Xante iQueue Black isn't Black

[Slappy]

Saw today on a basic job, that the 100% black in a vector logo was printing light, but the 100% text in the address ran as expected. I did see in one of the Job Options that there are Settings for both Text & Art to print "Black as Black" and also to convert to various rich builds. Ours are set to the default.

Also odd, using the eyedropper in the iQueue software, when a black measures 100% black on screen, it's being 4c built on the output. I fully accept the software is crap, but is it really THIS bad??

[Tracy]

I've seen bad things with Xante/Impressa

try print as image that's always my last resort, bad things can happen with that too.

[Possum]

iQueue does some weird things with colors. I couldn't get mine to print just 100% black either. It did it once just by accident, and then it was pretty light.

It's very useful with some things, but on color I'll pass. I once had a logo with a 10% tint in the background and it wouldn't even print it at all.

[DigiCorn]

I never liked Xante

or iQueue

[Slappy]

I never liked Xante

or iQueue

Saw an iJet at the Print Show in Atlanta last week - I'd love to roll the Xanté out into the street & replace it with that!

[Possum]

A third story window and an empty parking lot will do.

[David]

BFH


just sayin'

[DigiCorn]

Waaaaaay back in '99 I had a Xante and it was shit - it never printed straight. Ever. Then in '05 I worked at J&M in Rocklin, and they said they had the best equipment ever, and they had that same fuckin' Xante. In reality, the only reason they had it was because it was a 1/4 sheet shop (SM52s) and it was the cheapest laser jet you could get that would do a bypass 13x19 for proofing. I fucking bitched and moaned about that thing until they got me two Epson 4000 series (one was uncoated and fingerprinted, and one was coated and fingerprinted - both done by Heidelberg). They still insisted on using the Xante. Basically, unless you calibrated before EVERY SINGLE PRINT, the goddamn thing skewed all jobs so they would NEVER back up on the light table. Plus, the fuser sucked, so the toner never stayed adhered to the paper.

Flash forward to 2017 and I had to deal with a Xante Impressia. Luckily, it was ONLY an envelope printer and it was actually almost acceptible, except it usually took about 15-20 envelopes to match color from a previous job, even if you archived it or saved (wrote down) the color settings. That, and it had these little star wheels (that you couldn't buy separately) that would wear down to the nubs about about 10k impressions, but they were part of the fuser assembly that you only replaced after 50k impressions. They could pop out, and it was only about 5 of the 20 on the assembly that would wear down, so I would pop off the others and save them. I took one to TAP plastics for them to scan and 3d print, but for some reason, TAP couldn't do it.

Fuck Xante.

[Possum]

The one we had was fussy about envelopes as well. Unfortunately for me, I was the only one who ran it, and the shop owner would only get the really cheap envelopes that wouldn't go through the Xante. The last manager we had said she could finish this particularly frustrating job, then lied the next day, telling me she had finished my job the night before. Yeah, I saw what was in the trash can and how short the order was. Plus she had to take out the fuser to get burned pieces of paper out and didn't put all the fasteners back. The owner was never on site, though, so she had free reign to say or do whatever.

Anyway, the only stock that was assured to go through it was from Western Envelopes. Which I wasn't supplied.

Not long before I quit, I had a typical job which entailed opening the machine for a jam every 6-10 envelopes. One time I heard a clunk after I started printing again and some plastic thing had broken. There were no longer any repair places in the state. It was still broken when I left and I've no doubt it stayed that way.

[Slappy]

Our Prod Mgr brought me a job yesterday for about 200 Reg #10s, and wanted me to "show him" how to get the Xanté setup to run 'em because that Operator was off. I flat out refused, and stood at the Xerox in prepress and fed them 12 at a time instead. Just as good, much less frustration.

[Possum]

Not to mention far less loss of product. Nothing like getting special envelopes for one particular job and having a bunch ruined.

[David]

I like the ones with windows...  that melt




fun times