Does anyone know a trick to print a gray image without a green tint?

[phototec]

I have a Roland SP540V and trying to print this image on Orajet 3551 and the grays are printing with a greenish tint.

Does anyone know a trick to print a true gray image without a green tint? Thanks

 

[JBurton]

Isn't this the jedi emblem? With something else over it?
The Grey Color Rendering value, or GCR, is what defines the hues for your greys. You can either figure out how to do that properly, which takes forever, or convert it to grayscale or b/w, and turn off any color profiles when you send it to your rip.
What rip are ya using?

 

[Johnny Best]

RGB is better than CMYK and a .pdf file works for me.

 

[ColorCrest]

Does anyone know a trick to print a true gray image without a green tint?

First, calibrate the printer because color printers are to be calibrated to produce a neutral gray scale the same as color photography is to reproduce the same.

Second, verify the RIP is honoring both input and output ICC profiles. The uploaded file is neutral gray(s.) That’s very fortunate.

If the printer is calibrated and produces neutral grays with ICC profiles turned OFF but the printer makes prints with a “tint” when ICC profiles are turned ON, accurate ICC output profiles need to be applied instead of faulty ones.

A very quick, but temporary, fix is to just color correct a copy of the existing file to print.

 

[ColorCrest]

The Grey Color Rendering value, or GCR, is what defines the hues for your greys.

No such animal as far as I know. GCR is to mean Gray Component Replacement. Basic printer calibration defines the mix of CMY to define gray, not GCR. GCR can reduce CMY but is most often detrimental to the quality of large format printing.

 

[phototec]

Isn't this the jedi emblem? With something else over it?
The Grey Color Rendering value, or GCR, is what defines the hues for your greys. You can either figure out how to do that properly, which takes forever, or convert it to grayscale or b/w, and turn off any color profiles when you send it to your rip.
What rip are ya using?

You are correct, it is the Jedi emblem however the customer wanted me to create the 3D-looking image with another Star Wars emblem on top of it with the red outline, so I can't just convert the image to grayscale because of the red outline. The gray areas are printing with a greenish cast?

The image was created in Photoshop, converted to TIFF, and imported into Illustrator so I could add a ConTour cut layer on top and then saved it as a PDF to send to VersaWorks and printed on my SP540V.

 

[phototec]

RGB is better than CMYK and a .pdf file works for me.

The image was created as an RGB (Adobe 1998) in Photoshop, converted to TIFF, and imported into Illustrator so I could add a ConTour cut layer on top and then saved it as a PDF to send to VersaWorks and printed on my SP540V.

 

[ColorCrest]

RGB is better than CMYK and a .pdf file works for me.

As Johnny Best said, RGB is the best start in these cases because common RGB files can easily be created as known neutrals where as CMYK files, not so much.

However, files of almost any graphic type will product the same color regardless whether they're PDF, TIFF, JPG, etc., so long as they carry their ICC profile and are color managed properly in a work flow.

 

[signheremd]

One option is to make a few squares with various scales of gray in each and see which formula prints best for your printer - then use those to create your image (or fill your image). You can also print out a test print with standard Pantone colors, including grays, and choose from those. We keep track of color formulas for those grays which work on our printer so they can be used again and again. The real issue is a lack of gray and orange inks and trying to create grays (or beiges) from CMYK. That said, RGB is good and we have had good luck with LAB based grays when printed. May The Force be with You

 

[Bobby H]

Our first large format printer was a Roland VP-540. It was not reliable at all printing neutral grays. The grays would print either with a green or red tint. Sometimes the tint would shift in the same print job. Take one end of the gray print and wrap it around to the other; the grays would clash big time even though the color in the print job was uniform.

 

[petepaz]

try using a gray from the roland color swatch selection

 

[netsol]

it really seems that building a few proper profiles would solve this

a downloaded profile can't possibly compensate for the quirks of your printer

 

[binki]

try using a gray from the roland color swatch selection

Yes, we had the same problem and this pretty much fixed it.

 

[redprint]

I profile all medias, been doing it for a decade. Never once have I had a profile that would print greys without some color cast, mainly magenta. The profile isn't the problem, it is the mixing of Cyan Magenta and Yellow to make grey. Or what the profile thinks is grey. You won't EVER get a good grey using CMY inks, only black. You can't print just black, when you have color in your document and use a profile, unless you are using Versaworks, which can be set to print only in black. I use Wasatch RIP and can not print just black in Wasatch. So matching a color that looks grey is your only option.
Roland has suggested making two files, one that is the black and one that is the color, print the black file first using just black inks, and then rewind back to the beginning and print the color over the top. Not sure if it works for registration, as I have never done it.

 

[JBurton]

You won't EVER get a good grey using CMY inks, only black.

Not going to say you're wrong, roland's inks aren't the same, but on my HP 570, if I print only black, it is a bronze flavor of grey, ala warm grey. Now for my money, this is perfectly acceptable, but often folks imagine a cool grey in their final product, and black levels will not fly. My 'best' greys are primarily black with 2 or 3% magenta and cyan. I don't care for them, but I get paid so it's all grey to me.