Colour Printing Problems

[GoonerGary]

To get the colours near as dammit I am not using the Sublijet profile as this makes the colours look washed out (shown in the photo of the print)

Instead I tried using CIE RGB and the above pictures are the result.

By using CIE RGB, you're flying by the seat of one's pants and attempting to get those fluorescent ZX Spectrum game colours. Those bright colours are not possible to print using sublimation nor by any other printing method available to us. They are beyond the limitations of printers.

To get the best possible colours, you need to get moderator Paul to make you a custom profile for your printer which would be an improvement over the sublijet profile, but don't expect those colours you are attempting to print.

[ArferMo]

You can do them with the sunangel fluorescent laser system

[Jollyware]

By using CIE RGB, you're flying by the seat of one's pants and attempting to get those fluorescent ZX Spectrum game colours. Those bright colours are not possible to print using sublimation nor by any other printing method available to us. They are beyond the limitations of printers.

To get the best possible colours, you need to get moderator Paul to make you a custom profile for your printer which would be an improvement over the sublijet profile, but don't expect those colours you are attempting to print.

@Paul, am I best contacting you through your website for a custom ICC

[AlanD]

Looking at your first colour image it looks like it is displaying with no colour management ie RGB (all monitors are rgb) but you are printing in CMYK. CMYK has a smaller colour gamut meaning that some colours are impossible to print. That's where colour management comes in, using the correct profiles the monitor will display what actually prints (or close anyway) Problem colours are the vibrant greens/blues/reds etc.
I work with Corel Draw but the adobe products work in a similar way - I use Adobe RGB as the RGB colour space and printer profile Swop (as suggested by Sawgrass) monitor profile should be the profile that came with the monitor (possibly downloadable from web) or I use a x-rite display pro which make a profile from monitor readings. This monitor profile is installed in Windows (don't know how MACS work) If you have a cheap and cheerful minitor it will always be a struggle so I suggest a good quality IPS monitor Dell Ultrasharp are good and Morgan Computers have a load of HP IPS monitors that are very good and going for just over £114 inc vat
I suspect you will always struggle with these vibrant colours but either way sorting you colour management will at least reduce the unpleasant surprises.
Just re-iterating what Gary has said really
Alan d

[Jollyware]

The monitor I am using is a ViewSonic VX2770SMH-LED 27-Inch SuperClear IPS LED, not sure if that makes a difference or not.

As you say I need to sort the colour management but not really sure how to do that.

[Paul]

Hi there! I can see my name been mentioned few times so i will try to explain this very simply

the color square that you see below is your color gamut, space or call it whatever you want. rainbow.
this is what your screen can show you and your eyes are able to see.
but now, we have a printer that has only 4 colors. yes. only 4 And now you need little file called ICC to tell that printer how to mix those 4 colours to achieve the color you like.
so... in this colourful squere you can see 3 different color gamuts. White, yellow and green. Those are gamuts for 3 different profiles.

white - Ricoh SubliJET supplied by sawgrass
yellow - same ricoh with subliJET inks but with custom made ICC
green - custom made icc for EPSON printer

as you can see,all those gamuts are MUCH smaller then whole colourful square. Everything "INSIDE" the gamut can be printed and icc will help your printer to mix colors to achieve anything that is inside them. everything that is "OUTSIDE" ...well, forget it, it won't be printed.

as you can see, custom icc for ricoh is much larger on side of green color and red. but nowhere near enough to print "glowing" colours.
hope this is more clear for you now. If you have any questions, just give me a shout!


ps. anyone who ever had problem with reds printing pink on ricoh. You can see on the diagram, why. Its no where near the reds. even custom icc is just touching it.

vB_ID:3196

Screen Shot 2015-01-09 at 16.58.25.jpg (11 KiB) Viewed 16 times

[AlanD]

I think Paul has explained it pretty well. First port of call is to get the monitor profile and instal it into widows assuming its not here already.
Goto control panel
Display
adjust resolution
advanced settings
Colour management tab
Colour management
That will show you you monitors profiles if any

vB_ID:3197

monitor profile.JPG (58.87 KiB) Viewed 16 times

hopefully you can see the attachement showing my profile from the Xrite which automatically gets saved there but a downloaded prifile can be saved there just as easily I use the bottom one generally not the SRGB one(I've renamed it)
Alan D

[wayupnorth]

I think you may need to go back a few steps and follow the instructions from here:

http://www.sawgrasseurope.com/technical ... ments/3110

Have you setup the Ricoh driver to make sure that the printer profile is switched off ?. There are a few other settings to sort as well then create your own printer setup. It is quite possible that the printer is also trying to add a profile so the two will fight. Follow the other suggestions and use the sawgrass profile in cs6, AdobeRGB for your workspace profile.

[Jollyware]

I think you may need to go back a few steps and follow the instructions from here:

http://www.sawgrasseurope.com/technical ... ments/3110

Have you setup the Ricoh driver to make sure that the printer profile is switched off ?. There are a few other settings to sort as well then create your own printer setup. It is quite possible that the printer is also trying to add a profile so the two will fight. Follow the other suggestions and use the sawgrass profile in cs6, AdobeRGB for your workspace profile.

I think I have installed both Powerdriver-R and Winprofile, shold I have not done this and if not how do I remove them so I can start again.

The other thing I am trying to do is turn off the printer profile but can't seem to find how to do this.

[wayupnorth]

Having both installed is not a problem as you select the appropriate driver in cs6 when printing. Powerdriver does a good job so it may pay you to try printing through this to get a feel for colour balance, you will get a print that is close to the original. Just select powerdriver in the printer dialogue box and ensure that printer manages colours is also selected. Powerdriver takes control of the process using its own profile so no chance of double profiling.

If you have followed my link you will see that item 2 details how to setup the printer. To use the profile (not powerdriver) you MUST follow these instructions AND setup cs6 colour space as suggested.

If your monitor is not calibrated then you will be unlikely to get a print to match the screen - don't fret over this unless you are creating images from scratch, if you imported an image it should print very well subject to the driver/profile settings.