Unsatisfactory overspray/text quality printing with HP Latex 370

[KellyP12]

Hey all,

Just looking for some suggestions. I've been spending some time building media profiles on our HP Latex 370 printer, and it seems that no matter what I set my passes, vacuum temperature, dry temperature, and/or optimizer levels to, I just can't get areas of small-ish text (6-18 pt) to print with significant clarity.

I've made a test image with knockout text (black on yellow and cyan on yellow) I've been using for each profile I build, and while I've been pleased with the image quality elsewhere on my test print, the text overspray, frankly, really sucks. Just doesn't have that 'punch' that our other HP DesignJets offer.

At around 11 pt text the black starts to 'ghost' out into the yellow. It looks terrible. Everything looks hazy from there down. Considering we print thousands of interpretive signs yearly with a need, depending on the customer's art, to have fine, legible, text, this is a huge factor in our company deciding if we'd like to buy another 300 series/latex printer. Currently we only use this machine for running vector-based signs with a crisp logo for one customer that we do huge runs of, and don't have any small text on them.

Any suggestions for settings that may help lock down this issue? I really dislike that you have very little control over a lot of the color settings when building ICC profiles on this machine. I'm not that pleased with it as a printer overall, especially in terms of clarity

 

[papabud]

is this on all material or which material your using?

 

[Dan360]

Have you tried 600dpi? Is the text vector or rastered?

 

[ewded]

Maybe it needs a new printhead? Latex heads can push through ~4 litres of ink.

 

[KellyP12]

is this on all material or which material your using?

It's on a particular coated paper made specifically for our manufacturing process. Without saying too much it's a heavyweight matte coated paper with OBAs in it. Pretty standard. I've made profiles based off HP's Superheavyweight Matte base as well as other manufacturers.

Have you tried 600dpi? Is the text vector or rastered?

The text is vector. I've been mostly using the 300dpi setting. I think in other profiles I'm able to bump it up to 600 but in the latest profile I built (based on an HP Certified canned profile) it did not give me that option??

 

[KellyP12]

Maybe it needs a new printhead? Latex heads can push through ~4 litres of ink.

Good suggestion, though we regularly change out our printheads once they have fired enough to illicit the OUT OF WARRANTY designation in the ink panel on-screen. I will keep an eye on them though.

 

[ewded]

Why not buy a solvent machine, I print 3.66 point text all the time and with naked eye it's just PERFECT

 

[KellyP12]

Why not buy a solvent machine, I print 3.66 point text all the time and with naked eye it's just PERFECT

Unfortunately solvent printing doesn't play nice with our particular signage process. We have a Mimaki for a different product and I can say in only the most polite way that that machine is a huge pain in the tush... we would prefer to not go down the solvent route.

 

[Dan360]

We print almost everything at 600dpi, small text included without issues. When we drop to 300 or 150, we get an overspray, but I don't think it's as bad as you're experiencing.

If that's still happening at 600, I'm tempted to say it's either a profile or printhead issue. Try doing an image quality optimization and see if that helps any?

 

[papabud]

i would also look at your profile. i can print on pretty much anything with a 4-6 pt font with no issues even if i go down to 300dpi on 6 pass on paper

 

[AKwrapguy]

What are you optimizer levels. Have you tried changing them?

 

[AKwrapguy]

Also maybe look at your ink density and number of passes.

 

[KellyP12]

i would also look at your profile. i can print on pretty much anything with a 4-6 pt font with no issues even if i go down to 300dpi on 6 pass on paper

That's what I'm asking for - what particular settings do you use that help you achieve that tight text? I've built lots and lots of profiles on this machine, but I find that it's hard to get as much control over them as you can on, let's say, another printer where you can do the profiling in your RIP of choice. It's all left up to relatively preset factors on the Latex.

What are you optimizer levels. Have you tried changing them?

I've gone down to 10% and up to 25% I believe. I've been keeping track of ink costs and have found, for us, that the optimizer is a huge factor in print pricing. Higher the OP, higher the price (obviously, but it ramps up pretty fast). So I'm trying to avoid jacking it way up. What do you usually work with?

 

[jfiscus]

Looks like a printhead issue to me, but its been a while since we had our latex.

 

[AKwrapguy]

That's what I'm asking for - what particular settings do you use that help you achieve that tight text? I've built lots and lots of profiles on this machine, but I find that it's hard to get as much control over them as you can on, let's say, another printer where you can do the profiling in your RIP of choice. It's all left up to relatively preset factors on the Latex.



I've gone down to 10% and up to 25% I believe. I've been keeping track of ink costs and have found, for us, that the optimizer is a huge factor in print pricing. Higher the OP, higher the price (obviously, but it ramps up pretty fast). So I'm trying to avoid jacking it way up. What do you usually work with?

I've not printed on paper yet so I wouldn't want you to send you down a rabbit hole. They have a optimizer test that you can run which will help you determine the best optimizer for the material. We run it on all new media and it really helps.

One thing that also effects over spray is humidity and static. You might want to try getting a humidifier and see if that helps.

 

[Emd2kick]

Random, but if you flip the way the text is printing (ie you were printing across the roll now try flipping it 90 degrees) do you have the same issue? Sounds silly but we have a couple sticker jobs that we need to do this for to print knockout type appropriately.

 

[AF]

You should linearize or even profile again. It looks like you are laying too much ink which is causing the bleeding. More passes would help also. Determine the smallest text you will likely need to print and profile accordingly.