Color Copiers

[born2print]

 

[Tracy]

No dithering over here Joe,
Seriously I give up, It did come out better 1-up

I think that's why I'm prepress I need it to come out exactly how it's suppose to

I think the newer copiers are suppose to print without oil so it's better? who knows

[Possum]

Not necessarily. We've had more lousy color fading from a 700 with wax-based toner than from the Docucolor 240 it replaced that had oil-based toner. They are just plain moody.

[Tracy]

so the streakiness of some colors are just the nature of the beast?

[Slappy]

Can be, I also read a piece recently about how horrible humidity (or the lack thereof) can be for digital substrates too. But since we're all working in perfectly climate-controlled environments, that's not a culprit eh?

    

[wonderings]

If you are talking about a mottle colour, then it is the nature of digital printing with some presses. If it is streaks, then probably a fuser belt or colour drums.

Digital is a must in print these days. For full colour small runs going to press is just not economical. Full colour business cards used to be a thing only the big fortune 500 companies would have.

I find blues can be an issue on digital. Doing large full solids of various shades of blue usually gives me a mottle look and I try and avoid it best I can when designing.

Digital presses may look like photocopiers, but if you compare the quality of prints coming out of a "digital press" to a full on office copier, they are worlds apart. We started with a Doc 12, moved to a 260, J75 and now a Versant 2100. Best digital machine I have ever run, makes my life so much simpler now when it comes to printing digital.

[Farabomb]

I screw with my friend that services copiers all the time. I let him go on his little chest puffing exercise about their newest machine and how it does this and that and how good it looks. Then he gets into how it prints at 2400 or whatever and I ask to pull up the tech specs. They add up the dpi of all four colors to get that number (600x4=2400) and then I inform him that's not how it works. I told him if that's the case then the 6c job we just did is 14400. Then I ask how many made up numbers should add for the Aqueous coating?

They serve a purpose, to drag down the quality of printing. Some people are fine with it, some people know that quality costs money.

[Tracy]

our copier does not like solid blues and greys

[David]

ours doesn't like paper...

[Farabomb]

Just like our presses.

[wonderings]

I screw with my friend that services copiers all the time. I let him go on his little chest puffing exercise about their newest machine and how it does this and that and how good it looks. Then he gets into how it prints at 2400 or whatever and I ask to pull up the tech specs. They add up the dpi of all four colors to get that number (600x4=2400) and then I inform him that's not how it works. I told him if that's the case then the 6c job we just did is 14400. Then I ask how many made up numbers should add for the Aqueous coating?

They serve a purpose, to drag down the quality of printing. Some people are fine with it, some people know that quality costs money.

You really are missing the benefits of digital printing if you think it is just to drag down the price of printing. You can get very good quality, pleasing colours and constant colour with a good digital machine without paying to have your small job plated and put on press. Would also love to see a press handle the variable data. There are DI machines, but they do not seem to be well received for many print shops (at least in our area). Jobs can look good on a digital unit, sure a press can go that much better, but its not always enough better to warrant the higher price tag for smaller jobs.

Digital is the future it is flexible and ever expanding. Units out right now with 5th colour stations for spot gloss, silver or gold. This will eventually trickle down to more mid range production machines giving even more flexibility and ease of getting out a great looking job for much cheaper on short run jobs. Digital cannot compete price wise with large runs, but for short runs it does not make economic sense to go to press (not talking about the iGens and the like). They all have their place and uses.

[Farabomb]

I know there is a place for digital, that's why there is one on the other side of the wall here. They have their place and for some  a lot of customers it's a perfect fit. I used to run a DI and the quality was good but it was a pain in the ass.

[delooch]

we run an imagepress c6000 here. Its kind of like a fat chick who sexes really well, i mean, im not proud of being a copy jockey but it produces very nice prints once you get the shit figured out, and it makes me feel like a rockstar.  thanks to ever-evolving job duties and union reclassification, i am probably the highest paid copy operator in the US, never mind the skillz i was hired on.

that canon is 6 years old, we are getting a new production ricoh in here next month.  It took me a while to adapt to the canon, but i think ive had really good luck with it.  Not sure what to expect from the ricoh unit, preparing for the worst...

[wonderings]

I know there is a place for digital, that's why there is one on the other side of the wall here. They have their place and for some  a lot of customers it's a perfect fit. I used to run a DI and the quality was good but it was a pain in the ass.

That is why we never jumped at a DI. Heard nothing but problems with them. That was a few years ago, not sure what has been improved since then.

[Slappy]

We're starting to lose work to a nearby shop that put in one of those 20x29" HP Indigo models. I knew it was gonna happen, not sure why the Mgmt here is so shocked.  :rolleyes: