printing grey and getting red/blue/green undertones

[GraphixGirl79]

Just wondering if anyone else experiences this issue when printing greys. it seems that when you look at the color under real sunlight, (ie outside) the color appears to have
undertones of blue or green and i've heard of reds from other persons. Is there an adjustment or setting i can use in the printing profile to get rid of this issue? thanks.

Rasterlink 6 plus RIP software and using a mimaki JV33-130 and JV300-160 plus

 

[petepaz]

WHEN YOU ARE PRINTING CMYK GRAYS WILL BE AN ISSUE, AT LEAST THAT HAS BEEN MY EXPERIENCE.
ROLAND HAS A COLOR CHART BASED ON WHAT THE MACHINE CAN PRINT SO I USE THEIR GRAYS AND THAT GIVES ME THE BEST SHOT.
WE RECENTLY GOT A MIMAKI JVC-330 AND WE ARE STILL GETTING FAMILIAR WITH THE MACHINE SO NOT SURE IF MIMAKI HAS IT'S OWN COLOR CHART.
ANOTHER OPTION WHICH DOES COST MONEY BUT HELPS. THERE IS AN ONLINE PROGRAM CALLED CATZPER
https://www.nazdar.com/Portals/0/Brochures/CATZper-Brochure.html AND IT HAS BEEN HELPFULL WITH COLOR MATCHING

 

[S2S]

Metamerism...color profiling for gray balance helps

 

[netsol]

color profiling is imperative, actually
you can't just expect the machine to print a perfect grey, unless it excludes cyan, magenta & yellow.
and even then, all substrates have a different white

have you built a profile for that particular substrate? (and under those particular lights?)

 

[MacD]

If you can edit file. I just change grey to 100% black and just use a percent of black depending on how dark the grey looked in file. 10% - 50% etc.. designers don't understand production. And normally will pick a pantone color but when that is printed in cmyk many grey's will use cyan, magenta and yellow and have no black in color at all. No wonder we have issues.

 

[ColorCrest]

Just wondering if anyone else experiences this issue when printing greys. it seems that when you look at the color under real sunlight, (ie outside) the color appears to have
undertones of blue or green and i've heard of reds from other persons. Is there an adjustment or setting i can use in the printing profile to get rid of this issue? thanks.

It could be that you're printing in a "warm" color lighting environment and grays appear to be neutral there, but when outdoors the grays appear to be cooler. Check what color temperature your lighting is and maybe try to find lamps / bulbs with a "Chroma 50" or "~5500K" color rating. Also, surely get a genuine Kodak or Tiffen printer's gray scale from a reputable source and not any Amazon source. The grayscale will be your in-hand, physical guide of true grays.

As for someone seeing "red" in what is essentially its opposite color of cyan (blue / green), it's very likely the person could be color blind of the most common variety.

So, check your lighting, then check your printer grays against a source of true gray as a start.

Good luck.

 

[Patentagosse]

Laminate film also influence the final color. So that being said, I have printed different charts (Pantone, Pantone CVC, Roland...) on cast film (because that's what I use the most) AND LAMINATE 'EM so when I truly wanna match to the closest possible, I go outside with my printed/laminated charts to compare my colors and pick the one that best match under mid day sunlight. They are on AluPanel for easier handling

 

[V. V.]

NOT SURE IF MIMAKI HAS IT'S OWN COLOR CHART

doesnt matter at all, there is no vendor having its particular specific chart suitable for its only machines. go there and print any

 

[netsol]

dru

It could be that you're printing in a "warm" color lighting environment and grays appear to be neutral there, but when outdoors the grays appear to be cooler. Check what color temperature your lighting is and maybe try to find lamps / bulbs with a "Chroma 50" or "~5500K" color rating. Also, surely get a genuine Kodak or Tiffen printer's gray scale from a reputable source and not any Amazon source. The grayscale will be your in-hand, physical guide of true grays.

View attachment 164334

As for someone seeing "red" in what is essentially its opposite color of cyan (blue / green), it's very likely the person could be color blind of the most common variety.

So, check your lighting, then check your printer grays against a source of true gray as a start.

Good luck.

so, who is a reputable source?
(i'm convinced!)

 

[Humble PM]

I'd avoid the older Kodak colour gray scales - they were for luminance values, and had a decided green cyan bias.

try https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/465703-REG/DSC_Labs_FBC_FrontBox_College.html?sts=pi
Key words being "featuring a spectrophotometrically neutral"

 

[netsol]

I'd avoid the older Kodak colour gray scales - they were for luminance values, and had a decided green cyan bias.

try https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/465703-REG/DSC_Labs_FBC_FrontBox_College.html?sts=pi
Key words being "featuring a spectrophotometrically neutral"

as a sideline business, i used to color balance KISS photo printing machines, kodak machines, noritsu & moto photo branded machines.
i would guarantee you that kodak knows grey when the see it (they were the standard, since the civil war)

either you need to stand under the correct light source, or this is kind of like the Xrite UV cut issue .

i will take your advice and not buy one of those, however, (i have been wrong before)

back in the photo lab days, we had a LONG row of fluorescent lights, in ascending color temperature.
when we disagreed with a client, you just had to move him down the row, to demonstrate JUST HOW MUCH difference
ambient lighting makes

 

[ColorCrest]

Also, surely get a genuine Kodak or Tiffen printer's gray scale from a reputable source and not any Amazon source.

Stupid me. I should realize the world is not as I would like it be as it used to. Here in the U.S., I feel the market has been cornered by two sources of common color control guides...

https://calibrite.com/us/product/colorchecker-classic/

Another mfr (apparently) is DGK Color Tools and many camera stores and film making supply houses carry this brand and with a variety "card" formats. I can't recommend this source but the products are readily available and inexpensive enough to try your luck. Know that the items are mostly small in actual size...

https://dgkcolor.tools/products/

 

[Humble PM]

Know that the items are mostly small in actual size...

But not all https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1649332-REG/calibrite_ccc_mega_colorchecker_classic_mega.html