The third RIP calibration step is to set the total, combined ink limit of all the channels together. Any given media might be able to hold 100% of any individual ink, but holding 100% of all 4 or more inks simultaneously without bleeding is another matter. With high quality media, there’s also a certain point at which it achieves maximum Dmax. If we use with a higher ink limit than this we’re just wasting ink without benefit. The Chromamax total ink limit step helps us find this precise sweet spot where we’re achieving maximum print quality with the lowest ink consumption. Simply print out the appropriate total Ink limit target, measure, graph the results and the optimal TIL is determined. XRite’s profiling software does a better job at calculating TIL than RIPs do so we use the total ink limit in the final profiling process, instead of in the RIP.
Email us if you’d like to talk more about linearization or ChromaMax calibration at your location.
