Ink Limiting in Inkjet Printing
Written October 16, 2019
The amount of ink printed onto a media via an inkjet printer is determined by either the printer driver or by settings in the RIP software. If you are using an inkjet printer without a RIP, then the specific paper chosen in the printer driver will set the ink limit automatically for the device.
Without proper ink limits, your inkjet printer could put down too much ink in any or all of the color channels, muddying up the colors or putting down more ink than the media can handle, resulting in puddling, bleeding or low drying.
This is especially true with solvent based printers and water-based inkjet that print wet on wet and use evaporative drying. UV curable inkjet printer manufacturers don't worry as much about ink limiting issues, as the ink is cured (hardened, dried) as the print head traverses across the media. Ink limiting is generally performed in the RIP and starts by printing a test chart of each of the printer's ink channels. This primary chart is used to prevent over-inking in the main color channels of the printer.
The individual colors can be limited in output if necessary, as can many secondary color combinations. Another chart is usually output to show three-and-four color combinations, where total ink limit can be evaluated and adjusted as well. Under-inking generally results in poor saturation of colors with low contrast, while too much ink creates muddy shadows and a print that just won't dry properly for the specific media. Ink limiting is the key to making a good ICC media profile and usually is the step that is the most difficult to adjust correctly. Special ink limit charts are used during the media profiling process by most RIP manufacturers.
This is especially true with solvent based printers and water-based inkjet that print wet on wet and use evaporative drying. UV curable inkjet printer manufacturers don't worry as much about ink limiting issues, as the ink is cured (hardened, dried) as the print head traverses across the media. Ink limiting is generally performed in the RIP and starts by printing a test chart of each of the printer's ink channels. This primary chart is used to prevent over-inking in the main color channels of the printer.
The individual colors can be limited in output if necessary, as can many secondary color combinations. Another chart is usually output to show three-and-four color combinations, where total ink limit can be evaluated and adjusted as well. Under-inking generally results in poor saturation of colors with low contrast, while too much ink creates muddy shadows and a print that just won't dry properly for the specific media. Ink limiting is the key to making a good ICC media profile and usually is the step that is the most difficult to adjust correctly. Special ink limit charts are used during the media profiling process by most RIP manufacturers.