Xerox 5000 Color Management...

[ShortRunMagazines]

Background...
2 Xerox DC5000's running FreeFlow RIPs.
i1 Isis XL with a certification good until 4/2011
i1 Pro w/ UV Cut with a certification good until 11/2011
Profile Maker Pro 5 on Windows 7.

Here is my problem... I run prints with light (very light) skintones on either Xerox 5000 and the colors come out great, except for very light areas (typically light reflecting off skin) get bleached and what was a cmyk of 0 1 1 2 is blotched into 0 0 0 0 (pure white). This is causing a great deal of photos to appear very over exposed and look very bad.

Results: Seems to be only in the sub 5% coverage range that the issue occurs. It is worse on coated stocks, best output quality is profiling to 32# Neenah Color Copy Bond. Tried ECI2002, IT8, and a custom test chart of 4500 patches. Tried UVCut, Non UVCut and Averaging together on Isis and getting similar result. Best output was i1 Pro with 32# Bond on IT8 but the issue still occurred.

Profile Maker 5 Settings:
GCR 3 or 4
Black Start point 0-8 (tried increasing to no avail).
Max build of 280
LOGO Colorful

If I run the print with the default engine profile (DC5000) bright spots don't flare (it seams to add yellow to heavy and most reds are off (look more orange)). I feel confident I have eliminated the engines from the picture as they can print smooth (as evidenced by the DC5000 destination profile) and both are "failing" identically.

Any thoughts on how to improve the output. I used to use CREO's Profiling Tool without issue on the Xerox 5000. When we got the Isis I thought PM5 was going to be an upgrade but the correct settings seem to elude me.
Thanks,
Jerod King

 

[Correct Color]

Jerod,

Hard to say exactly, but a few ideas: First is that you may just need more data in your highlights. 0 1 1 2 is asking a lot. I'd suggest first and foremost you try to keep at least 5% in your highlights. Particularly if everything else is okay.

Second is that unless you can get your black to start at 'absolute zero'--which never seems to me to quite work out in practice--you can forget the '2' in any event.

Third is that I've heard so many rumblings about the iSis that I have yet to buy one. They seem to center on the thing tending to read light on yellow in certain situations. I don't know if they're true or not, but I have yet to see any reason to switch from the old tried and true DTP-70.


Mike Adams
Correct Color