Hi All

I was wondering what others are using for cmyk settings for their selected press and paper?
And how their press is setup

What Max densities are for CMYK ... IE C=1.35 M=1.35 Y=1.15 K=1.70
Are you applying adjustment curves ... IE 10% = 14% 25% = 32% 50% 75% 75% = 89%
TAC ... IE 300%
Amount of GCR ... Medium

Have you created custom icc profiles?

Thank you

Craig

We calibrate our machines using the manufacturer's method for the most part. We don't measure or edit the curves after calibrating. The iGen does a linearization with an additional gray balance, so not much else needs to be done.

We do create custom ICC profiles for all devices.

Profiling simulation profiles are fairly easy for digital devices as then you are using the DFE/RIP to handle the final device CMYK conversion. Still far off from being truely accurate but good enough for some applications.

Trying to build an output profile, replacing the vendor / manufacturer's output profile can be an a difficult process. First of all, most presses, require an ouput profile per line screen, per stock (or stock white point) and some don't make it very easy to replace the actual output profile.

The iGen3 for example has the most unique black channel generation making traditional ICC output profile generation almost impossible.

My take on it is this, do what works for you. Color profiling is a slippery slope that can lead to hours upon hours of wasted time or achieving a good result only to find that the device changes the next day and you are unable to linerize the profile enough to match.

Agreed, we have spent a lot of time trying to develop a profile for the iGen and it does seem almost impossible. Profile software is not set up to expect that adding addtional colours will make black lighter (or browner, as is the case). It's something we are still working on, but it really looks unlikely.

As for the device changing, that shouldn't be a problem if you are linearizing before you profile. That's the idea behind separating the calibration and the profile. The profile characterizes the device at a certain known state. The calibration brings you back to that known state.

However if something drastic changes (ink, software, media), then yeah, you often will have to re-do the profile.