What is Transition Control?

When printing with a device that uses multiple ink levels (including Variable Dot, Double-Strike, and Light Ink), you must set the Transition Control. This option determines the transition from light inks to dark-inks. This prevents a sudden shift from light ink to dark-ink which can cause steps of shading in your gradients. Sometimes the hue or density of these different levels can be seen in the output.

The default value is set at 0 and you may not need to set a transition control value for most media. Even if you are using CMYKcm (darks and lights only) we recommend you use the default value.

How to determine if you need transition controls:

The best way to determine if you need transition controls is to print a swatch that has a tonal gradient to see the transition between the levels. If you see a shift in your gradients you may need to set a tranistion control value of 4 or 8 depending on the output.

You can do this within the Advanced Ink Restrictions window.

1. Change the transition control value as desired for each channel.
2. Load a test image by clicking > Other.
3. You can browse for a custom image of your choice or use the ONYX Quality Test.
4. The ONYX Quality Test is located in the Onyx root directory > Samples> Profiling folder.
5. Click > Print Swatch and review the Cyan and Magenta gradients at the top.

The transition control helps to "blend" the dark, med, light ink levels to create a smooth gradient.

Transition Factors

If you see an extreme transiton from light to dark in which the dark ink displays a very rapid increase in density at the transition boundary from light to dark ink you may gain some improvement by increasing the Transistion Control Factor settings.  Such a change in the gradient may not be obvious by visual inspection, and may not be observed until the Calibration / Linearization steps.  Examining the graph of the actual Calibration Swatch Readings may show a very steep gradient increase as the transition from light ink to dark ink occurs.  This is not normally the case.  Most ink manufacturers do a good job of creating inks that blend smoothly from light to dark.

If you see a very sudden, steep gradient in the graph of the linearization readings, it is first recommended to lower the light ink restriction by 10% - 20%.  Reprint the linearization swatches and observe if the transition is improved.  As a final means of improving transitions from light to dark the Transition Control Factors may be adjusted to alter the relationship of light to dark at the transition boundary.  The range of settings is from 1 to 10.  Experimentation will be needed to determine the most suitable setting.

When you are done setting Ink Restrictions and transition control the next step is Calibration - Linearization.

Back to Ink Restrictions.