Re: Color consistency….

Hello, is anyone having any color consistency problems with there LX360? I have a press proof print that was printed at the beginning of this month and then the full order completed just the other day and my colors are different but I haven't changed any heads and my color calibration on the printer says ok....

Call tech support TODAY. Otherwise, you'll waste lots of prints and heads.

It's a known issue.

HP, when you read this, could you please start proactively reaching out to L360 owners? This is a big, big problem!

Hi to all,

HP has developed a new printer firmware for the HP Latex 300 series printers that fixes the image quality issue you refer to. This new firmware is available with all new printers and is also being deployed to our printer installed base through HP Service and authorized partners. Please get in touch with your service representative to get immediate support.

I recently had my firmware updated. I want to say a few weeks ago. Do I need to get it updated again?

Can you please tell me which firmware version has your printer?

Firmware version: NEXUS_00_06_02.7
Published: Jun 15, 2015 5:58:14 PM
Installation date: Aug 6, 2015 1:42:00 PM
Last check for new firmware date: Aug 31, 2015 1:55:09 PM

when they did they develop the new firmware

Will that firmware be deployed for the 110 or is it the same firmware?

there are a new firmware 06_02.10

Hi GreySquirrel,

The firmwares of the HP Latex 110 and the HP Latex 300 Series are different. If you want to know if you have the latest firmware for your printer I will recommend you to visit the following link, where you will be able to see the last version of your printer's firmware:

HP Latex Printer software and drivers download

Then you can check the version of the link above with your printer's firmware version in the front panel:

1- In the main menu select the button printer (bottom center)

2- check the column OS.

Hope this helps!

Yes, we are in our 9th month running our 360 and suddenly, we're having color consistensy issues.

Basically our prints are shifting yellow. Our dealer support asked if our yellow ink is running low (it is), and he recommendeded we switch to a fresh ink (we did). The shift hasn't changed, but it appears to have stopped shifting.

Yesterday, we upgraded the firmware to 06_02.10, but the shift remains. Is this the new normal? Do anyone know of a default grayscale test we could print to visaully "check" the printer each morning?

thanks!

Hi photomf!

As all the steps you have already tried fail to address color consistency issues. And the yellow ink shift remains on your Latex 360. In this event, I suggest, you contact your support provider to get a more accurate answer.

Regarding to the “Greyscale test” we don’t have any.

I would like to thank you for your understanding, and should any questions arise, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Hi,

Installed new firmware and print heads, ran alignment twice and color calibration. Color is different then before, but we're adjusting to the "new normal". How can we run calibrationwith backlit media?

thanks!

Hi - I am still having color issues! Here are 2 pictures showing the same file printed on the same machine - the blue one is printed in 12 pass and the greenish one is printed in 10 pass....is this normal to have this drastic of a color shift between passes?

Hi photomf,

The way you can run a Color calibration with backlit media is thru the RIP, using a spectohptometer that is able to measure backlits. I know that Barbieri has some, but surely you can find some from other brands.

I have a new color consistency issue. One picture you see is of the same file printed at the same time on the same roll on the same machine.....why is 1 more yellow then the other.

Along with some other files that were printed at the same time. None of the prints match in color.....I checked the rips and the tiff files and all the files are the same color numbers. This is very fustrating.

Hi OAI_LFM,

I've showed your images to some of the techs and they told me to ask you to contact your support source, since they think you need a personal and accurate answer. They will request you several information like firmware version, a service plot,...

I will like to ask you to come back with a the solution once they help you with this issue.

Hey everyone,

Just joined this forum because this is the exact problem I've been having for the last month or so. I am on holidays at the moment so I can't get the firmware version # to you (I'll be back at work tomorrow - wanted to get a head start on the problem before I got in though). I do know that the most recent firmware update was at least a couple of months ago, and I remember it specifically noted that improvements in print quality had been made, that it would take a few prints for those improvements to become active, and to do a colour calibration in the near future. We've probably printed a good 50 - 100 full rolls worth of different medias since then, so I'd say that any "improvements" should well and truly have taken hold by now. For the record, using Onyx 11, HP latex 360.

We'd been running some large tiled wall prints (on a polymeric SAV) and the grey areas gradually shifted to a pink hue over the course of around 15 metres. These are the steps that I took:

1) Thinking it was a printhead degenerating, I did a nozzle check. All were firing perfectly.

2) Colour calibration. Tried printing again and still pink.

3) The full "Optimise print quality" which does a clean, alignment, then colour calibration. Tried printing again and still pink.

4) My thought then was that it might be a print head that fires fine in the case of a nozzle check, but under constant use (even for something as small as a colour calibration) it couldn't keep up. So I replaced every print head. They weren't on big numbers but could be justified to be swapped out. Did a new alignment & colour calibration... still pink.

5) Checked files. The background grey colour was all one vector shape just clipping masked for each drop, CMYK colour but only using the black channel. All files were saved consecutively and had the exact same colour management etc. I made a new file from scratch just of the grey. Loaded it and printed it. Still pink. So I then loaded an old file (from months previous) that was also greyscale, that printed perfectly at the time. Still pink.

At this point I was scratching my head. From all reports, the way to keep the colours printing consistently was doing regular colour calibrations. I rang the HP tech guru in our area, and his comment was that the colour calibration was simply a linearisation of each colour, not necessarily the levels of the colours combined. His suggestion was to create a new ICC profile from the front panel. I did that, and it was quite a bit better, but certainly not perfect. Because it was leading in to Christmas and we had hard deadlines, we had to run with those improved colours.

From what I have read here, it seems as if this is now a regular and known issue with the 360. This was not communicated to me when I spoke to the HP representative, which was only around 3 weeks ago. Are you able to give us any more information on it, or should I contact him again and press the issue further? At this point, I don't like the idea of spending my first few days doing fresh ICC profiles and colour calibrations on every single media we use, while the (paying) printing jobs pile up.

FYI we were using firmware NEXUS_00_06_02.10, but have now successfully manually updated to .12. I will advise if there are any improvements.

Hello again,

As a follow-up, the updated firmware hasn't done anything, at least in terms of fixing this issue.

As a last resort, it was suggested to me that I create a new media preset from scratch and see how that looks. Strangely enough, it is perfect. I'm baffled. I have since sent an email to our HP contact asking for their opinion on how this can be the case.

Because it's not just this one media doing it (it's pretty much all of them), you could argue that the spectrometer is malfunctioning. But if that were indeed true, then how come making a new media, calibrating and profiling from scratch, hits the correct target first go? You would think that resetting the calibrations back to factory, then re-calibrating (all of which I have done), would have the same effect as making a new media. But apparently not, they still couldn't hit the correct colour targets.

My final theory is that perhaps the new firmware has included an update to all of the generic media presets as well as the colour targets that the calibrations aim for. In that any medias/calibrations created prior to this firmware are no longer compatible, and calibrating just adjusts the colours to a target that is no longer correct.

Anyways, when I hear back from HP I'll let you all know. If my theory is true, then surely we're not the only ones experiencing this issue...