# prints all of a sudden looking grainy



## clicks123 (May 8, 2014)

right now i have been printing for sometime now everything going well then 3 of my sawgrass inks were running low then i bought new ones from a different vendor

ever since theyve been changed my prints have all of sudden become very grainy 

i have done a headflush,clean,nozzle check and yet still no luck

the inks are not expired or anything

trying to find out what the problem is as iam losing alot of biz


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## skdave (Apr 11, 2008)

You need to profile for the new ink.


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## clicks123 (May 8, 2014)

please can you explain to me how to do that please


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## clicks123 (May 8, 2014)

?????????????????


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## 20vK (Jul 9, 2011)

Ask your ink vendor for one - though by the sounds of it, you're now running mixed inks, so this could cause issues with colour. I'd change all my inks out until they matched, then use the appropriate ICC profile for that ink


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## clicks123 (May 8, 2014)

the inks are still sawgrass but yeah i have one black ink from before and the rest are new

thanks for your help


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## clicks123 (May 8, 2014)

vendor says they dont have any and has just given me the link to the sawgrass website

:S


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## mgparrish (Jul 9, 2005)

clicks123 said:


> vendor says they dont have any and has just given me the link to the sawgrass website
> 
> :S


With the exception of Mac computers SG uses a utility driver called "Power Driver" as such the color correction is built into the utility.

Conde Systems does their own ICC profiles for Sawgrass inks if you buy Sawgrass inks from them. 

Having said that there is some question to "fuzziness" being caused by lack of color correction.

Yes you do need color correction with SG inks, either an ICC or SG's Power Driver, but fuzziness can mean many things. 

What are the results of your nozzle checks?

Please post a photo of your output so we can clearly understand what you mean by "fuzziness".

This can also be caused by sublimation paper being poor or used wrong. Or perhaps your source images are too low in rez, or your printer quality (DPI) is set too low.


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## Mister Fantastic (Mar 31, 2014)

Which software and printer are your using? "Fuzziness" is not caused by an ICC issue. Your color would be off/ different from RGB (monitor) to CMYK (printer). Not WYSIWYG.

This seems to be more of an temperature/ time under heat issue.


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## clicks123 (May 8, 2014)

The thing is everything was fine as soon as i changed my 3 inks

i had the powerdriver already installed

these are the results of when i print


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## Mister Fantastic (Mar 31, 2014)

Here we use Adobe suite into QImage.

I still stand with this being a temperature/ time issue. I have utilized various inks (small printers, currently Epson 1430s / CISS) and if the colors come out the printer WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get), the challenge is ensuring your "bake" time is good enough.

Also, if you are placing more than one item, your temp time must increase accordingly per.

Have you tried to extend your temp time to ensure bonding?


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## mgparrish (Jul 9, 2005)

clicks123 said:


> The thing is everything was fine as soon as i changed my 3 inks
> 
> i had the powerdriver already installed
> 
> these are the results of when i print


I'm not clear on what you are stating ... everything is fine because you changed your 3 inks, but I do still see a problem.

Have you changed your sublimation papers and have you confirmed you are using the correct side?

Have you taken the same images and printed on a different substrate? Could be a substrate issue, try some FRP or unisub plastic. There are obvious voids in the transfer.

Are your images OK looking on the transfer paper before you press? It's OK that they are weak on paper, that is normal ... but do you see any artifacts in the printouts before pressing?

Are your substrates clean? 

I don't see the dwell time or temp being an issue, there are obvious voids/pits/blemishes in the transferred substrate. Poor dwell or temp the images would not be fully developed color wise, but shouldn't have those pits and blemishes I see. Excessive pressure perhaps.


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## clicks123 (May 8, 2014)

sorry i meant everything was fine until i changed the 3 inks

i have printed 100s of cases but as soon i as changed the inks this problem occurred

iam using the same paper as before, same inserts, everything the same so i have no idea why this is happening

but why should i change the temp if it was fine before?

do you need to do anything at all before putting new inks into the printer???? headclean or anything??

becoming very frustrating!!


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## mgparrish (Jul 9, 2005)

clicks123 said:


> sorry i meant everything was fine until i changed the 3 inks
> 
> i have printed 100s of cases but as soon i as changed the inks this problem occurred
> 
> ...


 Carts and/or CIS usually needs priming, and also head cleans should be expected.

What did your nozzle check reveal?


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## clicks123 (May 8, 2014)

this is the result of the nozzle check.....


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## mgparrish (Jul 9, 2005)

clicks123 said:


> this is the result of the nozzle check.....


Something somewhere has changed. I didn't see anything that resembled banding in your photos of the transferred product or in the nozzle check. You have voids in your transferred product.

Suggest to take the same source image and try another substrate. You have to start ruling out things now 1 by one. I don't see just changing inks causing this, it would appear as banding or missing colors.


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## clicks123 (May 8, 2014)

Ive just noticed that that the prints are still quite "wet" when leaving the printer could this be the cause?


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## clicks123 (May 8, 2014)

the first pic is when its fresh out the printer

the second is when its dried for 10 minutes


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## clicks123 (May 8, 2014)

as you can see here it becomes smudged after drying

and thats how it ends up looking on the insert


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## mgparrish (Jul 9, 2005)

clicks123 said:


> as you can see here it becomes smudged after drying
> 
> and thats how it ends up looking on the insert


 It is either your paper (use the correct side or you have poor paper) or your paper type settings. Use either plain paper or matte paper settings.


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