Mimaki UCJV RIP CMYKWWCLCL ICC profiling

[Raghaus]

Does anyone here have experience with Flexi or Onyx on a Mimaki UCJV300 with white and clear? I print white and clear very often, and also find good CMYK color matching with Rasterlink somewhat challenging, especially without being able to create custom profiles. I have a bunch of workarounds and presets but it gets old really fast, and I keep banging my head against the wall with Rasterlink's lack of decent color control.

Mimaki's profiling solution is chained exclusively to Rasterlink, and to my knowledge 3rd party profiles can't be used with Rasterlink, unless I'm missing a cruicial detail. I'm looking for a RIP that can be color profiled and print white/clear (multi pass gloss!) without issues. Flexi and Onyx Go Plus seem to fit the bill, as I have an i1 on hand...
Thanks for any input.

 

[White Haus]

Not exactly what you're asking..............but we have been able to successfully create custom profiles for our UCJV CMYKLcLmWW for Onyx, using an i1. Took a tech a full day to get a layered profile to work (cmyk+w or w+cmyk) but since then it's been working fine. I would imagine/hope it's a similar process with your inkset configuration.

I used Rasterlink for a couple of hours then quickly dumped it and moved everything over to Onyx - RL is a complete joke and I can't imaging using it in any sort of production environment.

One thing to note: You may have noticed the color shifts that happens with prints off the UCJV. I would recommend letting your swatches completely cure/shift so that they're scanned accurately when creating your profiles. We hadn't accounted for this originally so one of these days I'll have to go back and re-create all our profiles. I'm still not 100% sure how long this process takes, maybe an hour?

Any other questions, let me know.

 

[netsol]

we generally wait 5-6 hours, if circumstances allow (they rarely do!)

 

[Raghaus]

Not exactly what you're asking..............but we have been able to successfully create custom profiles for our UCJV CMYKLcLmWW for Onyx, using an i1. Took a tech a full day to get a layered profile to work (cmyk+w or w+cmyk) but since then it's been working fine. I would imagine/hope it's a similar process with your inkset configuration.

I used Rasterlink for a couple of hours then quickly dumped it and moved everything over to Onyx - RL is a complete joke and I can't imaging using it in any sort of production environment.

One thing to note: You may have noticed the color shifts that happens with prints off the UCJV. I would recommend letting your swatches completely cure/shift so that they're scanned accurately when creating your profiles. We hadn't accounted for this originally so one of these days I'll have to go back and re-create all our profiles. I'm still not 100% sure how long this process takes, maybe an hour?

Any other questions, let me know.

thank you – "Not exactly what you're asking" your post does answer my concerns for the most part...
1.) I need to be able to create custom CMYK ICC profiles
2.) I need to be able to layer prints with 2x white and/or clear. I often run multiple passes of clear for an embossing effect & spot-on accurate color is a little less concerning on these prints. The clear ink is slightly yellow to begin with.

Regarding color shifts – I tend to think that UV comes dry off the machine, but color does indeed shift inconsistently after a couple of hours depending on the substrate. One thing I have noticed to great concern is that LUS170 suffers greatly from metamerism under different lighting conditions, which has created all sorts of issues with the kind of work I do. I don't think my old flatbed machine with LUS150 had this issue.

I installed the Onyx Thrive evaluation today and ran a few tests... Everything looks pretty straightforward to me & it registered my i1 & I think I'll go for it.

 

[White Haus]

thank you – "Not exactly what you're asking" your post does answer my concerns for the most part...
1.) I need to be able to create custom CMYK ICC profiles
2.) I need to be able to layer prints with 2x white and/or clear. I often run multiple passes of clear for an embossing effect & spot-on accurate color is a little less concerning on these prints. The clear ink is slightly yellow to begin with.

Regarding color shifts – I tend to think that UV comes dry off the machine, but color does indeed shift inconsistently after a couple of hours depending on the substrate. One thing I have noticed to great concern is that LUS170 suffers greatly from metamerism under different lighting conditions, which has created all sorts of issues with the kind of work I do. I don't think my old flatbed machine with LUS150 had this issue.

I installed the Onyx Thrive evaluation today and ran a few tests... Everything looks pretty straightforward to me & it registered my i1 & I think I'll go for it.

No problem, I hope you're able to achieve what you're looking for! I find Onyx has an odd way of recognizing the spot channels and behaves quite differently with the UCJV than it does with our Oce Arizona flatbed. They obviously spent a lot more time and effort with the drivers for the Oce and other printers than they did with the UCJV, but hopefully it's gotten better since they started supporting that printer.

When we installed our UCJV and started running w/ Onyx, it had just come out and was "just barely" supported by Onyx. Again, hopefully that's changed as that was 4ish years ago.

Your ink config/driver will be different so hopefully it supports layering nicely and works out for you. At least with the demo you can try to work out the kinks before committing to a lifetime membership to the Onyx club.