Docucolor 240 prints worse than Doc12

I've really been noticing color issues on our Doc240 the last 3 months as our unit reaches 700,000 copies. Though a 2nd unit we have in another town is better and has a better "Measurement vs Target" Fiery color profile.

If your Fiery equipped copier is good or bad I suggest you go into the Color profiling utility and Expert mode, near the bottom is a window that lets you see the measured densities but you can click beside it and see the desired curve vs actual curve. On EFI website is a thread on copier Measurement vs Target along with a photo.

http://bit.ly/brktrM

This is like the profile you hope will calibrate to similar to the profile shown when you select default to return system to original factory color profile.

I suggest using the reset to factory button and then hit print screen button on your keyboard - this will put the image to your clipboard and then you can use a program like microsoft paint to save a jpg file. Then do the same after calibrating.

If your curve before (factory profile) and after calibrating looks close to the same you probably are currently happy, which is great because it means you can tell your tech is keeping things in Spec. Save it for the day the curves look different and your service tech tries telling you all is well.
Expect problems if EFI target is higher than measured at 100% as I understand the Fiery can remove but not add toner to meet the desired curve. Apparently also a problem if Actual is more than 10% higher than desired at 100 as solids will then screen.

Issues we've had vs our Doc 12. People photos are sharper which could be good but highlights tend to break off to white. A graduated tint of Reflex blue looks black as it goes to screen from Reflex blue at solid end. - This looks several times better on our Doc 12. We've got Pantone color matching turned on. A blue to white sky had the look of red measles in it on the 240, not on Doc 12 - and not on our 240 in 2nd town where measurement vs profile is looking better. (note - after replacing ITB cleaner and other items this is better now, but still have the Reflex grad screen issue)

We've noticed with default Adobe PDF's printed from PC colors are better at 85% to 90% on Doc 240 with external EXP250 RIP.

I'm expecting it to be incorrect settings in our Doc 240 , which in turn make our Measurement vs desired curve bad- another separate issue noted is 13x19 files print 1/4" off side to side vs other sizes. Xerox tech rechecked a week ago and after a couple hours said it was a revision missing but I don't think they've fixed that yet either.

Using DTP32 vs glass calibration doesn't improve the situation.

One thing we have not done is replace scanner bulb mainly due to there being a way to calibrate in 240. On our Doc12 and on a previous CLC2400 this was necessary about every 100,000 copies or copier could not reproduce a IT8 scale scanned to computer off Glass of copier.

If you have problem files you'ld like to share I don't think this forum will work for it but we could post them in files section in link below, Wording and faces edited to be anonymous enough not to be an issue if downloaded by anyone.

http://groups.google.ca/group/colorcopier?hl=en

Also I will post my Measurement vs Target profile there.

Ken

 

Ours is getting pretty far off. We're at about 330,000 11x17 and 12x18 prints. We just replaced the cleaning blade, and am wondering about the IBT soon. Here is what our curve looks like today. (Despite the look of the curve, our prints are still noticeably better than our canon 3200s.)

 

With the bustled Fiery we've also printed at 90% since the beginning as our default as the generally preferred result by real people looking at the prints.

 

350,000 now and different drums. Not sure what to make of the jaggedness of the measured curves good, bad, or ugly.