Greyscale colour shifts on Mimaki JV4

We have been working with a Mimaki JV4 set up with pigment inks (Lc, Lm) and are having great difficulties with neutral or greyscale images. We print mainly RGB photographic images on paper (mediatech satin, matte, glossy).

Certain tones in the grey spectrum shift towards green, others shift towards magenta. We have tried compensating using GCR / UCR, and changing RIP software (use mainly Ergosoft PosterPrint, then tested with Wasatch with no luck).

In Nov. 2008 we had a tech from Mimaki visit our lab. He suggested printing as .eps, test using files created on a PC (since a PC controls our JV4, but we mainly work on MAC), and ultimately ended up telling us that no matter what we do, the JV4 will not compare to our Epson large format printers.

Has anyone else out there had similar problems with neutral / grey images ? We have used the same profile making standards, software and equipment on our Epson and Chromira printers without any difficulties.

Thanks,

Andreas

We have experienced exactly the same problem with the JV4. I have tried numerous versions of the firmware.

I’m surprised that your use of GCR has not improved this at all. Steve had an good article on GCR a few years back that shows how it can improve neutral stability:
http://www.colorwiki.com/wiki/The_Color_Key