Printing with FlexiPro

[ebowen]

Ok I need some advice on printing in Flexi. I just bought FlexiPro and need some info on setting ink limits. Anyone using it for printing care to give me some advice? I would be glad to call. Send me a pm.

[eye4clr]

Ink limits will differ widly depending on the media you're using and the resolution you're printing.

Easiest thing is to get a "media profile" for the media you're using. Then print to it using the resolution it was designed with. You should see the resolutionin the name of the media profile.

If you go about tweaking the ink limits for a generic approach to using media profiles, you may get the ink under control, but your overall color will be crap.

[ebowen]

Ok so whats the solution for reducing the ink? Like black for instance is like raised print? I loaded the media profile and seems the ink is just a little to heavy? Maybe the heat is not high enough? Im used to using Colorrip where i can just set the total ink instead of each color. Is this the way it is supposed to print?

[bob]

Profiles are vastly overrated. Yes, you need a proper profile for the printer/software/media combination you're using but that's not a solution, it's a starting point. You need to understand your hardware, your software, and the nature of the image you're trying to print. A proper profile is just a part of this.

If you're printing bitmaps you find that most any black is CMYK instead of merely K+-a bit of CMY to taste. This can put a whole hell of a lot of ink down. If you're printing text/vector stuff in black it's just vanilla K.

I was just this now running some trial prints for an image that's a very vivid mostly black and red bitmap. Complicating matters is a region of text done via Eye Candy chrome. The text is very delicate relative to the rest of the image. I'm using Oracal 3651 with a profile constructed just for me by the good lads at Graphintel.

I'm printing this via the RIp and Print since it will be contour cut. Now then, just printing this image straight out of the profile resulting in ink running in a vertible flood tide. After printing a number of test images I found that, for this job, setting a 92% transparency over the bitmap, running uni-directional [pain in the butt] and on the Color tab on the Rip and Print turning the All slider to -20% and the Black slider to -40% I get exactly the print I'm looking for. The colors are vivid, the delicate tones preserved and it's not awash in ink. I'm sure that purists will howl in outrage, but that doesn't alter reality.

The point being that this is what works for this job. The next job will be something different. That's why being a digital pressman is more art than science. But, in reflection, I don't recall a single job on any media with any profile that I didn't turn the ink down by 20%+-.

Think about it, dumping too much ink on the media doesn't make your colors any better, it just makes a mess. The colors aren't going to get any better than the point where there's just exactly the correct amount of ink that the media can carry.

[eye4clr]

If the profile for the media is doing its job you shouldn't have to touch a thing. I never have to adjust my printer settings for individual files, much less every file. Sometime to do fancy things, i may manipulate the file. But for the most part my profiles handle the output very well.

Regardless of how well someone outside of your location builds a profile, your challenge is to get your printer working exactly as they had thiers. Flexi is a bit problematic for dropping in the ink limits built in by the creator. This causes HUGE excesses of ink to lay down. Check you ink limits if you haven't already adjusted them. See if they are all 100's. If so, not good.

[ebowen]

Ok I know by reading the many threads here about color management and all the other related issues I have to overcome is very overwhelming. I am fairly new and ignorant to all the issues related to management. I did have colorrip printing acceptable prints maybe not perfect though. Now I am using Flexi and I did make tweaks to the profiles in colorip to get them where I had. With Flexi in the production manager using Orcal 3651 720x720 profile the ink limits are set at c=100, m=100, y=90, k=95. This is what was set and it looks like the adjustments I can make from there are m+y,c+y, c+m, or c+m+y in percentages. Also in the setup I can change the individual ink limits. Also you have the GCR to set for K I guess. Im just not sure where to start to change limits. Looks like I need to sign up for the training class for Flexi.

[bob]

Originally Posted by eye4clr

If the profile for the media is doing its job you shouldn't have to touch a thing. I never have to adjust my printer settings for individual files, much less every file. Sometime to do fancy things, i may manipulate the file. But for the most part my profiles handle the output very well.

Regardless of how well someone outside of your location builds a profile, your challenge is to get your printer working exactly as they had thiers. Flexi is a bit problematic for dropping in the ink limits built in by the creator. This causes HUGE excesses of ink to lay down. Check you ink limits if you haven't already adjusted them. See if they are all 100's. If so, not good.

I'm well aware of Flexi's penchant for ignoring ink limits. That's why the Graphintel folk constructed presets for me. The profile is correct, all the miscellaneous settings are correct, it just lays down way too much ink for my tastes. As does every profile on every media I've ever encountered. Ever. But I like the ability to overdrive if needs be and, for the vast majority of jobs, a standard All at -20% is just fine. I don't mind.

And, profile be damned, black on a bitmap is not the same as black on a text/vector object.

[eye4clr]

OK, now i've got some stuff to guide you with. Good post...

Originally Posted by ebowen

With Flexi in the production manager using Orcal 3651 720x720 profile the ink limits are set at c=100, m=100, y=90, k=95.

Don't change these things - assuming they are correct. They are the foundation of the whole package.

Originally Posted by ebowen

This is what was set and it looks like the adjustments I can make from there are m+y,c+y, c+m, or c+m+y in percentages.

I have to admit a personal bias against these adjustment. In my humble opinion, if your individual ink restrictions are done well, you generally don't have to adjust the 2 and 3 color combinations. Plus, this can cuase the math in the ICC to become very compressed in those color ranges and kinda freak out.

Originally Posted by ebowen

Also in the setup I can change the individual ink limits.

AGain, stay clear. Hands off.

Originally Posted by ebowen

Also you have the GCR to set for K I guess. Im just not sure where to start to change limits. Looks like I need to sign up for the training class for Flexi.

YOu can experiment as much as you want with the GCR setting and the TOTAL ink limit. That may not be the label in flexi - i can't remember without looking. But it is in the same tab as the GCR settings (i think). It should allow a range from 0-400. You can generally go as low as 250 without problems. THIS is the thing to adjust to cut back on your ink loads in blacks - not the individual ink limits.

Problem with turning down below 250 is the math gets weird. Think about how the ICC has to make mixes for R, G, and B around 200% ink loads. If you hold Total Ink down below 250%, how is the ICC supposed to go from something like R to black? it can't. The visual symptom of ink limits being too low is gradations to black getting progressively darker, then inverting and going lighter as it should be getting the darkest.

GCR is a cool function of the ICC that gets it to replace some CMY with K. For example, let's say we have an incoming color like 100C, 80M, 20Y, 0K (200% total ink); what is the least common denominator there? 20Y. The color is a blue with a little Y thrown in to darken it and dasaturate. We can do that with K 'eh! So to take the least common denominator out and replace it with K is taking out the Grey Component and Replacing it with K - G.C.R. Then we'd have a mix of 80C, 60M, 0Y, and 20K (160% total ink) for the same color.

For outdoor printing i'm a big fan of very aggresive GCR. For upclose, pretty printing, ease off on the GCR for more subtle tones in darker colors.

Now we're getting into the fun stuff.