Swatches
Soft Start
A quick floor note on soft starts after cleaning, ink changes or idle time so the first prints are usable.
The first prints of the day often tell you more than a rushed restart after cleaning. Soft Start covers morning checks for South African large-format shops, including nozzle tests, media feed, heater warm-up and whether yesterday's profile still suits today's conditions.
Soft Start is about making the first test sheets count after a clean, an ink swap, or a machine that stood overnight. On Gauteng mornings that usually means checking nozzle condition, carriage wipe quality, and whether the media has taken up moisture or dust before the heaters stabilise.
First-sheet checks worth noting
- Nozzle pattern checked before heaters peak
- Photo of the first usable swatch
- RIP preset, pass count and media named
- Printer, ink set and cartridge batch listed
Soft Start works best when you read it alongside the relevant ICC profile note and any cartridge note for that ink set. The profile tells you what yesterday's colour aim was, while the cartridge note helps explain weak channels, fresh dampers, or a change in ink behaviour. Used together, they make the first comparison print more useful.
How Soft Start applies on Stormjet morning setup
Soft Start is useful after cleaning, ink changes or a machine standing idle. Ease into production with a controlled start so the first prints are fit to assess instead of being written off immediately.
Morning setup should note the substrate, pass mode and any overnight change in the room before a profile is trusted again. In Johannesburg and Pretoria, dust and dry air can show up quickly in nozzle tests, while Durban humidity can alter feed and drying on the first few metres. During load-shedding recovery, recheck heater temperatures and media tracking before committing vinyl or banner stock to a full run.
Keep the opening setup photo with the test print and note the time of the first clean. That record helps when a Stormjet needs a second wipe, when feed drift only appears on the first metre, or when a fresh cartridge was fitted before opening. Many avoidable reprints begin with missing notes from the first ten minutes.
What Soft Start leaves behind
The aim is a short record of what was checked, what changed, and which print was accepted as the morning reference. That can include the nozzle test, heater temperatures, feed correction, and the RIP preset used for the first sellable job. For FastJET, Stormjet, and Skywalker operators, one reliable starting point matters more than several untested options.
Before a parcel leaves Bellville or a banner run starts in full, do one more swatch and compare it with the first approved sheet from the morning.
- Morning routine for actual print conditions
- Opening swatch kept as reference
- Machine details captured in writing
South African morning print variables
A soft start in South Africa often happens around power interruptions, delayed warm-up, and stock that arrived late through OR Tambo or local courier routes. Older rooms in Crown Mines, compact shops in Durban, and trade counters near Cape Town do not all warm media and ink at the same rate. That is why the first acceptable print should be logged against the machine state, not memory.
Coastal air can leave vinyl and paper behaving differently from the previous afternoon, especially after the printer stood idle. Inland dust can show up first in the nozzle check and around the capping station before it shows in a full image. Where power cuts are common, note whether the machine completed its usual warm-up cycle before you judged colour or banding.
Operated by Astros Marketing (Pty) Ltd from 2 Makro Place, Sunnyrock 1401.
Soft Start note to keep
A quick floor note on soft starts after cleaning, ink changes or idle time so the first prints are usable.
Write down the morning settings while the sample sheets are still on the take-up or bench. Include media name, profile used, pass mode, heater values, and any clean done before the first acceptable print. Later, when a buyer queries colour or a repeat job lands, that small note is more useful than trying to reconstruct the start of the day from memory.
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