How to get smooth graduated screens

[BrenV]

Thanks for your quick answer. When our customer gets back to us I'll have to do some playing and see what the best setting is. The tech is also recommending we get an ES-1000 instead of using ColorCal. Maybe that will solve some of the other color adjustment issues we're having.

[Joe Arseneau]

The problem is the combination of toner to make green is being spread too thin to make a reliable green.

And then resolution also gets in the way, the following is 2 old email blurbs from ans in-house color specialists, different machines, facts stay the same for all toner based devices. He is an Adobe Certified Expert.

**************************************************************************************************************************************

Here's my blurb about gradient printing on toner based output devices:
- Never have a gradient go from 100 all the way to Zero....90-10 is ok.
- the more CMY and K the gradient is made up of, the less you will see the  "staircase"  effect.
- do not have the gradient travel a long distance with a smal change.
 
Normally gradients look like <redacted> on toner based output devices.  
 
If they are running 8.5x11, they can print SEF vs LEF and have different results due to the laser lines. 11x17, you have no choice.  
 
 If they have an ES-1000, gradients print much more smoothly than if they calibrate via ColorCal as the ES-1000 samples thousands of points therefore pulling the color between all those points smoothly. ColorCal only samples a few times therefore big blocks in the gradient happen.

************************************************************************************************************************

You actually are always printing at 2400*2400 DPI, because that is what the printer does by hardware.

What you see in the driver is how the jobs are interpreted and ripped.

So the Fiery takes your job and renders it according to the resolution dropdown (600 or 1200) Obviously file size changes massively dependent on which you choose. 1200 is great for text (crisp), 600 is great for images (colors, gradients, saturation). Color issues can and do occur at 1200 (faded, de-saturated), not always, but often enough.

And here is where the real difference is noted. 1200DPI does not equal 1200*1200DPI, they are entirely different measurements.

1200DPI is the amount of dots used to make a digital image appear on screen total within one inch.

1200*1200 (In the C75 it is 2400*2400) is very different, in the CMYK world, unlike the RGB, you divide resolution by the toners.

So with this CMYK device you have the 4 colors, so you divide 2400*2400 by 4.

So each color (CMYK) prints 600*600 DPI, when all 4 colors are laid down, there are 2400*2400 DPI.

[BrenV]

We have a Versant 80 with a Fiery, using Windows 10. We're trying to print a graduated screen that fades from green to white. I don't know what settings to use to get it smooth. I get banding and it fades to gray and not white. I'm trying to print from Corel Draw 11 and Corel X6. It also doesn't look good from a pdf file. A big fancy machine like this ought to be able to do really good screens. Thanks!

Brenda