen printing background. Also how many sheets do you think make it worthwhile to run white ink in the printer. We have the white option on our hp scitex, but have never used it. currently we just mount white vinyl on black sintra if we need a black edge.

 

[J Hill Designs]

'boss: if we profile our media, we dont have to spend an hour changing every art file."

 

[cwb143]

Xrite Color Profiler + Caldera Rip = problem solved.
PM for further details.

 

[cwb143]

We have the HP FB700 as well. We have not used the white yet as well. We decided that the white needs to be profiled like the rest of the print modes. But we won't do this till a big job comes up for white. Because of the ink waste involved in the switch out. You have to decide what your minimum order is to be profitable. Also if you boss is coming from a screen print background you can WOW him by making his colors more accurate by printing proofs first. Our digital printers match the proofs and I our screen printers match the proofs. This keeps everything consistent and your customer happy. Happy customers make a happy boss and sometimes this happiness makes its way to the employee but not always.