Specific CMYK Color Banding on Mimaki JV33-130

[Krystal Karls]

Hi All!

I ran into a recent issue while trying to print a very dark grey. This color is specific to our customer and is the only color I am having issues with. I have tried creating a duplicate color swatch in InDesign and have tried saving it in different PDF formats and using different profiles in Rasterlink. Attahced is a picture of my banding issue. Any other suggestions would be amazing!

Thank you!

 

[ColorCrest]

Hi All!

I ran into a recent issue while trying to print a very dark grey. This color is specific to our customer and is the only color I am having issues with. I have tried creating a duplicate color swatch in InDesign and have tried saving it in different PDF formats and using different profiles in Rasterlink. Attahced is a picture of my banding issue. Any other suggestions would be amazing!

Thank you!

The German reference to Kohler is "a making charcoal from wood." (Hence charcoal gray.) The champion test image from the German / Euro printing machine mfr, Durst, is their "gitter" (grid) image file. It's 50 x 50 inches of solid gray with fine, black targets. This seemingly simple image is practically the most difficult for any large format printer to produce without fault. It's the printer, not the file.

I your case, I advise the easiest and most cost effective course is to outsource this portion of your project and hope for the best. Know that you're having trouble with all colors but you just don't notice it. Your machine needs mechanical adjustments. Afterward, test using the same file.

Good luck.

 

[P Wagner]

Hi All!

I ran into a recent issue while trying to print a very dark grey. This color is specific to our customer and is the only color I am having issues with. I have tried creating a duplicate color swatch in InDesign and have tried saving it in different PDF formats and using different profiles in Rasterlink. Attahced is a picture of my banding issue. Any other suggestions would be amazing!

Thank you!

Are the bands parallel to the carriage (scan) direction, or the media movement (feed) direction?

Put another way, are the bands horizontal or vertical?

 

[Krystal Karls]

The bands run horizontal with the scan direction.

 

[ColorCrest]

Put another way, are the bands horizontal or vertical?

The bands run horizontal with the scan direction

To me, it appears to be both directions as I study the posted photo, but the phone camera might play a part here.

 

[Krystal Karls]

To me, it appears to be both directions as I study the posted photo, but the phone camera might play a part here.

The major banding issues are running horizontally. In the picture I attached it looks vertical as that is how the image gets installed but when I print it I rotate it 90 degrees to fit the printing media.

 

[ColorCrest]

The major banding issues are running horizontally. In the picture I attached it looks vertical as that is how the image gets installed but when I print it I rotate it 90 degrees to fit the printing media.

Understood. When I apply a high contrast setting to your posted image I easily see both H & V patterns. Not uncommon.

 

[Outlawsignz]

The major banding issues are running horizontally. In the picture I attached it looks vertical as that is how the image gets installed but when I print it I rotate it 90 degrees to fit the printing media.

Hi All!

I ran into a recent issue while trying to print a very dark grey. This color is specific to our customer and is the only color I am having issues with. I have tried creating a duplicate color swatch in InDesign and have tried saving it in different PDF formats and using different profiles in Rasterlink. Attahced is a picture of my banding issue. Any other suggestions would be amazing!

Thank you!

Saw this thread and thought I would throw my 2 cents in - I've been using the exact same machine for a decade now and have had tons of banding issues over the years - the biggest fix for me for VERTICAL banding was heat - play with the top two plattens. I turned mine down from 30 something to low 20's and the final stage at 43. Cured that right away. I assume you have done all the 'Media Compensation' and 'drop alignment' tests and made the adjustments as required. Horizontal is tough...my best luck has been running those tests during any significant weather change - 4 to 6 degrees makes a huge difference in printing seamlessly. So, spring and fall find me running these tests 3 or 4 times a week - and always need to make adjustments - AND - as the machine warms up, you may have to swing back the other way. It's a real pain, but I have had great luck with it. Another trick I've done is turning the 'Vector' (if it is) swatch of what you want to print (the dark grey) and make it into a bitmap and apply a slight Gaussian blur to it - this works quite often for me as well. Not sure why (i am no techie) but it works. Hope it helps!