All Canon IR5185 w/ H1 have Qualtiy Issues?

[Guest]

For the past 9 months our copier has experienced poor color quality, toner spatter and heavy font issues. The work-around for the color/spatter issue was to copy a profile from a 3220 copier and use that on the 5185.
However, the fonts still print about 1/2 point heavier/bolder than all other devices in our office. The problem with this is that the heaviness of the font actually changes the font characteristics in some cases. It happens when using PCL as well as PS drivers (toner splatter is worse with PCL).
Colors also print darker because it seems to add additional black toner to everything.

It is also important to note the the issue occurs on Canon's own config and PS test pages.

Tech Support says that all 5185s print this way- "Its just the way it is".... "there's nothing else tech support can do"....We "shouldn't compare the 5185 to other devices".
If you have worked with a 5185 with an H1 can you confirm that it has the same or similar issues?
Thanks

[11x17]

not sure with the H1 but with the canon print controller and the effect we call blasting can be remedied by turning gray compensation ON in the driver. For PCL I think it is under the quality tab, details, and from there you will see the gray comp choice.

Good luck and let me know your results.

[costd]

Ditto here. Chased that one for some time: quality tab > details > turn gray compensation on. Another option is to use the UFR II driver.

[Canuck]

Perform autogradations on the machine(full) then calibrate the H1. Do you have Kodak strips to calibrate the RIP? What does a full color copy look like? Same blasting? I am very familiar with these products (working for Canon) and this is never an issue. Its your machine and not the product family.....it needs servicing and calibration...maybe a little tweaking

[janebo]

Thanks all for your help/comments....

Gray Comp checkbox was the first thing we were told to try (last year). Very little difference. The blasting issue is mostly resolved as long as we use the PostScript driver and that 3220 profile (a work-around in my book but at least it solves the problem). We've had two Canon techs and a color specialist work on the copier. They've spent countless hours here and have called Canon gurus.

My on-going complaint is that ALL fonts print heavier/bolder than all other devices in our office. The colors are also darker. We're told that all 5185s (or H1s??) seem to print this way and there is nothing else tech support can do to help us. So we have an IR 3220 with a C1 and HP Color Laserjets that have better color/font quality than the 5185.
Have you noticed those things about the 5185 w/ or w/o H1 RIPs?
Are you able to use PCL drivers without the blasting issue?

[Canuck]

Yeh good ol' Canon tech support....making excuses. Like I said there is something wrong with your machine if it is too dark with plump fonts. The PS driver is the proper driver if you are using an imagepass...the RIP converts your PS RGB data into CMYK..UFR is the languge used internally by the machine. Without a RIP the conversion from RGB to CYMK is done on the main controller of the machine.....still think your machine is broken.....wish i could play with it

[Guest]

You should try to update the imagepass to v2.0 if you haven't done so already. Also drum life is a important factor in image quality.

You can try auto trapping under the color tab, also play around with some of the functions under the image tab, try using a higher resolution 1200 dpi it will bring in the dots per inch closer to form a smoother image. You have some resources.

The RGB rendering style should be in presentation style.
The cmyk simulation should be SWOP-coated.

If all fails, reload firmware onto the imagepass.

[janebo]

5185 w H1 Quality issues examples attached

Imaging/Color Specialist tried changing a lot of these settings without much success. Using 3220 profile was the only thing that helped color and blasting. The heavier fonts and darker color issue can be seen on the copier's own test pages (config page and PS test page - attached).
We do have most recent firmware. Firmware has been reloaded several times. We even had a loaner H1 put in but that didn't help either. I believe drums have also been replaced.

I'm not sure if the issue comes through on my Font exmple page (PDF) attachment but maybe you can see how BOLD everything looks and how the picture looks dark and flat (its a Microsoft picture from My Pictures\Sample Pictures).

Bottom line is that we are told that all 5185s print this way. So, if you print from a 5185 with an H1 rip do fonts and lines print a little bolder than other devices? Do colors look a little darker?
Thanks!

[11x17]

Samples look quite bold. Have you tried the UFR driver? I saw on canons website there was a post for bold fonts and the solution was to use the UFR driver. Not 100% sure there is one for the H1 but just a thought. If the UFR cant be used with the fiery then have them reconfigure without fiery so you can test UFR

Good Luck

[Great White North]

Had Same issue..H1 V2 shows on Fiery test page, therefore eliminating drivers ended up being ITB ass'y, has been working for couple of months now..no issues, customer is print shop and is

Tried
Dcc
Main
Drum Units
auto grad hammermill 28lb
Calibration
Machine had this issue from Factory

[Guest]

It looks like PCL drivers has this problem too.
UFR drivers do not exibit this problem though.
The imagepass does not support the UFR driver,
and it seems in most cases the UFR driver was the solution.
There is no other information on bold fonts, no patches, nothing..

Good luck.

[Great White North]

if the customer has paid for the imagepass and colour matching (even though its a business m/c not a graphics m/c) is more important instead of using the multi pdl setup then all you get is the PS and PCL. The nice thing about the imagepass is you can actually print a test page with the settings on it, that can be compaired to any Fiery rip. The UFR is a good driver too bad you can't use it with Fiery products. Maybe the secret with the UFR is that it splits its processing with the host computer and box, which may eliminate some issues, maybe it has its own profile embedded. Most of my setups have a fiery attached. anyways, in the end, the 'box' should work with all drivers

[janebo]

Issue Resolved by replacing Laser!

Tech Support arrived this morning to replace the laser (they had replaced most everything else).
Drivers weren't the issue for us. The 5185s own internal test pages had the font and color issue.
There is a HUGE difference in the print quality now. We're back to using default settings on PCL and PS drivers. No blasting anywhere either.
Crazy, huh?
Thanks Todd and Lee for hanging in there!

[Great White North]

we tried swapping the lasers in our m/c to no avail. so we ruled out lasers. did they replace all 4 lasers (different batch) or just the Bk, and when you say internal pages, do u mean the pg tests....if so which one has fonts on it

[janebo]

Techs didn't indicate that there was more than one laser but if there was than I would guess they would have targeted the black one. We were using the Configuration Page and PS Test page as examples but all internal reports/test pages had bolder black text than you would expect. AND on the PS test page, the black circle was very dark and almost solid-looking instead of having that nice pattern down to the center (compared to the cyan, magenta and yellow circles).