Re: Bad Roland Demo
Re: Bad Roland Demo
- Subject: Re: Bad Roland Demo
- From: Jan Steinman <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 09:06:15 -0800
Subject: Bad Roland Demo
I went for a demo on the new Roland printer (8 color 52" model.)
The color output was horrible.
Was it bad color management?
Maybe, it could be a number of things, including media, settings, or
your perception.
My best guess for "horrible" color would be using oddball media. The
only time I've seen "horrible" colors out of my Roland was when I
tried putting some un-coated watercolor paper through it. Roland has
a wide variety of certified media, and it is good stuff!
You can arbitrarily screw up ColorChoice (the Roland RIP) to get
"horrible" color. Also, it should be sent RGB data -- it will look
"horrible" if you send it a CMYK file.
They had an HP next to it making very bright color but it was dyes and
not pigment inks.
So it could also be perception, although the eight color pigment inks
should have a gamut nearly as good as a dye ink. This was using
CcMmYKOG, right? The orange and green inks greatly expand the "south
side" of the color gamut, but unfortunately, don't do much for the
blue corner. If you put a saturated-color pigment print next to a dye
print, the dye one is ALWAYS going to look brighter, so it's an
unfair comparison. For proofing and other transient use, use dyes;
for long-life, use pigments.
Does the rip that comes with the roland do colormanagement?
Yes, but you have to turn it on. That's why I thought it might have
been operator error. Were the people demo-ing Roland folks, or just
some dealer? Dealers are all supposed to be Roland-trained, but you
never know...
At the time I was researching, Roland had the best "canned" ICC
support of any printer, with some 60 or so profiles available --
essentially one for every combination of ink, media, and resolution
they support. It makes it possible to run a Roland without investing
in color management tools.
At <
http://www.hifijet.com> you can request a free demo print. The
one they were sending out a few months ago was about 18"x24" of a
model's face with stripes of face-paint, on their PETG glossy film
media, and was absolutely stunning -- indistinguishable (without a
loupe) from a photograph.
--
: Jan Steinman <
mailto:email@hidden>
: Bytesmiths <
http://www.bytesmiths.com>