AX4 - QMS Strips

[TP]

OK, must confess, I haven't done QMS on our Sherpa's now since our Upgrade to AX4, roughly 6 months ago. Anyway, I have printed out the QMS strips and they look completely different from AX3.5's - I am worried to do calibration. The colours look muddy and strange... not like the thumbnail previews in the QMSx console interface.
Has anyone any insight on this?
Thanks in advance.
C.

 

[Colorblind]

What strips? "Calibrate" strips, "proofer check" or "proofer reference" strips? In the case of "calibrate" and "proofer check" strips it is normal that color looks wide-gamut and saturated since it doesn't color manage from printer to proofer to print the strips so you read straight from proofer colors so QMS can calculate and adjust ink tables if needed.

 

[TP]

Hello Colorblind, thanks for the response.
The "Calibrate" strips are all weird 'pastels'. Not varying swatches of C,M,Y,K like I would expect. Almost as if it were an abbreviated version of the IT8 targets.
Essentially, it does not look like what the thumbnail view shows in the QMSx interface. This has got me a little nervous in proceeding. I don't have Proofer Check option available yet until I proceed with the calibration.
Is this what your "Calibration" strips look like?
thanks,
C

 

[Colorblind]

This is how my calibrations strips look like when printed, exactly like this QMSX calibration pane snapshot. 1 small id strip and 2 long CMYK (uncalibrated) strips. You can notice on the cyan and magenta that it's not calibrated since light cyan and magenta shades are pastel looking and dark cyan is blueish while dark magenta is reddish. Hope it helps.

 

[Colorblind]

One thing I also noticed is it includes my default color bar at the bottom of the calibration strip which is a thin SWOP color bar. Wasn't doing that before I updated. So maybe it's putting some of ApogeeX pre-defined mark at the bottom of your strip. Check all the marks you have into your proofer/mark pane in System Overview by exporting them as eps and opening them in Illustrator or else to see if one of them is similar to what you're getting printed.

 

[TP]

Colorblind,

Thanks so much for taking the time with your posts. My strips are completely different from the example you have shown... well, the ID strip is similiar... but then it follows as: a strip of 2 banks (reddish browns, greens, purples, assorted) and then a strip of 3 banks(blues, magentas, dirty blues & magentas) I could be that it's dependant upon which proofing engine is connected ( I have the Sherpa43). Again, thanks for all your help, much appreciated.
C.