Question Sign & Display mode

[Tony McD]

Roland sp300v and versaworks from corel.

Trying to print a close match to mactac lumious blue and found the "sign and display" setting in versaworks gives the best match printing pantone reflex blue.
The problem is this setting screws up the black and light grey in the image. (grainy)
Black and grey print perfect in the normal mode....but then the blue is off.
Have also tried the find the right cmyk values for the blue so I could print in normal mode and have good black, but no luck.

 

[Patentagosse]

Sign & Display use very different settings as the CMYK Target Profile is JapanStandard.icc (probably lighten up colors so that's why your blue pops while it shifts the black / gray). These are tinny li'l adjustment in parameters (I won't go any further in my explanations as I don't master it) but some colors may be affected while other give better results. You could try playing a bit with Edit Tone Curves from Color Adjustment tab in the menu (left) but it's too long and too complicated to help you here. Maybe you can try other profiles and get decent blue while not shifting other colors. Sometimes I can try up to 3 and from these 3 try MAX Density US / Sign & Display / MAX Impact. Color management is a loooooonnnngggg learning curve and you cannot master it in a week.

Here's another suggestion that works for me pretty often: save everything in JPG (Hi-Res) at full sive (if possible) in RGB mode. Usually the Blue and Red are printing much better (read better punch, vivid). It may shifts the gray a li'l... unfortunately...

 

[Roland Product Support]

Hey Tony McD,

Patentagosse is right in mentioning color management is a complex topic and takes a very long time to master, but no worries, we have some ideas that may help.

Generally, to improve color accuracy, please change the VersaWorks Color Management setting to help with this issue. To access that option, launch VersaWorks, click on “Edit > Queue A Settings”. In the window that appears, click on the “Quality” button, and look at the Color Management drop down list of options. Click on “Density Control Only” and finally, click the “OK” button to save the change. Print the job again.

Also, be sure the artwork is saved as an RGB color images, not CMYK. If saved as CMYK, the desired colors will not print correctly.

On another note, if you want to match colors, you’ll have to implement the use of Roland’s spot color library. We’ve produced several training videos that discuss the concept of color match and color management (which will improve gradients also).

The simplest/quickest way to get up and running is to start using the Roland color system library and apply a known-good workflow. Of the training videos available, this process is demonstrated here:

and here’s another

.

Additionally, to understand the “Principles of Color Management”, watch the video here:

We have another training session that deals with all the settings under the VersaWorks “Quality” tab can be viewed here:

. This video is very, very informative and I’m sure it will help.

We understand this is a lot of info, but it’s all that we have to address the issue(s) you’re experiencing. If the above does not help you, it’s time to get your dealer onsite to assists with this process/workflow (and to inspect the printer to be sure it’s working correctly).

Thanks and take care,

Roland Technical Support
Roland DGA Corp.
rn

 

[Tony McD]

Thank you for the suggestions, I will do some reading and watch the videos.

This is my seventh large format printer since 1994, so I know a little, just seems
to be a "hitting this blue" problem.
I'm usually happy with colors printing they way they look on the screen,
but to get this shade of blue has always needed sign and display.
Have printed this same job several times in the past for my customers vehicles,
just never satisfied with with the black and grey.
I did try printing several sample prints, using an rgb jpeg, max impact and max density...even tried 2 pass.

Thanks again, maybe I'll get it figured out before he buys another vehicle for the fleet.

 

[Roland Product Support]

Hey Tony McD,

Don't forget to first test the "Density Control Only" color management setting before you delve deeper into the videos and tutorials. It's possible that's all it will take, it's worth the try.

Take care,
rn