What causes this?

[Neil]

I'm getting clipping in dark areas of some images.

The screenshot attached shows the image on the right as viewed through irfanview - displaying the dark area as per the original file.

The image on the left is viewed through Signlab using the printer output . icc profile as a soft proof.

It shows heavy clipping in the dark areas and this is exactly how it prints.

My output profile was generated through Eye One Match using the 260 inkjet option.
Could this be the problem? Is it substituting black too severely here?
If that's the case, should I make the profile again using the inkjet 400 option so it uses more CMY and less K in those areas?
If it's not this, any ideas how to overcome this?

[eye4clr]

My output profile was generated through Eye One Match using the 260 inkjet option.

I think you've got it. Excess GCR will posterize 3/4 tones. Blue to black is the most common problem.

Yes, inkjet 400 will take you from GCR4 to GCR3 (on a scale of 1-4). I think it also moves the black 'start' much further to something like 70.

Just be sure you've got precise ink restrictions since the icc will then allow 400% total ink.

[Neil]

Thanks E4C. I'll re-profile this printmode using the inkjet 400 option.
If it alleviates the problem I'll use this printmode whenever the need arises.

Generally I'm happy with the way the black gets introduced with the inkjet 260 icc's and I don't run into this problem of noticable clipping very often, but it'll be good to have both options available in the arsenal.