iGen 4 color settings

[Justin M]

Hi all, looking to see if anyone out there has been having success with color management on their iGen 4 would be willing to share what settings they use to produce the most accurate prints that match a calibrated monitor.

Thanks,
Justin

 

[arossetti]

It has been almost a year since I was involved with an iGen4 but I could possibly help. What seems to be the issue? The default calibration should acheive G7 grayscale; I don't think GRACoL is possible due to the K channels (if I remember correctly) but maybe SWOP? Are you using matte toner?

The other thing is that no printed output will match a calibrated monitor unless you are simulating the same profile. So how are you viewing things on your monitor?

 

[Justin M]

Arosetti,

Thanks for your reply! I should have clarified that while we are looking to improve our color accuracy, it's not that crazy with the monitor profile. You're obviously right about simulating the profile on a calibrated monitor to achieve the closest match. I was more referring to what settings people use within the Fiery Command Workstation that work the best for them. Perhaps a screenshot of the settings would be best.

 

[arossetti]

Oh got yeah here would be my recommendation for the best match to GRACoL. I don't have Command Workstation in my current company so I might be guessing on some of what the settings are called and hopefully other can chime in.

CMYK: GRACoL_2006 Full Output GCR

RGB: Is there something called Off or None? If so choose this if you want to match GRACoL on all your output. If not screen shot the options in the drop down (might be called simulation).
If you want RGB elements to use the larger gamut of the device you can use Adobe1998 and I would suggest perceptual. With an iGen you won't get a significant gamut boost with your RGB elements by using an RGB workflow so I would turn off it off personally.

Spot Colors should be enabled

Gray: I would leave at whatever is default.

Others may chime in with more or different advice but this is how I would set it up. Keep in mind you also have APPE settings that are equally important. The very least I would make sure the APPE is on and not Post Script.

 

[Correct Color]

Regardless of the device, the only purpose of input color settings is to attempt to get the color in your files from the incoming color space -- which is whatever space in which they were created -- to their destination color space -- which is the printer profile you're using.

So, since all Adobe applications use SWOP and sRGB as their default color spaces, that's how I always set RIP's. I hear a lot of pitching of Gracol and see a lot of people recommending using it but my response is that when Adobe makes it a default, then I'll start setting RIP's that way. Until then, unless you or your client have created your files in Gracol, setting your incoming CMYK space as Gracol serves no purpose, and does actually corrupt color to a small degree.

Note also though to always set to use embedded profiles. That way as long as your images are tagged, the pass through will be correct. Also though of course getting the input settings correct won't help you a whole lot if your printer profiles don't reflect what your printer actually prints.

As far as matching a monitor goes, in a properly set up color managed workflow, all monitors are is windows to look through to see your work, and profiling them is very much akin to washing windows. If you wash the windows well and correctly, what you're after is for the window to in no way corrupt your view of what you see through it. So the answer to your question lies in the rest of your color management system. It must all be set up and functioning correctly before you can hope to see what you're going to print on a monitor.


Mike Adams
Correct Color