3051ci colors very inaccurate

[jayg30]

You've identified Kyocera's Achilles heel. Without the Fiery, color matching isn't great. Most off-the showroom floor Konica Minoltas, Toshibas, and Sharps will do better. Color Profiles can help a little, but not like some magic bullet.

Kyoceras last great color machine was a re-badged KM. =^..^=

Thanks, that was what I was afraid of.

[MFPTech]

Replace all the drums and devs.
Try firmware update (sometimes Kyocera releases special firmware for color issues).
Do SM 410, 412, color registration and calibration in that order.
Make sure you are using a Postscript Driver (Kyocera calls it differently) and 1200 dpi resolution setting on the driver.
If that doesn't help i would consider a fiery and a spectrometer or densitometer.
Last, i will send logos for print on a press.
Cheers,

[jayg30]

You are right, you do need a fiery and on the top of that you do need to perform color management and be very good at it. Didn't Konica print pink?
I agree with blackcat4866. Who the heck made the decision to buy a Kyocera color machine for what you are trying to do in the first place... Sorry to say that, but yes, you are right, basically you are out of luck.

I will say that the Konica (C353) has been pretty much dead on with colors. Was a bit shocked at how accurate it was actually.

Well, basically, a sales person comes in when a company needs a machine. People in Companies tend to want to save money. Most don't understand any of this stuff, and most people don't have intimate understandings of various makes/models of MFP's. A sales person tells you they will have no problem meeting the color needs and they are cheaper! What CEO/CFO/Manager/etc do you know (outside the industry) that understand color tables, what a fiery is, what pantone is, what an icc profile is, and so on? They expect color to print the same everywhere. It is hard enough explaining to people why what they see on a crappy uncalibrated TN screen isn't necessarily what the colors will look like when printed.

[MFPTech]

Printing using RGB color space is simply wrong. Printing uses toner to create colors, hence YMCK must be used! To force all users to print using the same driver settings you either use a print server (not a good idea for production printing) or customize and package the driver and give it to users to install it locally on their computers. I have supported many print shops that used Copiers for small jobs and been through the nightmare of not maching colors, copier limitations and file issues. I even had to take DTP courses on evenings using my own time and money. Conclusion, there is a reason why a press costs million of dollars and a copier costs at least 100 times less. Logo and copier just don't go together. Hope my brutally honest feedback helps

[jayg30]

Replace all the drums and devs.
Try firmware update (sometimes Kyocera releases special firmware for color issues).
Do SM 410, 412, color registration and calibration in that order.
Make sure you are using a Postscript Driver (Kyocera calls it differently) and 1200 dpi resolution setting on the driver.
If that doesn't help i would consider a fiery and a spectrometer or densitometer.
Last, i will send logos for print on a press.
Cheers,

Thanks. I know the firmware was just recently updated (they noted color changes, but we saw no difference).
I can't remember if we did 410 and 412. I know color registration and calibration was done, as well as a few other things. Didn't seem to help.
The KX drivers are in use, version 6.2.0827. Also downloaded the 6.2.113 since that was the latest on the website to do the tests yesterday.

I think the only answer is a fiery or a different machine all together. There are documents being printed that don't contain logos and aren't THAT color sensitive, but when blue prints grey...that isn't going to work!

[jayg30]

Printing using RGB color space is simply wrong. Printing uses toner to create colors, hence YMCK must be used! To force all users to print using the same driver settings you either use a print server (not a good idea for production printing) or customize and package the driver and give it to users to install it locally on their computers. I have supported many print shops that used Copiers for small jobs and been through the nightmare of not maching colors, copier limitations and file issues. I even had to take DTP courses on evenings using my own time and money. Conclusion, there is a reason why a press costs million of dollars and a copier costs at least 100 times less. Logo and copier just don't go together. Hope my brutally honest feedback helps

I think you misunderstand. I didn't tell it to print ANYTHING in RGB. The Kyocera provided plugin "Color Optimizer" pulls RGB values using an eyedropper, references the color in RGB terms, prints a test grid, and asks you to select the "closest match". If you aren't familiar with the tool check HERE.

I know the difference between CMYK and RGB.

We aren't even printing LOGO's! The documents aren't even THAT color sensitive. But, once again, a machine that prints LIGHT BLUE as GREY, come on! We used a known pantone color logo for a business partner to do TESTING. They have a logo with nothing but Cyan. We printed it using photoshop, verified it was CMYK, and it printed turquoise!

THIS...
0ea3a328a690c4ec1d661f97c1c31c59.jpg
Looks like this...
Turquoise_Blue_429719_i0.jpg

[MFPTech]

i have used similar plugins that are used by Fiery and work with command workstation but i will check this one out - thanks. Kyocera is not good for color boxes but anyway here is the thing, as long as the color is predictable and consistent the techs job is done, it's up to the designer to design based on the output of the copier. There are no printers / copiers or even presses that 2 units of the same model and time of manufacturing will output the same color.

[autopilot]

I think the colour reproduction settings in the driver override the colour table set in the maintenance mode so if you want to see the difference in these you need to leave the driver set to printer settings.

Apart from that I've had more luck colour matching using the KPDL driver with a few tweaks although it can slow things down.

Apart from that for customer just concerned about the colour of their logo the colour optimizer seems to do the trick. Choose the colour reproduction setting that best suits and then adjust that.

Apart from that, yeah the colour matching really isn't very good. And it's especially bad with blues and purple.

[tmaged]

I think the colour reproduction settings in the driver override the colour table set in the maintenance mode so if you want to see the difference in these you need to leave the driver set to printer settings.

You should re-read the instructions on how to use the color tables. You need to select them in the driver to make them work correctly.

[autopilot]

You should re-read the instructions on how to use the color tables. You need to select them in the driver to make them work correctly.

If you could you forward me any documentation you have specifically on the colour tables it would be much appreciated. The service manual doesn't go into it in any detail.

I was under the impression that if the colour reproduction in the driver was left at printer settings the machine would use Custom Table 1. Is this incorrect?