HP CP 1700 As a Proof Printer?

[Noel]

Hi

I'm Considering buying the HP CP 1700 inkjet printer for doing my proofs... I'm a newbie to Offset printing & recently had a client approve a job printed on a RGB HP inkjet machine for printing on an offset Heidelberg GTO.

Needless to say, there was a shade of green dominant in the job that gave us severe headaches to match up to the original job proof that caught the client's eye... It's been said that possibly the printer operator could have been better.. etc.. etc.. But I feel that if proofs are printed on a CMYK printer, there's less likely a chance for such a headache-inducing situation to occur again.

In my dreams? the Epson 7800 calls out to me.. Reality? This CP 1700 is within my budget range. MY QUESTION....Is the HP CP 1700 suitable for what I'm trying to do?

Forgive the verbosity.. English is a n-th language!

Oh..Greetings from sunny Kenya! (Obama is ours! we're just leasing him...)

 

[Werby]

Not sure about the HP CP1700 as it doesn't appear to be available in the U.S. anymore. It appears to be about 6 years old, so I would think you could a better printer for the same price. Inkjet technology has come a long way in 6 years!

As you may know, Inkjets have a much larger gamut than offset presses, so the trick is to limit their gamut to something like GRACoL or FOGRA39 to better emulate presses. There is no such thing as an RGB HP inkjet; the drivers for all inkjets treat them as RGB devices because a) most consumer's images are in RGB and b) they want to take advantage of the full-gamut of the printer. All inkjets use CMYK inks, and newer ones use light cyan, light magenta, light black and gray as well to get an even wider gamut.

What this means is that if you are going to use an inkjet as a proofing device, you need a RIP in front of it that can color manage it and make it match your press or an accepted specification like FOGRA or GRACoL. I don't know what your budget is, but the RIP usually costs more than the printer, so you'll be lucky to get the whole set-up for under $5000.

It's possible that an older printer like the CP1700 might have a limited enough gamut that it will be closer to your press, but it is really a shot in the dark. Without color managing the printer, you are going to run into the same kind of matching problems you've already encountered.

 

[Noel]

Could I ask you to think/write aloud? What would you recommend as a current (either HP or Epson) printer? What about RIP? Been thinking about the Jorg RIP, but that was for like when I can afford an imagesetter.....

 

[Werby]

Others who participate in this forum install proofing systems all the time and can probably give you better advice. I'm only familiar with my set-up, which is ORIS ColorTuner running Epson 4800s, which works great. For ease of use you might want to consider the HP Z2100 which has an on-board spectrophotometer. A RIP like GMG Colorproof can interact with the on-board spectro and do automatic calibration.