Single Strike/Double Strike ink restricions?

[M.A.C.]

Originally Posted by jcuads

I profiled a POSTER COLOR MATTE for the HP 5500 where I had to multi- channel limit in order to be able to print patches. The limits where something like 1.8 to 2 throughout the 7 steps, consequently I had to set the black compensation to 4.5 to bring back the gradients. I profiled leaving the limit to 400% at build time and it actually looks okay, however I'm thinking that the 280 principle would still apply because as stated by eye4clr the limit at ICC options basically controls how much CMY will lay on top of K and at some point usually beyond 280, there is no visual difference. I will rebuild this profile at 280 later to verify. JC.

Yea, setting your multi-channel ink limits should not affect how you handle your total ink limiting AFAIK.

[eye4clr]

Originally Posted by M.A.C.

Yea, setting your multi-channel ink limits should not affect how you handle your total ink limiting AFAIK.

True.

Setting the total ink limit prior to printing the icc does affect the total ink limit. I'm not sure in v7, but in v6.x it would actually alter which patches and how many printed for the icc.

Honestly, i've never tried the multicolor limits in onyx. I have seen them do evil things in flexi. So i carry on with my prejudice and skip it. So far it's worked very well to rely totally on my ink restrictions and the natural behavior of the icc.

As far as ink limits in the icc go, you can often go down to 240-245 and still get fantastic blacks if you've got a strong K in your ink restrictions. Just varies a bit for each material and print mode.

[bigbly]

While we're on double strike printer profiles I just noticed something weird in Onyx 7.1
When setting ink restrictions, you can tell it to 'use darkest level only' with a button. This sets M2, C2, Y2, K2 to 100%. I've created profiles based on this and they seem fine.
Now if I open a media which was created in v6.5 or 7 the darkest ink is M1, C1, Y1, K1 etc
Does it make any difference if I have the dark ink strikes 1 and 2 the other way round? Hope I'm making this clear.

[jcuads]

By "double strike" do you mean 2 ink layers? This terminology continues to confuse me.

[eye4clr]

C1,M1,Y1,K1 with a double strike (ink layer) available to select would equal having 1's and 2' on each color.

This varies printer to printer with onyx. Sometimes the 2's and possibly 3's are dot size controls.

[bigbly]

Yeah I'm guessing it just doubles the amount of dark ink going down in the same spot.
Question is - is 1 and 2 interchangeable? Is leaving 2 at 100% then restricting 1 the same as vice versa... seems to be

[eye4clr]

maybe i misunderstood, you can choose either to have 1's with the "max ink" checkbox -or- you can have 2's?

If you can have either, there may be a difference

[briggs]

This thread has been very helpful - it turns out I was doing the right thing but getting there in a different way.

I still have this question though;

If I use the total ink limit in Onyx to try and keep the patches in an ICC target from bleeding, how do I set the ink limit in ProfileMaker correctly?

I should mention that I am using the Chroma measurements to set my dark ink restrictions and setting my light inks to 90%.

For example, in profiling a designjet 6 color printer even when I use a total ink limit in Onyx I still get some patches that bleed on a TC 3.5 chart. The funny thing is that the patches that are bleeding are 300% ink, and the 400% patches look fine - no bleeding.

Should I be using the total ink limit in Onyx AND limiting in ProfileMaker as well? If so, what is the best way to do that?

Thanks!

[eye4clr]

If I use the total ink limit in Onyx to try and keep the patches in an ICC target from bleeding, how do I set the ink limit in ProfileMaker correctly?

Personally i just set the total ink in the icc to match the total ink in onyx's total ink step.

[briggs]

So it won't be cumulative? If I put 280 in Onyx, putting 280 in ProfileMaker also won't restrict it further?