CMYK ink

[born2print]

[johnny_jay]

Apparently the pressmen are reading the densities properly on the color bars. But we only have solid 100% circles on them. Not sure about the paper. Think it's been the same year in and year out but things are getting lighter.

The proof setup is for GRACoL2006_Coated1v2 with a contract proof tolerance set ISO 12647-7:2013. Through EFI and the delta E has been improved to 1.2 ave, 2.2 max cmyk all patches.

Do you have a spectro to read the delta e between the press and the proof for cmyk and your traps?
If the proof is passing gracol on your fiery then it would be something on press or measurement. If press is closed loop color, cameras can go bad for instance.

[Designia(o_O)]

Samples of bad ink.

LMFAO!!! A friend of mine wanted that bad leopard tattoo.

[AaronH]

We reprofile the presses every 3 months or less. The weather here in Eastern Washington is drastically different each season and we get presses that walk way away from their curves over time.

This might be what's happening on your end. Weather, ambient temperature, humidity all jack with everything.

Packing too. That's important, if their packing more or less than when your curves were made, you'll be getting very different results. If their also running dirty ink, (not completely cleaning fountains when switching from Pantones etc like our guys do) you'll have bad colors too.

[pspdfppdfxhd]

Our weather is drastically different up here around Toronto as well.

Since I have been here (22 years) , only one of the presses has been profiled properly, about 5 years ago. We never had a pressman who read densities with color bars until about 7 years ago.

I am wondering how we survived this long. We ran our Azura plates for at least 10 years linear.

[pspdfppdfxhd]

We reprofile the presses every 3 months or less. The weather here in Eastern Washington is drastically different each season and we get presses that walk way away from their curves over time.

This might be what's happening on your end. Weather, ambient temperature, humidity all jack with everything.

Packing too. That's important, if their packing more or less than when your curves were made, you'll be getting very different results. If their also running dirty ink, (not completely cleaning fountains when switching from Pantones etc like our guys do) you'll have bad colors too.

Interesting.... I wonder how many other shops profile their presses and how often.

[joch230]

We profile our color sheetfed press about once a year.  Our Epson 9000 proofer uses CGS/Oris Color tuner and a built-in spectro to check each proof to be sure the proofer hasn't drifted. As long as the press can match the proof with the usual ink densities, we can tell that the press hasn't drifted that much, either. Everything is GraCol...I think we use the 2013 version...not positive.

[johnny_jay]

We profile all presses at least one a year to G7 SWOP. We will fingerprint more frequently if we see a drift away from proof or if a consumables change is made.

Our hard proofs are off an Epson P7000 with an inline spctro powered by Fiery XF, each proof has a conformance tag. Only about 1-2% of our work gets an epson proof.

We have Kodak PressProof at all presses

[scottrsimons]

We profile our offset presses about the time when the G7 cert expires. So I think that is every 2-3 years. Our color proofers get profiled when they are purchased, and then they also have inline spectros on them to help to know if they are keeping in line or not. If not, I do an optimization, and we are all good. The 17" we buy a new one every 3 years when the extended warranty runs out. The 42" proofer, we buy when a service call finally costs too much in comparison to a new one.

[pspdfppdfxhd]

From the answers I see here it would seem that we are overdue.

Doubt it will happen because of the expense however.