Hi! Doing Sublimation printing, but the transfers are seriously faded... profiles are way off in color or darkness.

[silverrowan]

So, I've been using shite printers forever (like, more than the usual garbage - so old you need workarounds to get windows to use them kinda thing).

And, uh, now I'm not. But there don't seem to be any fewer problems! XD

Long story short I'm doing sublimation printing, and being in Canada, getting ink affordably, and more critically *quickly* has been a challenge. Inkpot was recommend to me as a source of sublimation inks, but their profile for the ink and my printer (Epson ET 15000) was useless. I tried tweaking it to see if I could get it to usable and that didn't work out so well (10+hrs later and a whole lotta ink & heat-pressing).

So, I indulged in a long-suppressed desire and picked up a screen and print profiling device, specifically the i1studio by x-rite. And, uh, well, the *colors* are better. Mostly. But for some reason the darkest shade I can get it to print with the i1Studio profile is a light charcoal, and that's AFTER increasing the printing density to the maximum.... everything is faded to hell and back.

But this ink can totally do a nice Deep black, solid reds, etc. In this printer. Just.... not at the same time as decent coloration apparently.

I'm at my wits end here, I'm overdue on orders already (previous printer decided it was *done* accepting aftermarket cartridges and I needed something else fast... but I need it to work too).

I've tried ArgyleCMS (via the little argyle gui) and I stumbled through to the point of printing and heat-pressing a metric ton of fabric, but then it was throwing up errors and I needed to re-install the x-rite's drivers and I *thought* I saved my workflow in there except apparently I didn't? or didn't right, or something, so I don't know if the squares I've pressed are now garbage and I need to start again, and if I do WTF do I actually do cause I'm pretty lost here. And I *think* the squares were generated off the x-rite profile, but im not really sure....
(oh, and when I get the printer to use the x-rite profile "directly" via device management, instead of getting photoshop to override the printer everything comes out faded AND greenish)

TLDR: Is there an idiot's guide to ArgyllCMS? Cause I think I need it.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I must admit I'm not very clear about your current process - are you printing the transfer sheets on a ET15000 at this time with sublim inks ? Which type of garment/textiles are you transferrring to - T-shirts or ? What did you do before you started this attempt to profile the process ? Why would you think ArgyllCMS can deliver better results than i1Studio ? Did you do - as an exercise - a profile on regular paper - you still could print the patch pattern with the sublim ink onto a matte or glossy photo paper and profiling it to see that the process is working . Which program are you using to print onto the transfer sheets - how do you activate a profile there ?
I have the impression that part of the problem is not the sublim process but getting a profile working.

 

[silverrowan]

some people in my dyesub forum helped me figure it out before this message got through moderation.

Thanks for your help

 

[The Hat]

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