AccuRIP Emerald - Certify Printer Guide

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Hi, I’m Nick from Freehand. Today I’m going to teach you how to certify a printer using AccuRIP to produce high quality screen print positives. Using our benchmark testing processes, you’ll develop and install your own custom printer binary file for your non-certified printer model. Always start with a clean slate. If you have a printer driver already installed, you can delete it. If you do not already have a printer driver for your printer, go to the printer manufacture’s website to download. Once the genuine printer driver is installed, print a nozzle pattern test from the printer driver utility to ensure there are no clogs. Next, the most important items to determine are whether the printer’s media sensor is able to manage film (this can be tested by simply loading the printer with film then printing an OEM test page) and whether the printer can accept black dye film printing ink, like Dmax. Some printers use bulk systems which make it easy to fill with black dye while other printers use chip based tanks. For those printers you’ll need to find a refillable system such as auto-chipped tanks or a continuous ink system also known as CIS. We recommend you research this before getting involved in deeper testing. Contact us at Freehand if you need assistance. As long as your printer meets these criteria, it’s worth testing. While you may use AccuRIP to lock-in certified printer settings on either Mac or Windows computers, it should be noted that printer drivers running on Windows PCs often have more options. Now that your printer has passed the initial testing, let’s dive deeper into the printer driver settings in order to get your printer model certified. AccuRIP Emerald is capable of printing to any printer regardless of make or model. Pre-Certified printers included have been tested and approved by Freehand. Printers NOT Pre-Certified can be tested then added by you following the advice in this video. Printer drivers from a variety of manufacturers will have different settings, terminology, and layouts. This is not a step by step guide for every printer manufacturer. This is a guide on the main testing points to bring you success with your printer. As examples we use Epson printers for this video. Open AccuRIP Emerald, select the printer, (there’s no need to certify a printer that’s already officially supported, for this video we may use printers that are already supported as examples of the workflow) set the media size to the film media size you are using for your testing, then click Apply. Next, go to the Support tab and click Print Test, then click Print. You will now use the OEM printer driver settings to achieve your best prints. You’ll use these settings windows throughout this process. Some settings may be tucked away in sections and windows labeled for advanced settings. The availability of settings may also change depending on the media selected and the make and model of your printer. First, let’s figure out if the printer prints best with all color tanks (ABI), only black (Mono), or can do both. We’ll start by determining if ABI is possible. Something to keep in mind is that stock OEM inks are best suited for printing to paper. While stock color inks are helpful to distinguish between ABI and Mono during testing and setup, printing with stock inks will not achieve the density needed for printing films. With the printer filled with stock color inks, set the media size to match the film loaded into the printer, and set the media type to a photo glossy paper setting to achieve the highest quality prints results. Photo paper settings generally deliver better quality compared to matte paper options. Click Print. Take a close look at the halftones of the test print under a loupe or a magnifying glass. If you see color the printer supports ABI. If you only see black ink the printer only supports mono. If the printer supports ABI it might also support Mono. Print another Print Test from AccuRIP Emerald but this time in the OEM printer driver, if available, change settings to black and white. Sometimes this may be called “grayscale”, “black and white”, or something similar. Finally set the media type to a Matte paper type. Again, take a close look at the halftones of the test print under a loupe or a magnifying glass. If you still see color the printer only supports ABI. If you only see black ink the printer supports mono. Once you’ve determined whether the printer prints with all color tanks (ABI), only black (Mono), or can do either, you can decide how you want to use the printer in the long term. Now it’s time to dial in the best settings for the cleanest and sharpest print. Don’t worry about light blocking density yet, that will be handled when you switch to a proper black dye ink, like Dmax. For now, discovering best print quality is your goal. Print a test print from the Support tab of AccuRIP Emerald.

[@dot-tone-dancampbell9726]

For Emerald, how do you adjust for dot gain? The older versions of AccuRip were pretty simple. It looked like a Photoshop curves section. For Emerald, I can't even locate it.

[@grosella7chamoyada]

es un programa difícil de usar, aun no logro imprimir mis trabajos 🤨