Xerox 700 problems

[gnubler]

Print Planet? :laugh:

Ohhhh...you mean the other Other Side. I'll bring my stash of nuts - what you got?

[Joe]

Ah, I didn't realize I could use Acrobat to change individual pages to grayscale.  That would be certainly better than keying in 90 exceptions every time I send the job over to the FreeFlow. At least the changes would stick with the file. I was extremely careful in preparing the Word file...absolutely no color on the page...and the technician even prepared a color picture totally stripped of color in Photoshop and it came through as a color click. Why have I never had problems on my RICOH 3260's?  I don't like to change my files to PDF because I think the quality of the photos goes down a notch...at least in some cases.

You are right about the color plate thing...the "press" is toner based and I don't know why they refer to it as a plate shift...maybe it just looks like the plate shift of a real press.  I'm worried.  Xerox was nice enough to swap printers last week, hoping to solve another issue.  The plate shift is happening with the new replacement Xerox 700 too.  That's why I'm hoping it is server-related... I think that is next to go!

I think the problem could be Word converting to RGB when you print from it. I'm no Word expert other than I know to avoid it at all costs if possible. If you have Acrobat 8 or 9 Pro check out the Print Production Tools. You change a whole page, the whole document, or a range of pages to grayscale. If you go the PDF route just make sure when you print from Acrobat you have color management turned off. Also you should see no degradation of images when making PDF's unless you are letting Distiller, or whatever app that is making the pdf, down sample the images. You should be able to create a PDF with the same quality of images that you started with. There should be zero degradation.

[Joe]

Print Planet? :laugh:

Ohhhh...you mean the other Other Side. I'll bring my stash of nuts - what you got?

Potatoes.

[gnubler]

I don't like to change my files to PDF because I think the quality of the photos goes down a notch...at least in some cases.

You've been taught some bad information. Welcome to B4print! We are here to help.

I'm worried.  Xerox was nice enough to swap printers last week, hoping to solve another issue.  The plate shift is happening with the new replacement Xerox 700 too.

Huh. They're prepared to swap ours out also...after 3 1/2 years of chronic problems. Lease is ending soon and the big X is scrambling for bribes to keep us in their books. Too late! My worries will end when we take our Xerox out in the parking lot and introduce it to a sledgehammer.

[cookbooklady]

Joe, thanks for the insight!  I'll look into the way I make the PDF's.  I use Acrobat 9 Standard right now. The difference in the PDF file output is very slight...not obvious unless you compare the pictures side by side...and even then, I notice it only on a few photos where there are very tiny details that appear a bit better on the original Word document.  I'm sure my customers would never guess...but photo quality is really important in my cookbooks and I want it to be the best possible since these things will be handed down for generations.  I wish I understood more about the PDF process...um...I'm going to have to look up what a distiller is. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. Up to now, it hasn't been much of an issue because these books are usually printed in Microsoft Word and Ricoh printers are Word-friendly.

On the PDF note....I found that if I leave the files in Microsoft Word, the font color is not quite right on my cookbook covers. I often create frames around pictures with the same RGB numbers as the font on the page.  The frames look right, but the font is more vivid and the color is off when I print on the Xerox 700.  By converting the files to PDF, everything matches as it should. Question...is this problem related to the PS driver? I use Ricoh's proprietary version of a PCL driver (RPCS) when I print to my RICOH 3260's and the color match is not an issue.  I wonder if a PCL driver for my Xerox might make a difference on the color match issue. (The Xerox came with a Post Script driver) I realize this is not relevant if I start converting everything to PDF's, but just wondering.

[Joe]

Distiller is the application bundled with Acrobat Pro for creating PDF's from postscript files. I assume Word is using something by Microsoft for making the PDF's. Somewhere there should be settings for making a high quality PDF from Word but I have no idea where.

The driver can make all the difference in the world. I would try the postscript driver over the PCL driver if at all possible and see if that helps. Even after making a PDF you will have to print it from Acrobat unless your RIP can take a PDF via hotfolder so the driver will matter if you make PDF's. Just remember when you print from Acrobat to click the "Advanced" button in the print dialog and make sure color handling is set as shown below.

[Syphon]

We have a Xerox 700 and have had our issues with it such as tray alignment not working. One issue I have had is when printing a book, for some crazy reason it would start to gradually print the pages off the sheet. Have had almost every part replaced it seems and had software reinstalled. Add to that, we had shipping issues in the first year. Inks and other things were always in short supply or on back order for weeks.

[cookbooklady]

Thanks for the help, Joe!  When I print PDF files, it is always from Acrobat.  I think I'll need to upgrade my Acrobat 9 Standard version. I could not find any option to designate some pages as color and others as grayscale.  My advanced print setup screen did not look quite like yours...but it has a checkbox that says "let printer determine colors", and it is checked as the default.  So if I were able to designate which pages to print as color vs. grayscale, I guess I'd uncheck that box.

I am not using the distiller feature of Acrobat 9...so not sure whether my pdf is getting dumbed down or not, and if it is, I'm not sure where it is happenening. 

Syphon, I have had problems with tray alignment too... Seems the plastic tray guides don't always catch.  I also had problems with little hatch marks all the way down the short edge of the 8 1/2 x 11 page. The other short side of the page was printed too close to the edge.  Totally frustrating. The excuse from Xerox was that the trays were jostled in shipment. 

The color photos that come off the machine are fantastic though...the 2400 dpi really makes a difference and that is why I'm willing to put up with some problems...for a while anyway!

[Joe]

Yeah I think you need Acrobat Pro to be able to change the pages to grayscale. It doesn't do it when printing. You actually convert the pages to grayscale in the document. It does have a print as grayscale feature but don't use it. It will screen 100% black text to about 86% and you will see the screen at output instead of the text being solid black.

[gnubler]

The excuse from Xerox...

...is always blamed on the consumer (us). I roll my eyes when I hear the stories and finger pointing regarding faulty issues with the machine. On a corporate level, their service smells like pungent cow dung. The down & dirty service techs are pretty good. I enjoy hearing the inside dirt when I get two or more techs in the shop at one time.

[cookbooklady]

Gnubler...have you had any problems with the color fading out during a run?  That is the issue that made Xerox swap machines...their idea. The printer kept losing its toner levels...after pretty light use.  Happened in the first week I got the printer and I couldn't believe it. The whole idea of getting the 700 was that it could print consistently over long runs.  They were not able to fix the problem and at 7 weeks, they replaced the printer.  I am hoping to keep this printer til I retire from cookbooking...might have to take early retirement.

[gnubler]

...might have to take early retirement.

We all have that dream. Realistically, it'll never happen.

I haven't had color fading as you mentioned. Actually my biggest problem right now is extreme saturation, especially with magenta. I usually end up making color adjustments at the RIP until it looks "good enough".

I've only been working with my current Xerox for about 3 months. I already know all of my region's service techs by name, where they live, their hobbies, whether or not they smoke, fave foods, etc. My shop has had the X in house since 2006 and it's been nonstop problems. Now with only a few months left on the lease they've been sending in various sales slime to "fix the glitch" thinking we'll buy a new machine and commit to another contract. Not gonna happen!

[cookbooklady]

I had trouble with over saturation in the first week also.  There are some color settings on the FreeFlow and lo and behold the "Saturated" option was checked.  Not sure what option the technician chose to switch it to...but it seemed to solve the problem. I haven't really played with that part of the FreeFlow yet because I don't want to add any more variables into the mix...and for the moment I have my hands full checking each page of each cookbook for page shift. Eventually I'll learn the ins and outs of the Freeflow....once I'm sure we're keeping it! We're going to replace it temporarily with a Fiery to see if the color click problem goes away.

[mcfingers33]

We just got the Xerox 700 and are running the Freeflow. It has been non stop problems since the day we got it. Just about three weeks and we have had tech after tech, application tech support and still no solutions to 99% of our problems. OH they fixed a the finisher door that the magnet had become loose causing the the door to register open sporadically and then crashing the printer. That is about it.

Here are list of problems. Curious to see if anyone else has had them.

1.Our new printer came with out of date rip software, drivers etc. Even the techs had a hard time getting Xerox to send us updated software.

2.Printer Driver gives us 6 tray options but we only have 5 actual trays. The bypass is listed at 5 but shows as 4 through the print dialog box.

3. Faint lines, scratches, indentations? On the end of paper on 11x17 100lb stock.(Just about everything has been replaced and looked at on this and still no solution) Keeps getting bounced from tech to tech.

4. When printing from Photoshop, image is not centered on page even though it shows centered through print dialog box?

5. Printing a linked eps block of solid color does not match the same color created in Illustrator as a vector square. Funny thing is, if I take the same illustrator file with linked eps and vector square, save the file as a Print ready PDF and then print, the color comes out better but still not exactly the same.

6. When we create a custom paper size on the rip, it does not show up with the dimensions on the local computer stations print dialog. It is listed as custom, but does not show dimension. Okay if you are only running one custom size, but we will not be.

Thanks ahead.

[gnubler]

1.Our new printer came with out of date rip software, drivers etc. Even the techs had a hard time getting Xerox to send us updated software.

Ours is also outdated. Due to numerous issues we've had we've been offered a newer model engine and upgraded RIP...it's been 6 weeks now and it seems like they "forgot" again.

2.Printer Driver gives us 6 tray options but we only have 5 actual trays. The bypass is listed at 5 but shows as 4 through the print dialog box.

This has to do with the PPD. Do you have others you can load? Are they on Xerox's website? I'm using a Fiery PPD for my DocuSP RIP because the original PPD was lacking.

3. Faint lines, scratches, indentations? On the end of paper on 11x17 100lb stock.(Just about everything has been replaced and looked at on this and still no solution) Keeps getting bounced from tech to tech.

Bad drum? Though when I get the faint lines they are running across the sheet, landscape.

4. When printing from Photoshop, image is not centered on page even though it shows centered through print dialog box?

My Xerox is incapable of centering from any app. Printing duplex is always a treat and I usually do one pass at a time because side 2 always needs an image shift.

5. Printing a linked eps block of solid color does not match the same color created in Illustrator as a vector square. Funny thing is, if I take the same illustrator file with linked eps and vector square, save the file as a Print ready PDF and then print, the color comes out better but still not exactly the same.

Prolly has to do with color management settings from whichever app you are printing from.

6. When we create a custom paper size on the rip, it does not show up with the dimensions on the local computer stations print dialog. It is listed as custom, but does not show dimension. Okay if you are only running one custom size, but we will not be.

In which app? When I'm sending a custom page size from InDesign I choose Custom and usually have to manually enter the dimensions. If it's not letting you enter dimensions it's an issue with the driver/PPD.

Our lease with X ends in a few months and I've heard rumors that we're taking it out in the parking lot with a couple crowbars and a sledgehammer.