Xerox 1000i - Assistance with flat and dull looking prints

[gafana]

Hi, me again needing some guidance. In general, our prints have always seemed a bit dull and flat, lacking pop and rich vibrancy. We've calibrated color, done all the maintenance routines in the PCUI, tried all different images settings and color profiles, fuser temps, etc... no major differences. We've been using the default 200 dots half toning but found that for some artwork, stochastic produces outstanding rich vibrant prints. However that only works with certain artwork. (Photographs mostly). Digital art is hit or miss... When its not good the colors are way way off despite trying to calibrate and adjust.

So we are stuck right now trying to print some booklets where either it's the right color but dull looking (using 300 dots rotated this time) or stochastic which looks amazing but colors are way off.

 

[Milo Wilson]

What firmware level is your PCUI software? Have you done color checks through the diagnostic interface yet? Have you been able to complete a color calibration to the Fiery/FreeFlow?

 

[gafana]

Hi Milo!

PCUI is v3.714. Yes, we've calibrated the FWA and the press for the stock for all the different halftoning (200 dots, 300 dots, stochastic, etc), done the auto TRC and other calibration actions under the TKO on PCUI, played with fuser temp and 2nd bias transfer, etc. Im not sure what else to do. I pulled up the diagnostics image quality routines and did some test prints. I also did some print quality test files I found online and those actually came out beautiful using stochastic, which always produces the best results. However, when using stochastic for our digital artwork (A guide on using some equipment designed in Illustrator), the colors are off and prints darker looking. When trying 600 dots, the colors just looks just as bad as stochastic but without the rich density and shine to the print.

Here are some screenshots from the diagnostics as well as a screenshot of our PCUI version screen of the system. We've managed to keep the press running and repairing any and all issues that have come up (Thanks to the technician laptop we have) but I've still not wrapped my head around this issue and honestly it's all a different language to me.