Oce CS665 Color Stability Issues

[kn4n]

Hi all:

We are starting to have some major color stability issues with our OCE CS665. At this point I feel like we need to recalibrate every few days, which seems a little bit odd. It's also tricky for us since we use a lot of REALLY light RGB tones, which amplifies minor color stability issues.

Does anybody have any tips? We have a basic setup. Remanufactured unit, no addons, External Fiery Color Server. One thing I have been thinking is that temperature and humidity control are non-existent in the office- has anyone else found that this is an issue?

Thanks-

kn4n

[mac_man_luke]

Stabilising the environment will definitely help

But id have thought calibrating daily would be recommended anyway.

[kn4n]

Stabilising the environment will definitely help

But id have thought calibrating daily would be recommended anyway.

I think in an ideal situation we would, but I don't know how feasible that is for us. We are a small architecture office that does a lot of big presentations on short notice. If I were to calibrate every day, that would take up a fair bit of time from my actual job description (i.e, making architecture.)

One major reason I am concerned, is that when the color shifts, the shift is BIG, which worries me.

thanks

Kn4n

[Miss Marple]

Well it's like buying a Ferrari and then not getting it serviced because you're too busy. When you have a color device you need to maintain it, and calibrating it every day is a must. Calibrate every day at the same time, keep the place cool and dry and dust free, and if you are re-running a job that has already been processed (Ripped) on a Fiery you will need to re-process it, otherwise it will not know that you have re-calibrated the device. You are right when you say you see big shifts in the lighter colors - a 1-3% drift on each color will result in a huge color shift on lighter colors on your jobs.

If you're too busy to look after the Océ, get your boss to sell it and send your work out to a bureau.

Take care my dear

[che.c]

Miss Marple is right, you need to calibrate a colour machine at least daily, especially if you're running light tints. I use these machines in a production environment and I can tell you they get calibrated a lot more than once a day to maintain accurate colour across a range of stocks and throughout a shift as the machine warms up.


One thing though -

...if you are re-running a job that has already been processed (Ripped) on a Fiery you will need to re-process it, otherwise it will not know that you have re-calibrated the device.

There's no need to process again when calibration changes.

Try it - rip a job, print a copy, reset your calibration to default and print the saved raster again. Colour's very different.

Now if you'd changed a spot colour matching mix, there you would have to rip again.

[kn4n]

Miss Marple + che.c:

Thanks for your advice. This is all really new to us- we had a "virtual facilities managed" print service in our office for a long time before finally terminating our contract with them and deciding to go it alone.

It's been.. an education to say the least, but in the long run we are getting a much better product for the most part, for much less per print. It's nice to be able to hit "print" and get 500 sheets in like 30 minutes instead of waiting for our previous ancient Doc12 to process. It removes a significant variable for our big client presentations.

We will just have to calibrate more frequently, and hopefully get an air conditioner for the room it's in, (maybe 7 feet by 7 feet.) We've been mitigating the heat issue by simply leaving the print room door open but that's not a good solution in the long or short term.

Thanks-

kn4n

[Miss Marple]

Just to be correct, when the Fiery rips a jobs and the user will save the job in the storage queue with the attached RIP, the file will have the calibration data of the original day the job was ripped. If the calibration changes, and you do not re-rip the job, the file will be sent with the original calibration data. I know this for a FACT. If you make the test, like che.e suggests you will see it. Do not be fooled by this, it is not en engine issue, but a controller one.

Take care my dears.

[mojoprime]

your room is 7 x 7? geeze, my xerox 700 is 13.5 feet long on its own. especially on a remanufactured machine, you might want to be sure that you have enough ventilation and a steady cool and dry temp in the room. and i would suggest trying to cool the room separately, and then keeping the door shut to minimize excess humidity and dust.

[kn4n]

your room is 7 x 7? geeze, my xerox 700 is 13.5 feet long on its own. especially on a remanufactured machine, you might want to be sure that you have enough ventilation and a steady cool and dry temp in the room. and i would suggest trying to cool the room separately, and then keeping the door shut to minimize excess humidity and dust.

I just measured. It's actually 7'-3" by 8'-0". Really not ideal. Our office was designed to be as pretty so all the stuff like printers and plotters are behind closed doors. Add to that the fact that ventilation was never adequate in these rooms to begin with, and that the climate control in the rest of the office is bad as well and you can see what we are dealing with here!

We'll get there. I think you're right on both counts about getting AC and keeping the door shut. So hopefully I can make that happen. Thanks!

[che.c]

Just to be correct, when the Fiery rips a jobs and the user will save the job in the storage queue with the attached RIP, the file will have the calibration data of the original day the job was ripped. If the calibration changes, and you do not re-rip the job, the file will be sent with the original calibration data. I know this for a FACT. If you make the test, like che.e suggests you will see it. Do not be fooled by this, it is not en engine issue, but a controller one.

Take care my dears.

Well I don't know how it works on the oce's Fiery but that's not how it works on mine. I run these things in a production environment all day - recalibration works on pre-ripped files on my 260 and 700. I used it on a job this morning... Did you actually run a test or are you just making assumptions?