Do I need an ICC colour profile?

[MTG]

Hi, I'm a complete newbie to sublimation printing so please bear with me.

I've bought a second hand bundle of gear including, a no name 5 mug press, and Epson ET-2714.

Do I need a colour profile to improve what I am getting? The greys are coming out more like a sepia/ brown colour.

I've been playing with temps and times, as I've read many posts on here with people getting the brown/black problem, but I'm not getting any changes either way.

Would the ink in the machine "gone off" is this a thing? I know the equipment was sitting around for a few months before I got it.

Thanks for the great forum, it is a wealth of advice to someone just starting out.

[webtrekker]

Hi. What brand of inks are in the machine? You may be better off flushing out the remaining ink and using a reputable brand who should also supply you with the correct Profile for their inks.

There are many pitfalls facing those starting out in sublimation printing, including (not an exhaustive list by any means!): the printer, the inks, the paper, the quality of the substrate (ie. the coating on your mugs), use of correct colour profiles, the times/ temperatures and general consistency of your press or oven. It really is a bit of a learning curve and expect to lose a good few mugs in the process.

[Justin]

Good advice about flushing there, will save you a lot of time and pain in the long run. Who/whomever seold you the printer should have told you what the inks were, how long they'd been in and where to get the profile (from them ideally)

If they claim it had been sitting for a few months you know it was longer, I'd be surprised if the head wasn't blocked....use the existing ink to check the nozzles but flushing will be the answer if the heads ok.

[MTG]

Many thanks for the tips, today I have flushed the old ink out and run through 30 full colour pages with new ink installed, (Sublinova)

I've got new Ink Tec paper matched to the ink , and decent Orca coated mugs.

I've done some test printing, 180 degrees for 160 seconds and all the shades of grey and black are still brown, I guess it's the colour profile.

I have emailed the ink supplier asking for the profile , I'll chase them tomorrow as I could do with getting it set up correctly, sooner, rather than later.

[pcwizme]

Generally speaking you wont get the ICC for free, most of them are tuned and cost, Inkexperts sell the sublinova inks and the ICC for them.

[pw66]

What software are you using? Not all will allow you to use an ICC profile to control the printer.
Are you working in CMYK or RGB? (your printer is expecting to recieve an RGB file so never CMYK)
Mac or PC? Macs override ICC profiles and revert to their own internal profile.

[MTG]

Good news this evening, my supplier of paper and SubliNova ink do provide the ICC for free.

I have installed it and used the colour manager in my sign making software (similar to Corel Draw) to use it.

I've just printed a sample mug with 10 shades of black, from 10% to 100%, and it's come out perfect, happy days.

I'll now do another post about fading at edges!!

Thanks guys.

[pcwizme]

Surely a printer is going to be cmyk (Cyan , Magenta, Yellow, Key (black) as thats the inks that it uses, they dont use RGB which is used in light not print generally?

[webtrekker]

Printers (the kind mostly used for sublimation anyway) accept RGB input and do the conversion to CMYK in the printer software. This allows the printer to provide it's best output.

Also, CMYK implies Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black, whereas many modern printers have more than 4 different cartridges where, again, the printer does the conversion itself.

The majority of images available on the web are in RGB format and you would import these directly into, say, Photoshop where you would continue editing in RGB Mode and output to the printer in RGB.

[Paul]

I will leave this here
RGB vs CMYK what is it?
https://99designs.com/blog/tips/correct ... -and-cmyk/