Text very dark on C251i

[Offsol]

Hi all,
I recently installed a +251i (c251i) with a customer who had a Ricoh MPC2004. They print valuation reports for clients and they are complaining that the text on their letters is too dark - Their heading and signature are in bold and while there is a difference between the bold and normal text, the normal text is very dark. I saw example from Ricoh and the normal text is way lighter and I also ran copy from a HP inkjet and normal text is lighter than it is on +251i. I tried different drivers also (V4 and Universal pcl 3.9.8)
Just wondering if anyone has come across this before?

[AlaskaCopyTech]

I have had text be pretty dark before running a gradation in service mode. Also should check your toner density settings and TCR - dark text can be the result of over toning.

[Offsol]

Thanks for that. I have tried three different konica devices (+250i, and 2 251is) and all 3 have same output. While I explained to customer that the print is going to be sharper than a 7 year old Ricoh, I do have to agree that the text is considerably darker than what you see on screen.

[Synthohol]

was the text originally rich black?
just for kicks print it selecting greyscale, if it lightens up its probably composite black instead of pure.

[Offsol]

Will check that out on Monday and i will update. Thanks again.

[tsbservice]

I never had customers complaining black is dark, the opposite many times
Tell them Konica is superior than their old machine and if they want light prints use toner save saving them money and fulfilling their needs.

[Offsol]

only problem doing that is that they are Auctioneers so the images will be affected then.

[tsbservice]

only problem doing that is that they are Auctioneers so the images will be affected then.

Didn't see it in your topic I guess we could have more info perhaps samples?

[blackcat4866]

Did you ever do the color calibration? Four of your posts, and I still don't know. If you don't know how, just say so.

[Offsol]

I didn't do colour Calibration yet. This issue only arose late on Thursday and i wasn't in a position to test on other machines until Friday evening.
I will be investigating further on Monday and I will update.

[Offsol]

Calibration/Gradation done. Printed in Grey scale and still printing dark. Density levels all okay. Printed in toner save mode and prints are very washed (even bold text).
I have attached a sample from a Develop/Km and a Ricoh. While the scan may not show it, there is a considerable difference.

[kingarthur]

Have you got a sample of how it's printing on the KM - a new device is going to print darker and sharper than an older device. Are they printing Auto colour or Grayscale,
Try this

image.png

[KMFLT3CH]

Looks normal to me, if anything the ricoh is the one with the issues. Can't believe they are complaining about this

Comparing apples to oranges anyway

[Offsol]

I think I may have found a solution. I changed line width (under quality tab) to thin and this seems to have made a difference. Hopefully the customer will also think so!!! Thanks for all of your help.

[doinbox]

I don't personally think there's an issue here. I think what you're seeing is how bad Ricoh quality was compared to the Konica