Re: Total Mystery
Re: Total Mystery
- Subject: Re: Total Mystery
- From: Stephen Ray <email@hidden>
- Date: Sat, 8 Oct 2005 12:21:13 -0700
On Oct 8, 2005, at 9:06 AM, Ismaldo wrote:
I'm going to have "sit down" with the owner and the color-guy next
week. Both were gone this week. I've known them both forever, so they
ought to listen. ...whether they do anything is another question.
Some info on this unusual machine and comments on previous statements
earlier in this thread:
• It surely seems the photo lab and/or operator is inexperienced with
modern color management of their Lightjet. Possibly innocent because
initial sales of the machine didn't provide much (if any) in the way of
preflight, prepress, or file-prep education or software. The same is
true for Durst Lambdas, Fuji Frontiers, Chromiras, etc.
• The shop is not helping sales by saying the printer doesn't handle
Postscript files. It will print Postscript after they are ripped to
TIFF, as will the other RGB printers mentioned above.
• The appearance of the same file being different on your monitor and
printer and their monitor and printer is obviously not "color synced."
It's a priority to find why and fix this ASAP.
• Some RIPS for this machine are/were optimized to use ColorMatch as
the work space especially for PMS matching. Asking for ColorMatch is a
valid request and works just fine.
• It's imperative to have a good Lightjet profile to softproof. The
preview can be shocking.
• You can't always trust the preview because our
eyes/brain/transmissive-computer-monitor/reflective-print are too
dissimilar. A printed PMS chart with RGB and CMYK numbers is
tremendously helpful.
• Calibration is linearization and uses a gray step scale. The machines
mentioned above have a great capability to stay in control despite weak
lasers or marginal print materials and chemistry. However, while the
gray scale will appear perfect, colors and saturations may be show
problems if all is not well.
• It's usually easy to keep the RA4 print processor and chemistry in
control.
• I calibrate my Lambda every day for any material I will image that
day. It's easy, quick, and cheap. I'm told it's not as easy, quick, or
cheap with a Lightjet.
• Because RGB lasers (and LEDS) and their print materials are so
generic, it's possible to find and use profiles for these machines that
work great. You can surf the web to find the profiles and preview them
with the Colorsync or Colorthink tools and get an idea of what's
happening behind the scenes. You can find Lightjet, Lambda, and
Frontier profiles that overlay perfectly on one another. These I would
trust. Others you may find have crazy shapes and protrusions. These
would be suspect. As always, it's best to use a custom profile.
• The cost of a Lightjet is exactly half of quarter million.
• A profile can be made for $100 instead of paying $10K for a
Spectrolino. (Easier to swallow.)
I hope this helps,
-Stephen Ray
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