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L26500, grey becomes pink!
Hi All,
Not for the first time, I’m printing a 10% grey and it looks a very pale pink, what’s going on?
I’ve noticed a ‘colour variation correction’option in the print maintenance menu (currently off), what does that do?!
thanks in advance.
H
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13 Replies
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What design software are you using Hugh?
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Corel draw 2017, onyx rip, ver 11 I think.
H -
Not used Corel, but I’ve wrestled with grey for years.
A while back I found a solution in illustrator ( I believe quite similar to Corel )
I selected the shape & went to edit colour & selected ‘convert to greyscale’ . Been printing greys quite well for months now. Up until then, if I created a file using only grey, it defaulted to CMYK instantly, worth a go if you haven’t already tried it -
Thanks Kevin, I’ll give that a try.
To be fair, all heads are well past warranty, I think that cured it before but they’re otherwise still printing perfectly! -
grey / pink is an issue with perception of grey the our mind decodes… yeah profiling is art form.
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I always managed to get green or blue, never a true grey
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and just when you think you got it right you laminate it and it goes a green again.
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So it’s a case of “it’s not you, HP, it’s me”!!
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quote Chris Windebank:and just when you think you got it right you laminate it and it goes a green again.
Yeah thats right – because you haven’t accounted for the non-perfect clear laminate
When I used to profile you needed it to be spot on and do it with the final laminate on top and call it Vinyl+Lam
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I should probably get my head around this profiling lark, I tried a few supplier profiles for various materials, with often less than great results. I’ve since used HP Glossy vinyl for everything, with no issues at all.
except this grey!
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I had this problem with my Versacamm – switching to a different inkset cured the problem. But it has resurrected itself again recently so I’m inclined to blame the inkset – I don’t think the manufacturers like to let on if they change the formulations. I now have devised a low magenta profile that I use when printing greys (which uses a lower percentage of magenta).
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I improved my greys by adjusting the magenta only at 50%. (SAI) Suddenly all colours became better with this adjustment
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Human vision is particualrly sensitive to subtle shifts in shades of neutral tones, which can be the slightest deviation from neutral in the magenta to green or yellow to blue, or cyan to red axes. Changes in substrate white points, laminates, inks will all have a clearly visible effect, as will temperature and humidity when the inks are laid down.
If you really want to get colour under control, then you do need to go down the profiling route. Manufacturer’s profiles will get you in the ball park, but, particularly if you are applying laminates, then you eventually will need profiling kit.
X-rite’s i1-Pro, with profiler software lets you print calibration targets. Let them dry as you would normally, then apply laminate, then read the target. Now you have a profile for the vinyl / laminate combo. You can take things further – say you’ve got a client who’s just picked up half a dozen ex-Royal Mail vans, and wants new vinyl – place the laminated vinyl target over a rich red base, and measure the target (OK, that’ll probably never work), but you could make profiles over ice white v’s cream, v’s silver, and control the neutral colour shift.
Quality inks, quality media and laminates are capable of profiling without TooMuch effort, though you’re looking at a couple of grand for the kit, and as many hours as it takes. Having said that, illuminant metamerick mismatch (the effect of trying to judge colours under something like sodium vapour lamp, or cheap flourescent) will almost always skew the neutral balance, because the light is yellow, or green…
Or… If you are using the same printer / ink / media / laminate combo’s, there are firms out there who will help make a custom profile for you – probably less than a couple of hundred pounds, and if you buy everything from one supplier, then they should offer this for you.
HTH – feeling slightly happy that I’ve just resurrected two of our printers this week, when I was planning to skip them, rather than move them to new premises.
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