Dark prints

InkjetMall Customer Support Piezography Inks & Printing
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1

made a print using the qtr print tool as recommended follow procedure outlined in article. print i got is 1.5 to 2 stops darker then on monitor. monitor is calibrated to recommended standard. any ideas why this difference?

2

1) Calibration?

If you calibrated to Gamma 2.20, and the display brightness to or about 85L or 85 candelas, you have the contrast and brightness set correctly. Double check both.

2) Viewing conditions?
Comparison conditions - the standard would be a viewing booth that is dimmed to the same brightness as the display and the comparison is made side-by-side. That is part of the industry standard. Color temps should be matched - but will not affect brightness of the print. The room should be dim to about 50lux. That’s the rest of the industry standard.

We use GTI dimming viewing booths and we calibrate to 5000k because that is the color temp at which human vision is best designed to color comparison. What are your viewing conditions like?

3) Wrong Curve?

I am assuming that you are using our K7-2880-XXXXXX curves or our P2 curves and not using other curve sets by mistake?

4) Inks in the correct position? One or more switched?

Does the output otherwise look normal? Or does the output look excessively dark in the mid-tones or quarter-tones but normal in other regions?

5) Anomaly

Do you have a spectro to measure L values? You can print out a 21 step and send us measurements to verify the output is correct and there is not some unforeseen Gamma bump being done that would make the prints darker for some yet unknown reason.

Let us know if any of these may affect it.

Jon

3

In addition to everything Jon wrote above, another helpful way to have the most accurate on-screen preview is to use a soft proof profile specific to the printer, ink and paper combination you’re using.
I will email you some soft proof profiles for Warm-Neutral ink to try/use. Piezography soft proof profiles are only for viewing an image thru for an accurate print preview (you do not print thru a soft proof profile), which is helpful when editing files. Install the soft proof profiles as you would any color ICC profile (Windows: right click on the profiles and select ‘Install Profile’. Mac: drag and drop the profiles to the Library> ColorSync> profiles folder), then pull up the “QTR-…” profile in the Device to Simulate pull down list of the View> Proof Setup window. Make sure to check Simulate Paper Color and Ink Black, and check the Preview box on. I use Realitive Colorimetric with Black Point Comp on when I view an image thru a soft proof profile. When viewing your image thru the soft proof profile that matches the printer/ink/paper combination you’re using, or a correctly calibrated monitor, and viewing the print in a viewing both dimmed to the same brightness of the monitor, will give you the best conditions for viewing and editing your images accurately.

I hope this helps. Please let us know if you have questions or there’s anything further we can help you with.
Best regards~ Dana :slight_smile: