S80600 grey turning brown

[Tatonka]

I've been printing this same black camo pattern for close to a year on ij180, many times on this roll even, and other than static issues they've always printed fine. Today they're coming out a dirty brown instead of the shades of black/grey. Nozzle check looks perfect, I've tried doing a cleaning, resetting the printer, reloading the file, everything I can think of and nothing fixes it.

Anyone have any insight into a problem like this?

 

[JetPress]

Have you tried a different file to see if the colors have changed on that as well? It looks like you might have accidentally selected a different color profile.

 

[Tatonka]

Have you tried a different file to see if the colors have changed on that as well? It looks like you might have accidentally selected a different color profile.

I definitely didn't select a different profile, at least not on purpose. I just pulled the file up from the past jobs box in onyx rip-queue the same way I've done this and other files for as long as we've had this printer. Other files seem to print fine, it's only ones with this combination of colors that print wrong. All the files for the same material appear to be using the same profile, which is just the default epsonwidecmyk, and the default settings from the profile on the printer.

 

[CanuckSigns]

try deleting the old file from the finished queue, and re rip the file again, sometimes files that sit in the queue for a while get messed up, not sure why. if your other files print fine this is likely the cause. Do you use the same profile you use for this job on other jobs? are they OK?

 

[Tatonka]

try deleting the old file from the finished queue, and re rip the file again, sometimes files that sit in the queue for a while get messed up, not sure why. if your other files print fine this is likely the cause. Do you use the same profile you use for this job on other jobs? are they OK?

I tried deleting it, same result. I use the same profile on all the jobs for this material, and they seem to print fine. I just tried a different roll of ij180 and I still have the same issue. All the ink cartridges seem to be fine, none of them are really low. I run it at 720x1440 - 12 pass, and I just tried 16 pass for the heck of it and it also prints the brown color. I even tried using a profile for SV480 on it and it still prints brown. I'm completely stumped.

 

[jfiscus]

So, this file always prints "incorrectly", but do the other files you've created using this same pattern also do this same thing now?

One really weird thing I have to look out for in Illustrator is different color setting in documents/versions.
Like you can open an older file, make changes, then save-as and it keeps the colors correct. But if you open , then copy the art into a new file, then save that new document the color is different.

 

[Tatonka]

So, this file always prints "incorrectly", but do the other files you've created using this same pattern also do this same thing now?

One really weird thing I have to look out for in Illustrator is different color setting in documents/versions.
Like you can open an older file, make changes, then save-as and it keeps the colors correct. But if you open , then copy the art into a new file, then save that new document the color is different.

Not just this file, but any of the other files in that folder with this color combination. I've got 4 different files with the same pattern on them, none of which have been changed since March 2020 based on the date in file explorer. The one hasn't been changed since May 2019. They've all printed just fine every other time until today.

 

[jfiscus]

Then it sounds like something in your RIP has changed. Onyx can be a PITA every now and then.

 

[ColorCrest]

I've tried doing a cleaning, resetting the printer, reloading the file, everything I can think of and nothing fixes it.

Anyone have any insight into a problem like this?

Does your RIP have a button labeled "Recalibrate"?

 

[Tatonka]

Then it sounds like something in your RIP has changed. Onyx can be a PITA every now and then.

what could have changed and how could it have changed? All the settings I can find look correct. I even tried saving out an entirely new file, deleting all the old jobs, nothing seems to fix it.

It is possible an update to the printer screwed this up?

 

[CanuckSigns]

what could have changed and how could it have changed? All the settings I can find look correct. I even tried saving out an entirely new file, deleting all the old jobs, nothing seems to fix it.

It is possible an update to the printer screwed this up?

There hasn;t been an update to the S80600 in about 2 years so I doubt it.

If you want to send me the file I can test it on my S80600 and see how it prints

 

[Tatonka]

Does your RIP have a button labeled "Recalibrate"?

yes, but it says a calibration doesn't exist so it can't recalibrate. Any time I go into media manager and try to do a calibration the program crashes.

 

[ColorCrest]

yes, but it says a calibration doesn't exist so it can't recalibrate. Any time I go into media manager and try to do a calibration the program crashes.

I recommend you...

1) Print the file found somewhere in your Onyx folder(s); "ONYX Quality Evaluation.pdf" and save it with the date and print mode for future reference. How do the grays in the print appear to you?

2) Read about recalibration in you Onyx literature / manuals entitled something like "How to Recalibrate with the ONYX Software." A requirement is a spectrophotometer device.

 

[Tatonka]

I recommend you...

1) Print the file found somewhere in your Onyx folder(s); "ONYX Quality Evaluation.pdf" and save it with the date and print mode for future reference. How do the grays in the print appear to you?

2) Read about recalibration in you Onyx literature / manuals entitled something like "How to Recalibrate with the ONYX Software." A requirement is a spectrophotometer device.

the quality evaluation looks fine to my eye. Grays look gray, although they're a bit light compared to my pantone book.

Reading the manual doesn't do me any good if the software doesn't work to do a calibration in the first place.

 

[ColorCrest]

the quality evaluation looks fine to my eye. Grays look gray, although they're a bit light compared to my pantone book.

Reading the manual doesn't do me any good if the software doesn't work to do a calibration in the first place.

If the evaluation print looks good and knowing the file did not originate from you or your customer and leaving Onyx and the printer to their own devices, what would this quick exercise suggest to you?

Reading the two Onyx pages about calibration is another quick effort, by the way.

 

[Tatonka]

If the evaluation print looks good and knowing the file did not originate from you or your customer and leaving Onyx and the printer to their own devices, what would this quick exercise suggest to you?

Reading the two Onyx pages about calibration is another quick effort, by the way.

Created a new calibration, and now the evaluation print with that profile looks terrible. I've read onyx pages back to front over and over. Doesn't mean I'm doing it right.

 

[ColorCrest]

Created a new calibration, and now the evaluation print with that profile looks terrible. I've read onyx pages back to front over and over. Doesn't mean I'm doing it right.

You have posted earlier that Onyx crashed when you tried to recalibrate. Now you say you have recalibrated but it's no good. The recalibration guide recommended to recalibrate from a copy of the print mode which affords the ability to revert to the previous state.

Do you have local support available to visit your shop?

 

[Tatonka]

You have posted earlier that Onyx crashed when you tried to recalibrate. Now you say you have recalibrated but it's no good. The recalibration guide recommended to recalibrate from a copy of the print mode which affords the ability to revert to the previous state.

Do you have local support available to visit your shop?

I had to run a reinstall/repair to get it to work. The calibration I ran was on a copy, so I still have the original. After I finished the calibration on the copy and it printed like crap I tried the recalibration and it didn't change. Clearly I do something wrong when I calibrate, but I have no idea what.

And no, there's not really any support

 

[ColorCrest]

I had to run a reinstall/repair to get it to work. The calibration I ran was on a copy, so I still have the original. After I finished the calibration on the copy and it printed like crap I tried the recalibration and it didn't change. Clearly I do something wrong when I calibrate, but I have no idea what.

And no, there's not really any support

I've mentioned earlier; "If the evaluation print looks good and knowing the file did not originate from you or your customer and leaving Onyx and the printer to their own devices, what would this quick exercise suggest to you? "

This says to me the RIP software was satisfactory as well as the machine. That leaves workflow choices and settings which occur earlier in the path. At this point I suggest you revert to the Onyx mode backup and make another evaluation print to confirm it matches the first.

 

[Tatonka]

I've mentioned earlier; "If the evaluation print looks good and knowing the file did not originate from you or your customer and leaving Onyx and the printer to their own devices, what would this quick exercise suggest to you? "

This says to me the RIP software was satisfactory as well as the machine. That leaves workflow choices and settings which occur earlier in the path. At this point I suggest you revert to the Onyx mode backup and make another evaluation print to confirm it matches the first.

And it matches the original fine, since nothing changed in the original. And all this has done is wasted hundreds in material and labor without solving the problem. Nothing in the file changed from last week to this week, it was pulled directly from the previous jobs without reprocessing, the exact same way I've done it on this job and other jobs since we got the printer a couple years ago. Yet today that job didn't print the color it has hundreds of times before.