I’m a dyesub nerd. I love the look of dyesub, and the challenges involved with achieving exquisite print quality. Epson proved you could get better color with only 4 inks years ago and now they are improving upon that with two more inks. Epson’s new 6 color dyesub printers like the 44” F6470H and upcoming 64” F9470H printer have 3 inkset options that determine which extra two inks you get, in addition to the standard CMYK inks. Light Cyan and Light Magenta for less printer dot and increased smoothness, Orange and Violet for expanded color gamut, and the crazy option: Fluorescent Pink and Fluorescent Yellow for expanded gamut and pop but less longevity. The printer has lots of nice improvements over the previous generation.
Advantages
Ink bags in horizontal shelves are more easily shaken
An enlarged touch screen LCD screen
Take up reel for high volume workflows
Enlarged print head translates to higher print speeds
Available in 4 color CMYK inkset (ex: F6470) or three different 6 color inksets (ex: F6470H)
CMYK
CMYK+Light Cyan and Light Magenta
CMYK+Orange and Violet
CMYK+Fluorescent Pink and Fluorescent Yellow
Disadvantages
Current driver for the 6 color “H” printers delivers unacceptable print quality
Cannot be calibrated with current driver
Ink Density Factor (IDF) cannot be adjusted
The Fix
Epson’s 44” F6470H printer has been shipping with a substandard RIP driver that inserts some wacky curves after linearization and profiling (as illustrated above). The end result is that it can’t be calibrated and the print quality is unacceptable. I’ve been working with Epson and Shades of Paper on a fix for this and am happy to be able to say we’ve completed our testing and it does indeed work. With this new LUT fix we are able to linearize the printer perfectly in any RIP and get the kind of results you’re used to seeing from Epson’s dyesub printers.
The one remaining problem is that the Ink Restrictions, or what Epson calls “Ink Density Factor” (IDF) can’t be increased past 100% (either individually or together) for these new printers with the new fix. While 100% provides great results on products like Chromaluxe and SupernovaChrome, pros like to determine the optimal IDF settings for these and especially for unusual substrates. I really like the new 6 color printers and all the many advantages they offer, and this one limitation is my only complaint with them.
Epson will release a new RIP driver that you’ll be able to update through your RIP when it becomes available. Check their support page for the latest on this. In the meantime, I can install this fix on client’s workstations and get them up to speed with this and calibrated for optimal results. This fix, along with optimal transfer paper, the ChromaMax calibration method, and heat press operational training, are the key to perfect dyesub results with minimal waste.
I do love optimizing dyesub workflows. Please let me know if you’d like to discuss this further.
