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Printing greys on Oracal 5650 looks brown-ish when reflecting light. (360 and 26500)

Whenever I print greys on 5600/5650 reflective it looks more brown-ish than grey when reflecting light. The print itself looks fine in normal light, but when reflecting it looks bad. Greys are whatever % of black, not CMYK or RGB.


Is that just how it is with grey or am I missing something?
 

dypinc

New Member
Whenever I print greys on 5600/5650 reflective it looks more brown-ish than grey when reflecting light. The print itself looks fine in normal light, but when reflecting it looks bad. Greys are whatever % of black, not CMYK or RGB.


Is that just how it is with grey or am I missing something?


Are you sure that your Greys that are whatever % of black are actually print black ink only. That takes a RIP setting like Pure Primaries or Black as Inkjet Black, or turning off color management. Any others settings will use all inks.
 
Are you sure that your Greys that are whatever % of black are actually print black ink only. That takes a RIP setting like Pure Primaries or Black as Inkjet Black, or turning off color management. Any others settings will use all inks.

It was exported as an eps and all ICC profiles were off. Color dropper shows only black.


Thanks. I'll look that over when I get a minute.
 

MikePro

New Member
your printer's profiles will convert them to a CMYK value unless otherwise specified.
set as a spot color, or print with profiles turned-off if trying to print grey's using only black ink.
 

Hotspur

New Member
metamerism surface effect

Two alternatives really - either you think you are using K only but the rip is actually using CMY which together give a brown-looking black - as Mike says switch off the icc to ensure K only is used as per the original file values.

But I don't think this is the case - as you say they are off and color dropper reports this.

So we are left with one answer - one which fits in with your description of it looking black in one lighting condition but different in another reflected type of viewing condition.

Might be easier to quote the great oracle Mr W. Ikipedia:

"The appearance of surface colors is defined by the product of the spectral reflectance curve of the material and the spectral emittance curve of the light source shining on it. As a result, the color of surfaces depends on the light source used to illuminate them"

I guess the combination of ink / media & lighting that creates this effect - and it is an "effect" rather than the measured value so there's little you can do.

I encountered this with the older Epson Surecolors 7600 / 9600 especially - a really strong bronze look to single K in prints but only in reflected light.

It's a part of the wonders of metamerism - I don't see it as a problem that needs fixing, rather a by-product of the process that makes all this possible in the first place.
 

Hotspur

New Member
Two alternatives really - either you think you are using K only but the rip is actually using CMY which together give a brown-looking black - as Mike says switch off the icc to ensure K only is used as per the original file values.

But I don't think this is the case - as you say they are off and color dropper reports this.

So we are left with one answer - one which fits in with your description of it looking black in one lighting condition but different in another reflected type of viewing condition.

Might be easier to quote the great oracle Mr W. Ikipedia:

"The appearance of surface colors is defined by the product of the spectral reflectance curve of the material and the spectral emittance curve of the light source shining on it. As a result, the color of surfaces depends on the light source used to illuminate them"

I guess the combination of ink / media & lighting that creates this effect - and it is an "effect" rather than the measured value so there's little you can do.

I encountered this with the older Epson Surecolors 7600 / 9600 especially - a really strong bronze look to single K in prints but only in reflected light.

It's a part of the wonders of metamerism - I don't see it as a problem that needs fixing, rather a by-product of the process that makes all this possible in the first place.


Epson Stylus Pro 7600 I mean!
 
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