MPC 3001 colors are off when printing from photoshop.

[Counsel]

Hello guys,

So I have a very picky customer using the mpc3001, its a print shop. Cust is not liking the colors that come out, I have noticed it leans toward cyan when printing. they will have a photo scanned in and then do some photoshop stuff making b&w backrounds with 1 or 2 items in color on the photo, in this case the photo was a student in a jersey the photo was yellow and purple jersey, but it comes out yellow and blue when printed. She also feels the b&w background is not straight black its tinted greenish/blue which in photoshop the background they convert is still technically colors making up black not just black because the overlay of the jersey is color so i am not sure what i can offer to make backgrounds flat black when its using a color mixture to make black. However purples should not come out blue.

I ran process controls, did color calibration for print, ran any sp i can think of for color adjustment. I am not sure if its the photoshop program that causes miscolor or if the machine truly is off. i have probably confused everyone now, but does anyone know what can be done to improve colors being printed from adobe photoshop.

[Jimbo1]

Re: MPC 3001 colors are off when printing from photoshop.

Does the machine have Postscript installed? If so try a PS driver.

Postscript or Fiery would be an option

I agree. I have been through this before. It's frustrating because the computer is RGB and when you print that information on a CMYK system you don't get the same results with normal drivers. That's why PS is a good option. However I have seen that not work.
There is also the option, and I can almost promise you the customer will balk, of making a test print and then going into the color settings on the driver and adjusting the color from their. The hue and saturation and so forth. They don't like to hear this sort of thing but i have seen cases where what they are trying to print now is the only thing they are trying to print that has a problem. They won't see it that way but you just have to work with them....patiently.

[mikadonovan]

Re: MPC 3001 colors are off when printing from photoshop.

Postscript or Fiery would be an option

These options may help, but the customer has to remember this is an office class piece of equipment, and it does have it's limitations. You get what you pay for, and Fiery is expensive.

[Jimbo1]

Re: MPC 3001 colors are off when printing from photoshop.

These options may help, but the customer has to remember this is an office class piece of equipment, and it does have it's limitations. You get what you pay for.

"But my sales rep told me......"

[rthonpm]

Re: MPC 3001 colors are off when printing from photoshop.

Print Shop users are never happy. Either adding an EFI or trying to install the colour profiles from the ICM files on the Ricoh site may help them to get a little happier. Subtractive colour just doesn't give you the same oomph that RGB does...

[HP:guy]

Re: MPC 3001 colors are off when printing from photoshop.

This is not a print-shop machine. You will adjust to get one job done then have to adjust foranother.
The salesman screwed you!

[Imprestik]

Re: MPC 3001 colors are off when printing from photoshop.

For a start, they are comparing is an RGB output on their monitor to a CMYK output from their copier. It is not going to look the same if that is what they want.

Hit them up with a correctly calibrated CMYK monitor and watch their jaw drop when they find out these monitors alone start around the 5K mark for a crappy one.

Then you can tell them what you see on your monitor is what is going to come out of your printer.

And as above, what do you expect from the office colour, it's amazing what shit comes out of an account managers mouth to get a sale......

[ruben]

Re: MPC 3001 colors are off when printing from photoshop.

If they want quality, sell them a Pro C.

[Counsel]

Re: MPC 3001 colors are off when printing from photoshop.

Thanks for te replies i sort of felt that i was in the boat of photoshop and moniter vs cmyk printout not being the same, I did talk with the cust they trust my judgement and basically told them what you see is not what you get, and after checking some photoshop forums almost everyone who does any kind of design printing does not use the default photoshop pallete, most of them will fine tune their colors especialy for black because when black is printing using cmyk it is not black alone it is colors meshed to make black and its not the same. I showed the cust what i found and in a nutshell but nice way said your going to have to do your job and actually design it and test print them till you get what your looking for, the machine isnt going to guess at what you want and make it happen.

They were aware when sold the machine that this is an office product not a design shop printer, they didnt want to break the bank for a PRO or Fiery which we tried to talk them into if they really wanted production stuff. So instead they went cheap and call 2 times a weak for us to come tweak stuff to their liking and when i say us I mean just me.

Thanks for the info guys.

[ruben]

Re: MPC 3001 colors are off when printing from photoshop.

Most machines can print black as black, or CMY. If you do a colour test pattern print (under SP Printer), you can show the customer the difference. (It does a black as black and CMY in the centre.)

If they still have problems printing certain colours, make sure the file they are printing is not set to RGB (or sRGB). You will need to add a CMYK profile to the file before printing to get the correct colours.

[qbert69]

Re: MPC 3001 colors are off when printing from photoshop.

Color Gamut/Color Space for Screen and Printer is ALWAYS going to be different! Also your Dmin and Dmax (Density = Light to dark) is also going to be quite different. Probably the best thing to do would be to purchase a color calibrator from a place such as this:

Search Results for color calibrator

I'm sure there are reviews out there on various color calibrators with performance vs. price comparison.

The key thing you want is a WYSIWYG set-up....What You See is What You Get!

Apple seems to be a little bit "tighter" when it comes to screen calibration:

Mac Display Calibration: Introduction



GOOD LUCK!