Icc color profiles for Lancer Evolution (PVC free) ink system

[srabadan]

Hey Everybody.

I am looking for ICC profiles for the Lancer Evolution PVC free process colors. They don't have them for download, my contact there isn't sure they have them, which usually means they do not. I do not have the option of using another ink manufacturer, if I want to work with process colors I will need to use those for the time being.

If I can't get ahold of existing profiles, can someone point me to a guide on doing it myself?

Thanks!

[Colin]

How much time do you have to do some internal color testing?

You can create your own colors for cmyk in photoshop.  You can also set your tonal curves in the same menu.  I personally have only done it to set up cmyk as pms colors but the options are there to dial stuff in.

Go to Color Settings/CMYK drop down menu/custom CMYK/ink options-ink colors/drop down menus - custom.

You are now at the color space for the currently selected ICC profile for CMYK inks.

In here you can set the color space for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow - Your overprint combinations - your white and your black.

To set dot gain go back to the Custom CMYK menu and click dot gain instead of ink colors.  You now have access to the full tonal curve for all 4 colors.

[srabadan]

This looks like a long term project so I do have some time and resources to develop our own.

What I don't have is a densitometer to determine how much the colors are actually gaining. From what I understand this is an important tool. Is that so?

I will also be doing this mostly on a hand press. I am not sure if that will be good enough for accurate work. Let me know what you think, thanks for the reply!

[jvanick]

This looks like a long term project so I do have some time and resources to develop our own.

What I don't have is a densitometer to determine how much the colors are actually gaining. From what I understand this is an important tool. Is that so?

I will also be doing this mostly on a hand press. I am not sure if that will be good enough for accurate work. Let me know what you think, thanks for the reply!

Whoa... CMYK on a hand press... if you're trying to hit consistent colors, you're going to have a REAL hard time.

Also... you definitely will want to pick up a densitometer to determine your gain, assuming that the colors and work has to be consistent between different jobs... if you're just trying to get it right on one job, you can probably get there by eye and printing a bunch of test patterns.

[srabadan]

Hey.

We finally got to strike this off on Wednesday. I pixellated the branding on the photo because the design isn't at the stores yet.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/33238853/image.png

the magenta was mixed badly, our printer hasn't received the process magenta yet, the underlay was discharged to get as soft a print as possible. It smells terrible. It may not have been cured completely. this PVC free ink from Lancer has an awful hand feel.

I would be interested in your thoughts, if you think a technique like this could work for large scale production. My printers tell me no but I have seen LOADS of process work during a recent trip to Europe. This ink likes a lot of flash so we are looking for ways to cut down colors and flashes.

[Colin]

I there a particular reason you are going with the PVC free Acrisol inks from lancer and not an HSA type of ink?  There is also the EKO line from Rutland to look at as well.

When printing a discharge base, you still need to run the inks through the dryer like you are printing discharge/waterbase.  This means a longer retain time in the dryer.

If the shirt smells like sulfur, then it was not in the dryer long enough.

What did the design look like before Seps and printing?

Keep us in the loop!

[srabadan]

Our printers liked the pricing from lancer better and it performed MUCH better in our testing. I do think the curing wasn't complete and the magenta and cyan were not great.

The production wasn't approved as process and the printer didn't want to deal with it. We have another printer who will be switching to a water based system, she is much more comfortable using discharge. I think we will have much better luck there.
Considering the colors were off I was very happy with how the print matched the art.