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Understanding Contone Printers

HP Latex 300 and 500 printer series are contone printers, where the color management is handled by the RIP software. The RIPped image is sent to the printer with CMYK channels, and the printer then does color separations, calibration, and halftoning to generate the seven ink drops for printing. Both printers can achieve a printing resolution of 1200 dpi using an 18-pass print mode configured for frontlit media profiles in the printer or RIP software.

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117 views

Understanding Contone Printers

HP Latex 300 and 500 printer series are contone printers, where the color management is handled by the RIP software. The RIPped image is sent to the printer with CMYK channels, and the printer then does color separations, calibration, and halftoning to generate the seven ink drops for printing. Both printers can achieve a printing resolution of 1200 dpi using an 18-pass print mode configured for frontlit media profiles in the printer or RIP software.

Uploaded by

Leandro Irgang
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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HP Latex 5x0 and 3x0 Printer Series

TECHNICAL DOCUMENT. Understanding contone printers


June 2018

Contone printers
The intention of this document is to explain the differences between halftone and contone printers.

Halftone printers
On halftone printers, the RIP is responsible for the full color workflow (steps 1, 2, 3 and 4 in Figure 1).

In this kind of printer, only the drop placement is managed.

Input file 1. RIPping Rasterized job HALFTONE Printed file


File resolution 2. Color separation Seven color channels PRINTER Seven color channels
3. Calibration (C-M-Y-K-c-m-op) (C-M-Y-K-c-m-op)
4. Halftoning Printing resolution Printing resolution

Figure 1 – Halftone printer

Figure 2 - Halftone of typical screen angles.


HP Latex 3x0 and 5x0 printer series | Understanding contone printers

Contone printers
HP Latex 300 and 500 Printer Series are contone printers. On these types of printers, the color
management is handled by the RIP software. The RIPped image is sent to the printer. Sent files include a
limited number of channels (CMYK).

The printer then does color separations, calibration and halftoning, generating the seven color ink drops
(CMYKLcLm + Opt) used for printing.

The following figure shows a contone color workflow:

Input file 1. RIPping Rasterized job CONTONE PRINTER Printed file


File resolution (rendering & color Four color channels 2. Color separation Seven color channels
management) (C-M-Y-K) 3. Calibration (C-M-Y-K-c-m-op)
Rendering resolution 4. Halftoning Printing resolution

Figure 3 – Contone printer

On contone printers, the resolution of the input file is transformed into the job Render resolution. Once in
the printer, the color pipeline transformations result in a Print resolution that can be the same or higher
than the render resolution.

LFP Latex Customer Development 2|P a g e


HP Latex 3x0 and 5x0 printer series | Understanding contone printers

How to configure 1200 dpi print mode


While the HP Latex 500 allows a rendering resolution of 1200 dpi, the HP Latex 300 has a maximum
rendering resolution of 600 dpi.

However, both HP Latex Printer Series can achieve a printing resolution of 1200 dpi (available in the 18-
pass print mode only).

If you intend to use it, ensure that you have a frontlit substrate preset selected for this print mode:

• Clone or edit an existing frontlit media profile.


1. Select substrate library • In the example case, clone a generic media profile.

• Write the new media profile name.


2. Choose media profile and select clone • In the example case “my profile”.

LFP Latex Customer Development 3|P a g e


HP Latex 3x0 and 5x0 printer series | Understanding contone printers

3. Modify the created media profile “my profile” 4. Add new print mode

5. Create 18-pass print mode • The system will inform you of the 1200 dpi
print mode.

LFP Latex Customer Development 4|P a g e


HP Latex 3x0 and 5x0 printer series | Understanding contone printers

6. The new 18-pass print mode is added to the media


profile

Synchronize the media profile to your RIP. You can see some examples with different RIPs on the following pages.

In the case of L5x0, you will see the rendering resolution of 1200 dpi print mode. In the case of L3x0, the 18-pass
print mode will appear as 600 dpi. But both achieve a printing resolution of 1200 x1200 dpi.

LFP Latex Customer Development 5|P a g e


HP Latex 3x0 and 5x0 printer series | Understanding contone printers

ONYX

Figure 4 – Onyx general view

CALDERA
The following figure shows the 1200 dpi rendering resolution for 18-pass backlit media created with the
HP Latex 500 Printer Series.

Figure 5 – 1200 dpi print mode available in Caldera

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HP Latex 3x0 and 5x0 printer series | Understanding contone printers

SAI
The following figure shows the 1200 dpi rendering resolution for 18-pass backlit media created with the
HP Latex 500 Printer Series.

Figure 6 – Print mode configuring in SAI

LFP Latex Customer Development 7|P a g e

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