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UT14 Tone Shift

UT14 Tone Shift

2015-03-02 by homershannon@...

Two years ago I created two curves that would allow UT14 ink to be printed on glossy paper. One printed a very neutral image and the other was a warm tone. Recently, I printed an image using the neutral tone and it came out surprisingly warm. I started digging into this and discovered I was very low on ink in several cartridges, so I refilled all of them and in some cases began using a "new" stock of ink that I purchased quite a while ago. The tone change persisted with the filled cartridges.


I printed a 6-color purge page to prove to myself that I didn't miss-fill the cartridges and it looks right - black then two gray stripes and then two warm tone stripes.


I have scanned an old test image and a test image printed tonight. Both are on RR Arctic Polar Gloss paper. Both have the curve UT14_Gloss_Neutral-2.acv applied. Both were printed with printer controls, gamma 2.2. To really see the difference, you may need to open this file, http://1drv.ms/1FLVQyT, in Photoshop. Looking at it with Windows Media Viewer does not really show the difference.


I am seeing this tone shift on all glossy papers. It is bad enough that I really can't consider my neutral curve to be printing a neutral image, though it always did before.


What could I be missing that would cause a sudden change in the tonality of my printing?

Re: [Digital BW] UT14 Tone Shift

2015-03-02 by Paul Roark

Interesting. I'll look into it.

The link you supplied took me directly to page 6 of 11 in the one-drive system. Is that top image the old one and the bottom one the new inks?

Paul
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On Sun, Mar 1, 2015 at 6:36 PM, homershannon@gmail.com [DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint] <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

Two years ago I created two curves that would allow UT14 ink to be printed on glossy paper. One printed a very neutral image and the other was a warm tone. Recently, I printed an image using the neutral tone and it came out surprisingly warm. I started digging into this and discovered I was very low on ink in several cartridges, so I refilled all of them and in some cases began using a "new" stock of ink that I purchased quite a while ago. The tone change persisted with the filled cartridges.


I printed a 6-color purge page to prove to myself that I didn't miss-fill the cartridges and it looks right - black then two gray stripes and then two warm tone stripes.


I have scanned an old test image and a test image printed tonight. Both are on RR Arctic Polar Gloss paper. Both have the curve UT14_Gloss_Neutral-2.acv applied. Both were printed with printer controls, gamma 2.2. To really see the difference, you may need to open this file, http://1drv.ms/1FLVQyT, in Photoshop. Looking at it with Windows Media Viewer does not really show the difference.


I am seeing this tone shift on all glossy papers. It is bad enough that I really can't consider my neutral curve to be printing a neutral image, though it always did before.


What could I be missing that would cause a sudden change in the tonality of my printing?


Re: UT14 Tone Shift

2015-03-02 by Homer Shannon

Paul:

That is correct. I can add that about two weeks before this happened, I printed three images for a local competition; one was with the neutral curve on RR Metallic paper, one was RR Polar matte with no curve and one was RR Ultrapro Satin with the warm curve. All printed normally. 

I’m tempted to believe that the difference is using the “newer” batch of UT14 ink, which I’ve had on hand for about a year, but it was the tone change in the first print of the next printing session that caused me to notice the difference. So, I suspect the change of ink is a red herring. Also, after printing the purge page last night, I found an older purge page I’d printed long ago. They are identical. 

I’m more than willing to believe that my problem is a process error, but I can’t find anything that I’m doing differently. Very puzzling. 

Homer Shannon

Re: [Digital BW] UT14 Tone Shift

2015-03-02 by homershannon@...

Paul:
That is correct. I can add that about two weeks before this happened, I printed three images for a local competition; one was with the neutral curve on RR Metallic paper, one was RR Polar matte with no curve and one was RR Ultrapro Satin with the warm curve. All printed normally.
I’m tempted to believe that the difference is using the “newer” batch of UT14 ink, which I’ve had on hand for about a year, but it was the tone change in the first print of the next printing session that caused me to notice the difference. (RR Metallic with the neutral curve.) Also, after printing the purge page last night, I found an older purge page I’d printed long ago. They are identical. I'm pretty sure the new batch of ink is a red herring.
I’m more than willing to believe that my problem is a process error, but I can’t find anything that I’m doing differently. Very puzzling.
Homer Shannon

Re: [Digital BW] UT14 Tone Shift

2015-03-02 by Paul Roark

So it's sounding now like the "new" inks, which are a year old, may have produced a purge page that is identical to a much older one. So, maybe my harassing MIS about this is not the way to go.

Is it possible when you used the "new" inks that they had not been agitated? Maybe they'd settled? Just guessing here.

Paul
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On Mon, Mar 2, 2015 at 3:20 AM, homershannon@... [DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint] <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

Paul:
That is correct. I can add that about two weeks before this happened, I printed three images for a local competition; one was with the neutral curve on RR Metallic paper, one was RR Polar matte with no curve and one was RR Ultrapro Satin with the warm curve. All printed normally.
I’m tempted to believe that the difference is using the “newer” batch of UT14 ink, which I’ve had on hand for about a year, but it was the tone change in the first print of the next printing session that caused me to notice the difference. (RR Metallic with the neutral curve.) Also, after printing the purge page last night, I found an older purge page I’d printed long ago. They are identical. I'm pretty sure the new batch of ink is a red herring.
I’m more than willing to believe that my problem is a process error, but I can’t find anything that I’m doing differently. Very puzzling.
Homer Shannon


Re: [Digital BW] UT14 Tone Shift

2015-03-02 by homershannon@...

I ran a couple of tests this morning. A link to a folder with all the files is located at Printing Issues
Printing Issues
Folder
View on 1drv.ms
Preview by Yahoo

.

I printed a test image on RR Polar Matte using no curve and compared it to an older test print with the same paper and ink. The two images are very close. I then tested RR Ultrapro Satin using the curve UT14_gloss_neutral.acv and compared that to an older test print of the same ink, paper and curve. It is warmer. I then printed the test image on RR Polar Matte using the curve UT14_matte_cool. This also matches my older test image. It seems as though the issue is only related to glossy prints and I cannot explain why.

Re: [Digital BW] UT14 Tone Shift

2015-03-02 by Paul Roark

Is it possible the gloss optimizer is different? If you go to the curve and pull the Blue curve (yellow position) curve down, does the tone look more like it used to?


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On Mon, Mar 2, 2015 at 8:22 AM, homershannon@... [DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint] <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

I ran a couple of tests this morning. A link to a folder with all the files is located at Printing Issues

.

I printed a test image on RR Polar Matte using no curve and compared it to an older test print with the same paper and ink. The two images are very close. I then tested RR Ultrapro Satin using the curve UT14_gloss_neutral.acv and compared that to an older test print of the same ink, paper and curve. It is warmer. I then printed the test image on RR Polar Matte using the curve UT14_matte_cool. This also matches my older test image. It seems as though the issue is only related to glossy prints and I cannot explain why.


Re: [Digital BW] UT14 Tone Shift

2015-03-04 by homershannon@...

It's definitely not the glop as that is one of the inks that was not low and I did not fill it. The more I look as test prints, the more I think I'm tilting at windmills. There is a difference, but I don't know if it is worth chasing.

The silver lining in this is that I went back and re-read the Tom Moore instructions for QTR and finally made sense of it. I've created a .qdif file for the cyan and light cyan channels in the UT14 ink set and it prints a very neutral tone on RR Ultrapro Satin. It would probably be cool on Arctic Polar glosss, but I'm out of that right now so I can't be sure. I also made a curve for the magenta and light magenta channels and that prints well also, though more brown than I would normally use.

Between the QTR-cyan, .acv curves for neutral and warm, plus the QTR-magenta, I have full range of tones for glossy paper.

Sometimes I think I spend more time and supplies creating curves and working on technique than I do creating prints, but hey, it's all a learning experience.

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