Roland Pro II V series printers
July 28, 2008
This Roland Pro II V series document covers the following printers:
- SOLJET PRO II V SC-545EX
- SOLJET PRO II V SJ-645EX
- SOLJET PRO II V SJ-745EX
- SOLJET PRO II V SJ-1045EX
Note: If you have been using a Pro II driver such as the SJ-640 or SJ-1000 to print
to a Pro II V device and have configurations set up to do so. You must
continue using the same driver to use your existing configurations.
Usage
Pressing the Properties button next to the Printer Model
window on the Imaging Configurations screen will launch the control
panel for this printer.
Print Mode:
This page of the properties sheet allows you to select a Print Mode,
and the following print and media parameters:
- Print Mode: Choose resolution and ink sets.
- Print Direction: The head printing direction can be unidirectional
or bidirectional.
- Dot Size: Various dot sizes can be selected. Not all dot sizes
are available for every resolution.
- Variable: Uses variable dots (the dot size varies dependent on
required ink density), and generally gives the best quality.
- Variable Dry: Similar to 'Variable', but lays down less ink. This
is useful for media with ink retention problems.
- Fixed: Dot size held constant.
- Fixed Light, Medium, Dark: Print with the dot size held constant,
but at various ink densities.
- Dot Sizes for Higher Resolutions: The default dot size for
1080 dpi is 'Fixed Medium'. The default dot size for 1440 dpi
is 'Fixed Light'. Changing the dot size from 'Light' to 'Medium'
doubles the amount of ink, and increasing from Medium to Dark
again doubles the amount of ink. Unless your particular media
can hold (or needs to hold, such as for printing on some films or
textiles) this much ink, it is recommended that you leave this
control at the default setting.
- Overprint: The number of times each area is printed over. A setting
of 2 would double the ink.
- Pass Count: Allows you to specify the number of passes the head will
make over a particular line. A higher pass count has a better quality
but a slower print speed.
- Head Speed: The head speed control allows you to slow down the head
for higher-quality prints. This is also useful if the media has ink-drying
problems. The Head Speed is dependant on pass count. A low pass count will
need to limit the head speed to avoid damaging the printer.
- Feed Speed: The feed speed control allows you to control the speed of the media as it is fed between passes.
- Time Between Passes: Allows you to specify the minimum time that a
printhead pass will take. This may be necessary to slow down the printhead
when there are excessive drying problems, or when printing separations onto
film. For example, it may be necessary to increase the dot size to a larger
dot to increase the maximum density. If that higher dot size does not dry
quickly enough on the media, lowering the head speed and increasing the time
between passes may slow down the printer enough for the ink to dry.
- Autocut: If enabled, the sheet will be cut off at the end of the print.
- Print Confidence Strip: Prints a small strip of each head along the right
edge of the printer. It can be useful to determine whether jets have clogged,
and also to keep unused heads running throughout a long print.
Media Options:
When you click on the Media Options tab, the following properties control panel
will be displayed:
- Head Height: This specifies what the head height should be when printing
on the loaded media. If the physical head height is too low, a warning to
change the head height will be displayed on the front panel of the printer
before printing, and the user MUST physically change the head height on the
printer. If the head height is higher than the software specifies, no warning
will be given.
- Drying Time: The number of seconds the printer waits at the end of the print.
- Enable Calibration: If enabled, this compensates for slippage of the media
when feeding the media forward.
- Space After Print: Set the space after print. This value is in addition to
any margins that are set.
- Rewind Media After Print: Will only work on a cutting model such as the
SC-545EX and will return the head to the top of the print and not trim the media.
This is useful if one would like to over print an image.
Cutter:
When you click on the Cutter tab, the following properties control panel will
be displayed:
Only the SOLJET PRO II V SC-545 driver will have the cutter page illustrated above.
On this page, you can turn on and off the cutter and change cutting options. The options are:
- Enable Cutter: When enabled, the device will cut out the cut path at the
end of the print. When disabled, the cut path will show up in the Cutting
Queue at the end of the print.
- Rewind Print to Origin after Cut: After the cut path has been cut out, the
print will be rewound to the print's origin point, and the cut can be resent,
if necessary.
- Repeat Cut: Defines the number of times the cutter will cut over the same area.
- Offset: Set the appropriate value for the blade in use. Inappropriate values
in this field can lead to poor cut quality or unfinished cut lines. The default
value is 0.250.
- Speed: Set the cutting speed. Usually setting a lower speed will result in
longer cut times, but will produce higher quality results.
- Force: Set the blade pressure for cutting. When the values set here are too
small, the blade will not have enough pressure to cut the sheet. Similarly, if
the pressure is too high, not only it will not work properly, but also it can cut
through the back of the media and may cause damage to printer. Be careful to set
the correct value for the thickness and the hardness of the material you are using.
- Set Default Values: This option resets the settings to their defaults.
Advanced:
When you click on the Advanced tab, the following properties control panel will be displayed:
- The Color Separations controls are the same as those of other printers, and
are only available if a monochrome mode has been selected on the Print Mode tab.
- Separations on RIP: This will cause the RIP to separate the image into CMYK plates.
- Make Negative: This inverts monochrome images when printed.
- KCMY56: This allows you to print monochrome images to any of the heads in the
printer. This is especially useful to eliminate overuse of a single printhead
when printing only monochrome.
Printer Status:
When you click on the Printer Status tab, the following properties control panel
will be displayed:
This window queries the TCP/IP address that is on the Set Up window, and returns its status,
if available. If a non-TCP/IP physical connection is selected, or if there is a
problem connecting to that IP address, this window will show the status as unavailable.
Selecting a cutting registration mark for 'Print now, Cut Later' workflows
If you would like to use the automatic registration feature of this printer, select the
'Generated by printer' option from the Cutting Mark area of the Set Up screen.
If you would like to do manual registration, choose the '1/4 Register' option in the Cutting
Mark section.
Device-Specific Instructions for Print now, Cut Later (automatic registration)
Insert the media from the rear of the cutter in the same direction as the media originally came
out of the printer. Since the cutter cannot cut any media beyond the pinch roller nearest
the control panel, align the media so that the pinch roller is over the left margin, but
not over the any part of the print that is to be cut.
After lowering the pinch roller, select 'Piece' (for sheet-fed media), then press 'Setup'. The
cutter will determine the width and height of the sheet.
Using the arrow keys on the front panel, move the knife (or pen) over the registration mark closest
to the leading edge of the media and closest to the control panel of the printer. Press
'Auto Align', and press Enter on the printer's control panel. The printer will search out
the marks.
The cutter is now ready for the cut path to be sent from the Cutting Queue.
Device-Specific Instructions for Print now, Cut Later (manual registration--when Wasatch Marks
have been selected)
When using manual registration, you can print on any printer and then cut on the CAMMJet.
Insert the media from the rear of the cutter in the same direction as the media originally came
out of the printer. (The cutting registration marks #1 and #2 should be on the leading
edge.) Since the cutter cannot cut any media beyond the pinch roller nearest the control
panel, align the media so that the pinch roller is over the left margin, but not over
any part of the print that is to be cut.
After lowering the pinch roller, select 'Piece' (for sheet-fed media), then press 'Setup'.
The cutter will determine the width and height of the sheet.
Using the arrow keys on the front panel, move the knife (or pen) over the cutting registration
mark #1. By pressing 'Tool Up/Down', you can more easily see what point the knife (or
pen) is over. Press 'Base Point'.
Using the arrow keys as above, move the knife over the cutting registration mark #2. Press
'Align Point"'.
Move the knife over the cutting registration mark #3. Press 'Align Point'.
Move the knife over the cutting registration mark #4. Press 'Align Point'.
The cutter is now ready for the cut path to be sent from the Cutting Queue.
Hi-Fi Printing Using Non-Standard Inksets
If you have the special registration code TEXTILE enabled in Wasatch SoftRIP, you can create
inksets for printing with colors other than just orange and green. When this variable is enabled,
you will see the following screen when you press the Properties button:
The options for Hi-Fi modes will be added to the print mode box, and you will be able to select
non-standard inksets. You will also have the options to Create, Edit, and Delete inksets. For more
information see: Creating HiFi Ink Print Modes