-
I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...
Teach me about the ink limit settings on my Photoprint DX...
- Thread starter Bogie
- Start date
Bogie
New Member
Hokay - fiddled some with some settings... I'm printing some outdoor signs on LG3810 (or whatever the stuff is...). Downloaded the profile, etc., installed it in Photoprint DX, etc.
"Out of the box," the settings were at 100% across the board. Darn fine coverage for big lettering tho... And even with a 5 minute dry time at the end of a 3' long sheet, the ink was still damp enough to stick. Yeah, ask me how I know...
Have dropped it to 90% across the board, and after reading a bit on the board, I bumped the heaters from 50/50 to 50front/55rear. The lettering (big red letters for some safety signage) is a little lighter, but I think it actually looks a bit more toward what I was expecting. Feels dry to touch, and it's too late to try a "sticky" test...
I've dropped it to 90% across the board
"Out of the box," the settings were at 100% across the board. Darn fine coverage for big lettering tho... And even with a 5 minute dry time at the end of a 3' long sheet, the ink was still damp enough to stick. Yeah, ask me how I know...
Have dropped it to 90% across the board, and after reading a bit on the board, I bumped the heaters from 50/50 to 50front/55rear. The lettering (big red letters for some safety signage) is a little lighter, but I think it actually looks a bit more toward what I was expecting. Feels dry to touch, and it's too late to try a "sticky" test...
I've dropped it to 90% across the board
I would never trust a glossy media profile with 100% initial ink restrictions.
You might try a similar glossy media profile
http://www2.mutoh.com/public/Diamond Shield/Onyx Falcon Outdoor Jr Ultra Ink/
The Diamond Shield Gloss profile may be a good place to start,
Might give some insight to initial ink restrictions as well.
You might try a similar glossy media profile
http://www2.mutoh.com/public/Diamond Shield/Onyx Falcon Outdoor Jr Ultra Ink/
The Diamond Shield Gloss profile may be a good place to start,
Might give some insight to initial ink restrictions as well.
I can't comment specifically on PhotoPrint, but I can lend a hand in profiles in general. By the sounds of it, you are going about this all wrong. Messing with individual channel ink RESTRICTIONS will alter the whole profile...since this is the FIRST thing one sets when creating a profile from scratch. If you feel you've got too much ink, try changing the overall ink LIMIT, which is a number between 0 and 400 (usually a number somewhere above 300). If it is at 390, say, then reduce it by about 10 - 20 or so with test prints at each successive reduction. I still don't recommend this in a general sense, as it is merely a poor solution to a larger issue of not having the correct profile for the given media. You really should be creating your own profile(s) rather than dinkin' around with these.
Bogie
New Member
Hey, eventually...
I haven't been able to find an overall setting in Photoprint yet... I'll keep looking.
Thus far, and I'm down to 85 (as I progressively do signs that are going further down the road...), things are looking better overall. I know, I know... No profile by eye... I'm gonna get a gizmo eventually - what do you use?
I haven't been able to find an overall setting in Photoprint yet... I'll keep looking.
Thus far, and I'm down to 85 (as I progressively do signs that are going further down the road...), things are looking better overall. I know, I know... No profile by eye... I'm gonna get a gizmo eventually - what do you use?
You need to have a spectrophotometer, such as the Gretag Macbeth EyeOne Proof or similar XRite. These run about $1200, and NO you cannot get by with a lesser model, so don't ask. Beyond that, you also need the training in how to go about making a profile, as provided by companies such as UnicaDigital. After having done a few of these myself now, I could probably walk a person thru it, though it won't be as good as personal training.
I agree with GraphiXtreme, modifying a profile is the last choice to make and can give unexpected results later on.
The overall ink limits are sometimes called MultiChannel ink limits and they are mixtures i.e. C+K+Red, and not just the initial CMYK ink restrictions.
In outdoor applications the initial CMYK ink settings are the most critical.
Too low and colors will be washed out no matter what.
Too high and the Multichannel ink limits will have to be cut back too far.
Either way, the ICC correction can give poor color output.
Get the initial ink restrictions good and the rest of the profile will fall into place easily.
Each media, each environment (and in reality each printer) will affect how much ink can be applied to the media.
We use an Eye One, DPT41 and DPT70
The Eye One is a handheld unit that takes a bit of practice to use and quite a bit of time to read large sample with, but works well.
Bogie
New Member
Looks like mo-money... Oh boy... Maybe in a coupla weeks...
In the event you were printing on something without a profile, and you don't have a suitable gizmo yet, what would you do? (I've got this roll of Seattle Textile banner stuff that my local photoboyz had on sale...). And I've gotta buncha folks who want banners... I _can_ tweak a bit by eye to get within horseshoes, hand grenades, and small tactical nuclear weaponry range...
Seems I have a _lot_ of folks who want printed banners this weekend... Most just want text, but a few are completely over the top freaked out at the idea of putting a picture of their merchandise on a piece of tarp...
In the event you were printing on something without a profile, and you don't have a suitable gizmo yet, what would you do? (I've got this roll of Seattle Textile banner stuff that my local photoboyz had on sale...). And I've gotta buncha folks who want banners... I _can_ tweak a bit by eye to get within horseshoes, hand grenades, and small tactical nuclear weaponry range...
Seems I have a _lot_ of folks who want printed banners this weekend... Most just want text, but a few are completely over the top freaked out at the idea of putting a picture of their merchandise on a piece of tarp...