Calibrating Myth or Fact

[disbellj]

DTP-41 is a spectro, and therefore the program you are using it with to do the calibration should make you cailbrate every time you use it (especially if it's been over a day). I have one DTP-41BUV and the program I use it with asks me to calibrate the device before I basically take any readings, to make sure the device is reading as it should be before me reading anything else (like a calibration proof).

Regards,

Don

I have two xerox machines a DC 260 and a DC700. I recently got a DTP - 41 and it has made calibrating so much easier. I asked my tech if it was ok to calibrate daily ( I figured this would keep my colors at the highest potential), he was responded with saying I should only do it twice a year or when there's major issues. I have also been told that I should calibrate weekly. Could anyone shed some light on this for me. Thanks

[abccolor]

It is true that the DTP-41 is a spectro, however despite the fact that (G.P.) Fiery's currently ship with an ES-1000, the Fiery ColorWise Calibration process (c.1999) is still density (D-Max) based and does not take advantage of the spectro feature.

[alopezv]

Perhaps he got confused with your question. Maybe he thought you ment calibrate the tool you are using not the machine, which the twice a year thing is consistant with, although a bit long.

The machine should be calibrated atleast once a day, with a stock change, or before a proof.

He i see that you are technic of Konica Minolta, i need info abot made profiles to use in fiery. This product come with profiles made for some papers i need to build some personal but don´t foud how to print the test i need without color correction to build the profiles. Thanks

[billyinlasvegas]

He i see that you are technic of Konica Minolta, i need info abot made profiles to use in fiery. This product come with profiles made for some papers i need to build some personal but don´t foud how to print the test i need without color correction to build the profiles. Thanks

With my Fiery I used to use EFI Color Profiler, and it worked great. You can buy it on it's own or as part of a Graphic Arts package for your RIP.

[denis.savoie@xerox.com]

To achieve the same color from a job you printed three months ago, you must calibrate at least daily.

With fiery products, it's important to perform the "Restore Device" before each calibration. If a "Restore Device' is not performed, the new calibration set will be applied over a previous calibration and will result in a color curve over time.

In Fiery Command Workstation, "Restore Device is located at the very bottom of the Calibrator window.

[mattbeals]

It's completely absurd that you would have to rest the device... Sounds like a major flaw in the calibration system...

[kydruid]

do it as many times as you want as long as you get the color consistency that you want.

once a day, once a week, once a month, once a year, or never.

Some people never do it and the color that comes out is enough to meet their expectations.

If you're not calibrating at least once a week if not more often, you're doing yourself a huge disservice, an example of this is once I had to match a job from a customer who's Canon CLC-1000 might get calibrated when the hardware tech was repairing the equipment (nevermind that the company's salesman told the customer they could get something ridiculous like 300 150p sales books with critical color duplexed on 60# cover over a weekend).

Due to color matching problems, and design problems with the equipment (toner blades, faulty duplexing set up even on text weight, etc), it took almost 2 weeks of constant running with numerous repair calls (techs ended up on 24/7 call) to get the job out, and even then they complained because the color wasn't spot on to their example from their uncalibrated CLC. They insisted that since they had a CLC-1000 and we had a CLC-1000 (different RIPs as well as I recall), that it should automagically match.

We have a DocuColor 260 where I now work and they calibrate weekly under normal conditions and per job when it's color critical. I've not heard many complaints yet, but at the same time, with the Prinect Workflow we have and the PM52, we're better able to put jobs where they need to be quickly, a distinct advantage over the previous place, which was still camera and shake and bake plates or service bureau to get film back.

Anyway, my recommendation is set up a schedule to calibrate, whether it be daily or weekly, make it the first thing on the agenda, and plan some flexibility in to where it can be repeated as necessary and still hit dealines.

[Digitalkidd]

For your own peace of mind I would calibrate once in the morning and evaluate the change in humidity and temperature around noon in the shop. If you have a major fluctuation in either of the two, I would re-calibrate after lunch. Twice a year? Hmmmm? I would be very suspect. Never heard of anything like that. Good Luck!

[CanarcticPress]

Say if I make a color profile to match something on a computer screen (Clients always think what they see on the screen is what is going to print ) Should I also calibrate with this color profile after I run the proof? And calibrate when the proof comes back with the same color profile?

[Digitalkidd]

You need to get away from matching color on a monitor and to do so your going to need sales support.
Using profiles is like living in a perfect world. Unless you create files for your own company you will never get a variety of different customers with different sophistication's to live and breathe one particular color space and you will waste all your time calibrating. Best to just go with pleasing color on the sheet and calibrate that machine to it's control standard at least once if not twice a day.