CMYUK builds custom HP colour profiles for PVC-free materials at Nettl Chippenham

CMYUK has created custom HP colour profiles for several products from its eco materials portfolio for Nettl Chippenham, the green arm of PSP Nettl DigiPrint Chippenham and Bath.

Materials profiled on the company’s hybrid HP Latex R1000 PLUS printer include:

• PVC-free Kavalan Butterfly Weldable Blockout Banner
• PVC-free Kavalan Sunlight Weldable Frontlit Banner
• Kavalan Spiderweb Mesh
• PVC-free Kavalan Gecko 320GB

The HP Latex R1000 PLUS  is a continuous tone printer that includes an integrated i1 spectrophotometer for calibrating the material for accurate colour reproduction. “HP Latex printers include an automatic colour calibration feature, but to ensure that customers gain superb results from our premium eco materials, we offer a manual (offline) custom profile service that guarantees optimum colour and even greater control,” says CMYUK’s  colour specialist, Rob Cawston.

To create custom profiles, Rob used Barbieri’s Spectro LFP qb Textile edition automated reflection and transmission spectrophotometer to calibrate the printer offline through the ONYX RIP rather than through the HP printer – the usual procedure for HP customers.  

Rob also implemented the additional step of turning on the G7^® Grayscale option within the ONYX Media Manager application. This controls two aspects of printer output – tonality and grey balance – that define a shared visual appearance for printed greys over multiple material types.

“Improving neutrals is a sure-fire way of ensuring that different printers and disparate substrates align better. It adapts the white point in the profiles in a similar fashion, so for example if you have a yellow and a bright white material, you can adapt the colour in such a way so that the output looks comparable – it’s a clever way of achieving a closer match. Initiating the G7^® offers a greater uniformity of colour across a wide variety of substrates,” he says. 

Bespoke ICC profiles allow full control of the black generation and gamut mapping strategies. This may include for example, starting the Black start point earlier or boosting the Perceptual Rendering intent within the ICC profile for colours to pop.

“By adding the G7^® we’ve created a superior quality profile. Custom colour profiles really allow users to go that little bit further offering really superb output and printer control. The sharing of profiles is never as good as having a profile made on your own printer, in your own environment on the day.  The PVC-free Kavalan products look stunning and were easy to profile on the HP Latex printer,” says Rob.  

Ben Gregory, Director, Nettl Chippenham said,

“The Kavalan Eco range we have switched to is a perfect combination for our HP Latex R1000 printer. Having quality Eco materials was a must for our business and getting accurate and repeatable prints essential. The HP does a decent job of profiling but with the assistance from CMYUK, our main Eco media partner, we have been able to hone in ICC profiles that are perfectly matched to both printer and materials. The process was efficient, and we can now confidently offer our customers sustainable products with no compromise on quality.”