Flexi Pro 8.6 with Roland sp300

[Morph1]

I'm just wondering what sort of presets you guys use when ripping to Roland printer, I'm just trying with Eco-SOL Premium Cast 720 x 720,
I found I am getting quite good color match..., not perfect but acceptable results...
I'm a new Roland user with a used SP300 I just bought and currently going through experimenting process to see what works and what I should stay away from,
any advice would be appreciated... do you guys print directly from PMS values or strictly CMYK - PMS converted ?

appreciate any help,

thanks !

 

[mrugen]

A little Flexi help with Printing

Fact is that every RIP, like Flexi converts design values to RGB then back to CMKY before they print. So even if you have a complete design in CMYK values, it will still convert back to RGB then back to CMYK before printing. Now that said, if design values for color vectors are in CMYK to begin with, there is some help in soft proofing. The monitor colors will be closer to the final print colors. Now, that said,even if you design I RGB, you can always soft proof and get some idea of print colors. I recommend you spend a little time in better understanding color management in Flexi.

I've got a great white paper that would really help you!

http://givemehelp.com/videos.htm

 

[Morph1]

thanks for the reply,

but why do we bother then designing in CMYK at all..., so you are saying that even if all my vector color fills are precisely assigned in CMYK values and sent to rip the rip will convert them to RGB then back into CMYK to output to cmyk printer..., this sort of makes no sense..., CMYK has a lot smaller gamut than RGB , why would the rip software need to reanalyze specific CMYK color to send it to a cmyk device...., I understand all monitors work in RGB space and everything we see on the screen in CMYK is pretty much a simulation of the specific color profile that your software and monitor has assigned.. Now every rip will also color correct the output to suit specific media through cmyk linearization and that also impacts the final color...
The process itself is a one big overcomplicated mess, honestly when do you know that your values are right ?? now add a spectrometer and you pretty much gonna go nuts in a matter of days lol...,,I sort of always rely on a PMS input PMS output , I find it the only to be assured that your color comes to a close approximation by comparing a PMS chart to a printed color,
there are times when PMS value will print exactly as expected , and there are times when you gotta work it in either CMYK or RGB to come close to expected PMS value...
I am a new Roland user and all my experience comes from Mimaki printers , this is the reason I ask for presets within flexi as per mimaki experience I seen a lot of color changes in selecting a different color correction type, example would be using Arlon preset and using 3M preset.. the results are very different due to changes in linearization table...
Based on my experience it does not matter how much time you spend in calibrating the software the rip and the equipment you will never come close to printing all the colors as expected,
the process is a big mess and from your reply I do not see a single advantage why would someone want to work in CMYK color space using digital technology other than burning CMYK plates for press print industry or silk screening...

 

[mrugen]

I get it..

I totally get what you are saying. Just keep in mind that there is a difference between the MATH of CMYK and the Physical Printers CMYK. For instance, RED would be 100% Yellow and 100% Magenta. (MATH) but at the printer RED might be 80% Magenta and 60% Yellow. Thus the ICC profile for the media. I am not saying you would perhaps get better color matching if you use a CMYK or PMS workflow. What I am saying is that INKJET printing is not OFFSET printing. You are right, it is indeed a big mess. BUT, there is some sanity in at least understanding the color workflow and color management between Software, Monitor and Printer. Doing so at least gives you some predictability and repeatability.

Look bottom line is "the customer (paying customer) is always right. If they like it, you got the color right.

In Flexi, using "presets" think you mean selecting a profile for a media. Once you select the profile, everything else gets set. So For instance, choose ORCAL 3651 and other settings get set automatically. As far and Roland vs Mimaki. Same difference as you had before.

When I owned a sign shop, my focus was on making sure the customer was happy with the final print regardless of how I got there. I used ORCAL 3651 for banner printing and they loved it because got good reds. My referenced recommendation about video and/or whitepaper learning helped me get better color matching, so if you need that,it helps.