Onyx color management help

[wfarmer]

I am very new to this so let me apologize in advance if I ask any dumb questions or anything that's already been discussed. I have a hp l25500 and am using Onyx postershop RIP software. The problem I am having is that many of the colors print dull. I know that cmyk colors aren't necessarily bright but looking at other people printing the same colors I am looking to get I know its possible. I am primarily doing motocross graphics so I have to be able to match the colors with the color of the plastics which are very bright. The main colors I'm having problems with are green and orange which ironically are the jobs I will be doing the most. The colors just look murky and it almost seems like its printing all the colors other than what I actually need. If I look very close to the colors I can see that the ink isn't totally solid on the green and orange, almost like its fuzzy in the colors. I have printed test samples of every cmyk color that is even close to what I am looking for and can't seem to find what I need. I know that most likely I need to do a recalibration and work on ink limits etc. However I don't have a calibration device and I'm not sure what exactly I would need or even what to change to make the colors more vibrant. I have been banging my head against the wall trying to figure this out so any advice is greatly appreciated.

I will attach a photo to show what I am referring to.

 

[Bly]

You won't be able to match really hot orange and green plastic pigments.
The best you can do is try some of the profiles that ship with onyx and try various settings.
Try spot colours using the colour table & not, turning icc profiles on & off, stuff like that.

 

[Hotspur]

You need a Summa DC5sx

Hi

The issue is not the Rip in this case but the printer. You will not get these colors from a standard CMYK inkjet printer.

Although some inkjets come with an orange or green ink these would still be limited for the variation you will need to deal with and lack that vivid color you need.

For your application (in my territory anyway) much of this work for race cars, Karts and motorbikes is printed using a Summa DC Series printer.

This is a print & cut machine that uses Thermal ribbons and thus it can use spot colors, metallics, holographic etc depending on what ribbon you buy.

They use it on aircraft as well (inside and out) so it is very robust too - far more robust than solvent inkjet outdoors with no lamination required.

Many of the Formula 1 teams use these for the car decals - McLaren in the UK has a Summa DC for example.

Here's a link to a company that uses Summa DC machines for their race cars:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Magical-Markers/105406719539661

Regardless of the rip settings you use the inks in the Latex cannot reproduce these colors I'm afraid.

 

[PrintItBig]

You could try printing a pantone chart, picking the colour that's nearest and amending the artwork to that colour.

At the end of the day though if the colour is outside of the printers gamut it's outside the printers gamut.

 

[dypinc]

Hi

Regardless of the rip settings you use the inks in the Latex cannot reproduce these colors I'm afraid.

Yes there are some spot colors you are not going to be able to hit with the L25500. But you can get pretty darn close if your CM is setup correct. The biggest issue is throwing too much ink at it which results in a milky look. Most canned profiles lay down too much ink especially the light inks.

Not all RIP are the same. I found this out when I got the L360 instead of putting money into the old L25500, I was forced to use Caldera and Onyx until I was able to get drivers for my RIP. I was disappointed with color with both these RIPs and initially thought that it was the Ink Density limiting settings on the L360. But once I had drivers for the Fiery XF and could use FCP for creating profiles I found out what Ink Density settings worked the best. More was not better, and Caldera and Onyx profile creation and reproducing spot color leaved a lot to be disired. Had to always read the LAB values with these RIPs and that really didn't improve the color much.

 

[Hotspur]

Just a reminder no rip is in control of the ink densities for the 360 - all rips just send an icc.

The calibration and ink restrictions / ink limits are independent of the rip as they are controlled in the printer only.

This is the same with EFI

 

[mdjamesd]

I have also noticed that Onyx has more "noise" in he prints than Wasatch does. It's just a mater of their RIP engines. As for the other comments bout CMYK only printers.....the chances of you hitting the orange nd green colors and having them "pop" enough is slim to none.

Have you tried looking at manufacturer supplied solid color vinyls?

 

[dypinc]

That is correct, with the L360 you now have to use the printer for setting ink density/limits. But if you set it too high and get a milky look to your profile target you will never get a good profile.