First Time Latex Printer Owner - Having Color Issues - Please Help.

Hello, I bought an HP Latex 54" Print & Cut System. I have had it for about two weeks and all ready at the end of my rope. I cannot get colors to print clear. There is always a grainy look to it. I have tried increasing the Optimizer with no luck. The increased the passes and have not been able to make it print 1200x1200. It also aborts the print and says this ICC profile doesn't support 1200 x1200. (or something close to that) I have a few jobs that are for some stickers. The black is solid as can be and look awesome. The color on the other hand looks grainy. Any help? I stuck everything into this printer and I am starting to regret it. I attached a picture for reference. Thanks Jeremy

Dear Jeremy, Please take a look at the attached extract from the User Guide that describes the troubleshooting for this kind of print quality problem. I cannot tell from the photo exactly what the problem is, but given that you have already tried increasing the amount of optimiser, I would suggest that you check that he printhead alignment and substrate advance are both OK - as per the attached document.

Increasing optimizer too much will also give you a grainy look. Test various level to see what looks best while creating a new Media Preset. I would suggest trying a level of 10 or 12 and if you see no coalescing then stay at that. Then Calibrate/Linearize and then create a new output profile with GCR setting of Black Start at 25 or 30. If you want to force the printer to use more lc/lm then set your black level to 60% in you GCR setup. Just keep in mind if you using less black you will have to keep up on the calibration to maintain you neutral colors.

@HP-rana - When I bought the machine I wasn't told I would need larger roll of material for print head alignment. Is there a way to do that test with out large paper? See attached photo for (hopefully) a better idea of what is going on. Some one suggested else where to pull the ink and shake them. But I am pretty sure we shook them more than enough times. @dypinc - I started at the default of 12 for the Optmizer. It didn't seem to look much different that 24. I will try reducing to 10. Maybe that will do the trick. Black is solid. But everything else is a little grainy. I can't figure out how to print at 1200x1200. Even when creating a new profile. Do I need to start from scratch when creating a profile. I would think if I could print 1200x1200 it would be fine. Brand new printer. Had for two weeks and still trying to get a great looking print. Here is another photo and you can see what I am talking about about.

Printhead alignment is defiantly important. You have got to do that first before you do anything else. I can't tell you much from the photo because I have no idea of the size it is printed at or how close it was copied at. But I first glance it looks like you using a lot of black in that output profile. For 1200x1200 you have got to use 18 pass, but that does not gain you much in reducing grain. To Use that add that mode to an existing Media Preset or make a new one. Education and testing is the key to getting the best you can get out of your printer. But in the end your expectations might be more than this printer is capable of. This printer does print with some apparent grain and even with proper maintenance and Media Preset setting and output profile there is no way around. Also make sure you RIP is rasterizing at 600dpi and not 300dpi.

Two posts you may want to take a look for more education. https://signs101.com/threads/hp-365-graphtec-or-summa.143577/#post-1356230 https://signs101.com/threads/hp-360-profiling-w-caldera.136188/#post-1313107

Yea. The videos they have make it seem like it is a great printer for everything. That is what it seemed like when I asked about it. I told them I wanted something to print solid for close viewing projects as well as something for larger views. The black is solid as can be. Perfect. I would love the solid colors to look that way. The picture was a high resolution file. Not a scanned picture. It was a 5"x7" picture. The rip says it is 600x600 under the file info before printing. I would like to see some improvement hopefully with a 1200x1200 print. But every time I think I specify everything correctly it cancels the print job when it goes to print. I will check into those links. I am always happy to learn. But I think I may have gone with something else. Hopefully not. This is a huge purchase for us. I will do the print head alignment tonight and what ever else we have discussed.

I wanted to add another thing. I printed a black and white picture and it looks amazing. No grain and rich and smooth. Perfect. Why would that be when the colors are not good looking at all? You said my black looks heavy. But it looks better. I should have went with another brand the more I read about it from people who use it everyday. They (or I took it like) made it sound like it was a great photo printer that printed solid, smooth lines. But so far only the black and has been solid and smooth.

Please use Rana's guide to help. You can start with a generic profile and then check optimizer levels and move them in increments of of 2 up and down to get your needed result. From a generic profile you can do all print tests and create a suitable custom setting for your workflow/environment. Cure temp for Adhesive vinyls should be in safe amounts. Check your optimizer printheads are definitely firing correctly also. Hard to see in a diagnostic print tests and if printhead/s are past warranty then change for new one/s. Check your media is fresh since some forms of coalescence is media related (old media or defective media). If your media is a well know brand name it can sometimes have a better profile in the online library. For high quality for close text you need to be running at 12 pass or higher. I run at 16 pass for small text. low passes for high speed won't cure too well and this can also cause a coalescence appearance.

Just thought I would update. So far after getting to know the machine I have become more familiar with it. So far so good. I do notice these machines are not as forgiving as some but the printer & cutter combo is great. Thank you for your input. It is much appreciated. Jeremy

Happy to hear that

#10 how did you resolve this issue? Im having the same problem at the moment. Tried printing at higher dpi high passes, lower dpi higher passes, test print head, alignment print head. But the results are still graininess. Please help

Hello @Kevinlim Have you checked @HP-rana suggestions?

I've faced this issue before. I took a black paper and printed that multiple times until it got actually black instead of the grainy black. I got that solution from facebook. Try it, it may work. This hack for printers almost always works.