Profile Problem/Question?

[timkaz227]

I Printed a Banner for an in-house display. I accidentally chose the profile for my standard vinyl(LG 3910M), Banner looked great. Found a typo, reprinted w/ the correct profile for LG Bannux 13oz Matte. Still looked good, but I liked the first print better. One of the things I liked was that it had a Bright Orange color which came out pretty nice instead of the typical burnt orange you usually get. Should I have any concerns using the other profile? Is it the profile that caused such a difference? I don't usually get this color orange when printing to the adhesive vinyl, so why did i get it on the banner material w/ a vinyl profile? (Roland Versacamm SP-540v, Illy)

 

[timkaz227]

No opinions? Boy do I feel like a loser.

 

[WrapperX]

Is it a "stock" profile you get from a supplier/vendor website? Cause if it is, those are generally built pretty basic. And rarely have I ever had ANY problems cross breeding them with various other materials that they aren't "designed" or designated for.

I came from one shop that used only "stock" profiles to this new shop and we make our own profiles and the results are extreme. I highly urge and suggest that you take an afternoon or a day or whatever you can spare to create your own profiles.

 

[Custom_Grafx]

Is it a "stock" profile you get from a supplier/vendor website? Cause if it is, those are generally built pretty basic. And rarely have I ever had ANY problems cross breeding them with various other materials that they aren't "designed" or designated for.

I came from one shop that used only "stock" profiles to this new shop and we make our own profiles and the results are extreme. I highly urge and suggest that you take an afternoon or a day or whatever you can spare to create your own profiles.

+1 and wish they made this an easier process. If you've got someone to teach you it's not that bad, but to learn on your own from scratch... not so easy.

I have also always been amazed at how far off stock profiles are. If they were a little off... sure no problem... but WAAAY off. Especially in terms of ink limits. Way too much ink. Colour's not that far off but the ink... shocking.

 

[sfr table hockey]

I Printed a Banner for an in-house display. I accidentally chose the profile for my standard vinyl(LG 3910M), Banner looked great. Found a typo, reprinted w/ the correct profile for LG Bannux 13oz Matte. Still looked good, but I liked the first print better. One of the things I liked was that it had a Bright Orange color which came out pretty nice instead of the typical burnt orange you usually get. Should I have any concerns using the other profile? Is it the profile that caused such a difference? I don't usually get this color orange when printing to the adhesive vinyl, so why did i get it on the banner material w/ a vinyl profile? (Roland Versacamm SP-540v, Illy)

All a profile is doing is telling the printer the amount of each color to put down to match to that media, for not only ink limits(how much ink to put down before it bleeds), but propper color. That profile is made for that one set of inks and for that one media and for that print quality setting. If you use other aftermarket ink then you may not get the right colors. Thus the need to profile.

If that media had a real white color, compared to an off white that you might get on another media, then that profile will look different on both media. Does it matter if you use it, no, but when you print a guys logo they want the right color to show. Now on the other hand if you are getting the right colors and a good print, that's all that matters. If it works to use the same profile for most of your work then use it.

I had made up a profile for one media and tend to use that same one on a lot of things. Might be better if I had time to do more but really had not needed to. Just getting ready to start a new set of ink so it will be time to make a few more profiles unless they actually are plug and play like they said..... not holding my breath.

 

[timkaz227]

Is the a guide or tutorial on making profiles? All I've ever done is adjust the temps and maybe the color mgmt (US Pre-press, sign & display,etc...). All that colormetric, nearest-neighbor, & dither setting are way beyond my education level. We have a lot of that on the printing side of our business but don't use it there either.

 

[Custom_Grafx]

Hi timkaz, you can check out some good info here...

http://www.signs101.com/forums/showthread.php?t=71331&highlight=profile+versa

There is a link to a roland manual for the process.

Note, to do your own profiles, you need an i1 or something that works with VW to measure colour.

 

[timkaz227]

not familiar w/ an i1, is that a densitometer? I do have a densitometer for our printing presses that measure cmyk ink densities.

 

[WrapperX]

NO a densitometer is not the same thing. Google i1 and you will see what you are looking for. Although having a densitometer is good to have when creating your profiles it is not the crucial part. The i1 is a machine that reads and calibrates ink swatches that are made when creating profiles. The densitometer shows the ink density or amounts of ink that is laid down.

 

[eye4clr]

i1 one is a spectrophotometer, it reads values at many points across the color spectrum for each individual measurement. This spectral reading is expressed into a LAB value by the profiling software to give a reference for converting color from one step in your workflow to another. In your case you're looking to convert your file's RGB and/or CMYK to values that give you accurate color on your specific print system.

A densitometer reads lightness. It can not be used for color management in the sense of an ICC based workflow. It can be useful for quality control to make sure your individual inks are printing consistently and for doing the linearization step in the process of making an overall media profile for your printer. Know that a spectrophotometer can do this step equally well plus all the other aspects of making media proifles.

Simple answer is if you are going to get only one instrument, get a spectro, not a densitometer.