What resolution is everyone printing at

[Notarealsignguy]

That's likely because your profiles were generated at 8 pass only, and not expanded beyond that.

I thought that this was the right way? Push the print speed /profile to the where you maximize the speed of the printer while still getting accurate (or close enough) colors. The longer the printer runs, the more wear and tear it gets.

 

[SightLine]

Initially it was to lay as much ink down as we could for back lit signage, which is what we bought the thing for. From there, moving into other stuff like door vinyl, I just kept it at 20 passes in order to match prints on clear. Then moving into partial wraps, I see no reason to skimp on ink for either time or material usages' sake. Since I print a handful of things a week, I'm not tying up the machine to a point that it hurts production, but I'm aware that I'm using more power to print for 8 hours compared to the 3 hours it would take at something like 8p.
Also, everything pretty much comes out perfect every time, aside from those difficult colors.

In the end, I have a printer for convenience sake and control, I make my money with my router and bucket trucks.

Laying down extra ink for backlits is really not the ideal method for that. It makes it look good when lit but when not lit that makes everything overly dark. The solution we use is to do two prints. You can do it two ways - applying both stacked on the face, or if using clear acrylic of polycarb you can print the secondary in reverse and apply it to the inside. We print the secondary on clear laminate. The main key is to line the two prints up. The idea is the secondary adds the additional color so it does not look washed out when backlit but when not backlit does not make the front print look overly dark.

 

[JBurton]

Laying down extra ink for backlits is really not the ideal method for that. It makes it look good when lit but when not lit that makes everything overly dark. The solution we use is to do two prints. You can do it two ways - applying both stacked on the face, or if using clear acrylic of polycarb you can print the secondary in reverse and apply it to the inside. We print the secondary on clear laminate. The main key is to line the two prints up. The idea is the secondary adds the additional color so it does not look washed out when backlit but when not backlit does not make the front print look overly dark.

That or white + clear underneath, but I don't like how much the white cuts down on light transmission, so we either double layer on the face or reverse onto the back. Regardless, my prints always pop when compared to others in a tenant panel sign.

 

[JBurton]

I thought that this was the right way? Push the print speed /profile to the where you maximize the speed of the printer while still getting accurate (or close enough) colors. The longer the printer runs, the more wear and tear it gets.

That is right, but if you want the same color accuracy at higher passes, you need to profile more than just the 8 pass. Higher passes will almost always eliminate any banding and reduces graininess, so it's worth doing for problematic colors.
I'm sure my printers life is being reduced, possibly halved, but since I barely use it, it should last about the same as a print shop.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

That is right, but if you want the same color accuracy at higher passes, you need to profile more than just the 8 pass.

But if I hit it at 6-8 pass, why would I want to run slower? Your colors should be accurate across all profiles.

 

[Mata]

So I created my own profile in Flexi and it looks so washed out compared to my Onyx profile (custom profile created in Onyx 21). I could see the dots on the flexi profile where as the Onyx version seemed pretty hard to see, a very good print in my eyes on a sold colour.

I've been fighting this for ages and I've just realised my onyx profile is printing on a 12 pass where as Flexi was on an 8 pass. The quality on etc 12 pass is quality compared to the 8 pass on flexi.