Ultimate digital print test sheets

[natty]

Hi All,

I thought it would be great to collect some great digital print test sheet files here as we all know that when ppl go to demo machines the reps always have test files that show off the best of the press...

If you have really problematic files please upload them here and explain why they are problematic...

In fact it would be great if we could composite 1 test sheet that showed off the worst of all digital presses!

My first is an actual job i just printed... The problem is 4 colour greys which is a real problem on most machines... This file is very similar to a file which bought a brand new xerox 700 to its knees when i demo'd it last year... Print the file and try to make all of the grey bands exactly the same colour...

http://www.pixo.com.au/28365.pdf

 

[andy1]

Slight off-topic but something I noticed on the Docucolor DC260 demo machine was the colour changed from one edge of the sheet to the other (width not length). This isn't something I get on my OKI es9410, but it's evident on the Xerox machines, not sure why. Have you noticed this on non-Xerox machines?

Andy

 

[[email protected]]

I printed one sheet only on a Ricoh C900 using a GRACol2006 coated profile onto 100# coated text stock. Visually there wasn't any aparrant difference between the three gray bands so I measured them with the electrospectrometer that comes with the Fiery and the largest CMYK variance was 1.5. Would that be within your tolerences?

Disclaimer..I'm a Ricoh employee

 

[gordo]

Hi All,

I thought it would be great to collect some great digital print test sheet files here as we all know that when ppl go to demo machines the reps always have test files that show off the best of the press...

I think it would be good to list specific criteria that is important to you and then design a test form that looks at that specific issue. I.e. don't bother with live customer work.

For example, if your concern is even color laydown then cover the sheet with a 3/C neutral grey. Perhaps divided into 1/4, 1/2, and 3/4 tone grey patches.

If you want to test type resolution then your form should contain text in serif and sans serif ranging from 1 pt to 24pt printed as black only, CMYK, and reversed out of same.

and so on....

best gordon p

 

[kparker]

Best thing to to do is to create a PDF with 4 pages... Full solid C, M, Y, & K. Have the demo operator print each sheet (max size) on a few different paper choices. This really gives you a good idea of what to expect from the machine... The best part is that they never expect it. You will see every imperfection with the drums and fusers! You could also have them print a couple percentages of black (10%, 30, 50 75, etc...).