updated for 10.1


Access the Calibration Wizard from the Printer Scheme Manager in neoStampa's upper bar on the main window. The Calibration wizard button is at the bottom left corner of the Printer scheme manager or else, start the wizard with the shortcut on the PC desktop. 


This will open the Calibration Wizard to create new calibrations with specified parameters, inks, and measurements which allow you to get the large gamut printer profile.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Calibration Options

In the first window of the Wizard, you are required to introduce the most basic information for the calibration. The buttons at the bottom allow you to move through the different windows of the Wizard, and to exit the Calibration, whether saving it or not.


In the upper part of the window are the settings of the printer you want to make the calibration with.

There are three options in the actions selection field:

  1. Start a new calibration: The first is to start a new calibration, in which you need to fill in the information as for Media name, Ink type, and Quality. It is recommended to include all this information, as your scheme will be easily identified. 
    • Calibration Engines provide different calibration processes that differ from each other: 
      • Version 8 will use the same profiling engine of neoStampa 9 but previous linearization steps and therefore a different process.
      • Version 9/10 will use the same profiling engine but optimized linearization steps.
      • Version 10.1 will use the same profiling engine as in 9/10 with additional generations of DL profiles.
    • You can group the schemes. All you need to do is to add "@" in the name, where the name should be split to use the information as a subgroup. When the scheme is completed, later in neoStampa you will see the scheme group when loading the printer scheme. Anyway, the name of the scheme can be changed later on when completing the scheme creation.

  2. Continue an existing calibration: The second action is to continue an existing calibration. Just open the drop-down list and choose the one you need. Clicking on the checkbox to load the already completed calibrations or duplicated selected schemes. If you want to load a grouped scheme you need to load the main scheme and then select the group.

  3. Check printer and/or profile consistency: This is the feature to check if the profiles that you have already generated still keep the same quality. However, if you need to change inks or media, this re-profiling is not the tool to do as you should make a whole new calibration. 


Device measurement settings

Configure the spectrophotometer device from the upper part, which will open the window to set the device you are going to use for measurements. Depending on the device you use, the options for Condition and Transmissive will be activated or not. The Illumination and the Observer can be selected for the measurements. The reading modes scan or spots can be selected later in the measurements dialog. With 'WP...' you can measure the white of your media. 


1. The content of this window is driver-specific. Quality and connection are printer-dependent and provided by the driver specifications of each printer. 

  • In the 'Print mode options…' button next to it, you can see and change if necessary printer specific parameters, such as single or bi-directional printing, number of passes, etc.

  • From the button 'Consumption...' you can customize the drop sizes from kdots to ml to calculate cost control for all inks or individual per ink. Also available to access from the printer scheme manager.


2. The Color mode is selected from a drop-down list. The available selection depends on the printer's specifications. For standard printers some presets will appear on the list, where inkset and order are set automatically. Press the button '...' to specify these parameters if the printer has been modified by any third party, or for direct printing models.

  • Set color order: On the left side of the window, set the inks according to your machine specifications or to the previously printed mini chart.

  • Print: In case you are not sure what ink order is loaded in your printer, you can print out a chart showing a number for each printed base color. Certain printers have a special ink order coming from the driver documentation. It is recommended to print out this chart if you are not sure of the order or if you encounter strange color effects during the calibration process (e.g. Black prints Cyan).

  • Ink curve: Ink transition curves for single inks. Provides the Coverage (%) function for specific, delicate inks such as Yellow and Pink.

If you have special inks loaded, such as a penetration liquid, dilution ink, mask, or white ink, you can set parameters for this in the Mask channel settings window. The 'Mask...'/'White...' button becomes available when you select one of the following inks: White (background), Dilution ink. 


3. The default dithering type is Smooth Stochastic.



Ink Limit and Linearization

Once we have set up the different printing parameters, now it is time to start printing step one of the calibration process. To complete this window of the Wizard there are three very important steps to follow that need to be printed, measured, and evaluated, and they need to follow an order, always from top to bottom. 

  • STEP 1 - Ink Limit: Print out the absolute ink limit chart. If you're using white ink, you can also access a new printing option called 'White value...' to generate a white background chart for white ink level assessment.
  • STEP 2 - Single Ink Cut and Linearization: Print out the single ink limit chart and linearization. 
  • STEP 3 - Re-Linearization: In Linearization, you are able to see the performance of CMYK ink set with light ink set in post-linearization curves.

See also:

How to print and measure Ink Limit, Linearization, and Profiling targets

How to evaluate the Ink Limit test chart

How to evaluate measurements in Single Ink Cut and Linearization



Black Generation

This process allows determining which combination of inks provides the best black as well as preventing dithering from black ink in light areas if you don't have a gray ink in combination. Hueman v2 Black generation provides 3 methods to generate the black ink.

  • Default (Black Only)
  • Black Addition
  • Gray Component Replacement (GCR)
  • GCR presets for DTG



Printer Profiling

This is the step in the calibration process where the ICC profile is generated. 

  1. Select the print target according to your spectrophotometer.

  2. Start reading the lines carefully and slowly according to the given specifications. Be sure to read slowly regular the lines, one by one.  Measure three targets to make an average between the measurements. 

  3. With 'Smoothing' you can specify a certain amount to smooth out error measurements, although much of it is avoided by choosing to do three measurements of each test file. The more you smooth a profile the less precise this will be, so smoothing should apply only if the global precision of an ICC profile is maintained, and the most important aim is to achieve smoother gradients in printing.

  4. Choose the profiling presets.

  5. Generate a profile with the same name as the profile that you gave for the complete calibration, to avoid confusion. When 100% of the process is reached, the ICC profile generation is successful.


See also:

How to print and measure Ink Limit, Linearization, and Profiling targets

Evaluation of profiling measurements

Generation of Printer Profile in the new calibration



Calibration Test Print

We have reached the last step of calibration after the printer profiling. A test workflow to verify the quality of the calibration using print parameters and files.

How to do the Printer Consistency Test

How to install printer drivers

What is the Printer Scheme Manage

How to work with Masks or White Channel

How to work with Double Inks

What is Smooth Stochastic as Dithering type

How to customize Drop Size