Xerox DocuColor 242 - does this print really light for anyone??

[kellyjaye]

We got a Xerox DocuColor 242 a few months ago and the entire time we have had it, it would print way too light. We are a printing company so we generally know what to expect from printers but even though this seems to print pretty nicely, its always overly light and faded. Colors are not as vivid as we would expect either. When Xerox service people would help out, I can never tell if they think its working properly or if they dont know what to do. There are also SOOOO many settings to this too that we are honestly overwhelmed. Generally we could just send something to a printer and that was that. This one it almost seems like with everything we print, we have to deal with all these color settings, print, see how it did and change other settings, etc... over and over again. Its just doesnt seem like a normal thing to have to do.

Does anyone else experience anything similar with this printer or know of how to correct this?

 

[Tech]

Hi Kelly,
When you say it's "light" and not "vivid", do you also mean it's not color calibrated? If not calibrated, that would be the first thing you should request Xerox service to perform. BTW, does your 242 has a rip or not (calibration can be either hardware [printer itself] or through rip)? We had an issue with color calibration not too long ago (outputs were too dark), and since then our in-house Xerox person tries to recalibrate our Splash rip once every two weeks or so.

Hope this helps.

 

[kellyjaye]

I should have mentioned, yes we have done the calibration several times. Have done is on the glass itself and from the computer with that hand held device thing. Also should have said that when we make copies from the glass, the copies look perfect. Its when sending stuff from the computer to the printer that never seems to look right

 

[eso4874]

Hello Kelly,

I would agree that the image quality of the DocuColor 242 is subpar. Xerox postions this as a high quality device, but it's really for business color applications. In my experience I found that graphic designers are
particularly accute when it comes to the 242 not accurately reproducing colors, because the color space
just isn't large enough. For individuals that just want their documents printed in color, the device is fine.
In addition I had significant issues printing on any stock other than plain paper. Two-sided coated text
will jam, cover stock will jam, it's just not a great device to offer near litho quality with fast turnaround.

 

[kellyjaye]

wow, its nice to know its not just me now! Would still like to hear other experiences with that printer. I am the designer here and it has been a nightmare with me getting things to match what i see on screen. I know that the colors you see on screen are never totally accurate to what will print with any color printer but generally they are pretty close. With this one, things are just so far off that we are just not comfortable about it when giving to a customer. as far as jams or printing on gloss or anything like that, its really been great. There have been no other problems what so ever with it with anything really except for the color issue. Just cant understand when making a copy on the glass will come out perfect, so why wouldnt something coming from a computer be pretty close also?

Our previous printer is an Xante CL30. Its a little older and we no longer have a service agreement with it but that does the best color ive ever seen! Super bright and full, no faded looks or anything. When printing on anything other than plain letter size paper though can be hectic. You never know what the outcome will be when printing on gloss or cardstock, or 11x17, or if it will take paper from the tray or bypass tray that you tell it to, etc... but when you get that straight, the color is great!

 

[Tech]

If you only encounter problem when printing from design files... try the following for test

1) From InDesign — color output, make sure you have Leave Color Unchanged

2) From Quark — color output, As Is

This way you know color data isn't converted on output from application and hopefully this is the fix.

 

[kellyjaye]

If you only encounter problem when printing from design files... try the following for test

1) From InDesign — color output, make sure you have Leave Color Unchanged

2) From Quark — color output, As Is

This way you know color data isn't converted on output from application and hopefully this is the fix.

Thanx but i already thought of that. InDesign is my main tool but also print from Acrobat Pro too. I despise pagemaker and quark...im lucky to get those to print anything the way i want to, color or BW!

Talked with our service people today, they are going to send us an analyst to help us figure things out a little better. Hopefully he will have a fix thats quick and instant!

 

[Craig]

Are you able to print a calibration comparison page during the calibration, or a Pantone color chart? If so what does that look like?

When you said "hand held device thing" are you referring to a spectrophotometer, because that is what is used to calibrate our Fiery with the DC8000AP. If so you may have a bad spectrophotometer reading colors back to the rip wrong.

I agree with "ragemaker and quack" never touch the stuff... just say no!

 

[matnic]

so you are printing thru a rip...which one? What about just printing from Photoshop/image files, even websites...do they look bad, too?

I had problems with our 3535 when we first set it up several years ago, they sent out a color specialist and things have been much better (had a color consistency issue).

 

[X33]

this is easy to fix, the answer is just calibration.

1. Have a Service Tech calibrate the engine first. They have a hardcopy test pattern that they will use to make sure that when making a copy, colors are good. the test pattern has cmyk in different values, rgb, and some pictures howing skin tones, lows, mids and highs.

If making copies is ok, then ...

2. Calibrate the DFE. There are different ways to do this :
a)set to factory default settings
b)off the glass calibration
c)external device calibration such as an spectrophotometer

I would suggest a or c if you have one ... sometimes b makes it worse than a. if you are doing c, remember to create a different calibration profile for each different paper type you have. and don't forget to select the right paper type in the driver too (HW3, Coated 3, etc), it will also make a difference