Color optimization

The RIP has an advanced setting for "Color Optimization". I must use the "Clean Colors" option to get pure CMYK output. Thankfully this allowed me to print test patterns of every color, and even every color over white. I then turned this option off to get a black test panel using all colors.

Printing Solid CMYK

I have completed the head adjustments, and everything is printing well. I had been asked to print a large block of each ink color for testing purposes. Our customers have strict performance testing criteria, and we need to see how this off the shelf product does. When I attempted to print a solid block of Magenta, I saw some Cyan in it. When I printed Yellow, I saw both Cyan and Magenta in it. It appears the RIP is attempting color correction. I have started testing every option to eliminate this.

Back from training

I am back from training in New Hampshire, and immediately have an issue. The print heads all seem to be slightly misaligned. Looks like I will be spending the next two days re adjusting everything.

Training in New Hampshire

I am in training in New Hampshire all week. I am learning the image expert / jet expert software and hardware. It will better allow me to quantify the print quality, and can be used to directly access individual print heads as well.

White print head

The white print head is a pain. I had to purge it if it was idle for more than 20 minutes and the nozzles seem to never all want to fire at the same time. After spending all day tweaking, I am finally happy with the output. I am taking tomorrow off to spend some time with the family,so There will not be a post.

Print Head Adjustments

I spent the entire day adjusting print heads, and I still did not get to the white head. I am happy with all others, but the white will be difficult do to trying to see the test patterns on aluminum.

Project Update Review

Working only half a day sucks, but it is even worse when the entire day is taken up by meetings. Today was the project update review. It was great to present the progress made with my project, and even better to learn about the other ongoing projects, but I accomplished absolutely nothing today.

Digital printing Test Image 2

After reviewing the image, there were a few changes requested. I made the changes, and forwarded a PDF for review, getting a positive response. I then printed the image. Based on the printed image, I will need to make a few adjustments before I am happy with the print quality. It looks like the head to head (especially the white to all others) needs adjusted.

Digital printing Test Image

I am in the process of creating a digital printing test image. We need an image to check many aspects of the printing process. I included color blocks of each color (CMYK) ranging from 0 to 100%, lines to test motion, lines of varying widths for each color, and diagonal lines. I also included many standard font sizes using both serif and sans serif versions and positive and negative variations. I will be reviewing with the head of this project tomorrow.

Printing with White Continued 2

After racking my brains for too many days, I decided to go through every setting in the RIP. The software has an option for the white ink that says "Spot color WHITE_INK". I decided to create a spot color in Illustrator called WHITE_INK, and change fill of the eagles head to this color. I saved the file as an EPS, and this made no difference, I then tried it as a PDF, and if printed the head White instead of the dropout. I then tried changing all areas of the image that used white to use WHITE_INK, and it printed fine. The only problem was that using the Spot color WHITE_INK option in the RIP stopped it from printing white underneath all the other areas. I changed the white ink option to "Inked image", and it printed exactly how I wanted.

Printing with White Continued

I re saved the Harley file and various formats trying to eliminate the drop out issue I am having. Unfortunately, it does not seem to matter whether I print from a vector (EPS of PDF) or if I rasterize it (Photoshop EPS, Photoshop PDF, tif, of jpg, There is no difference in how the white/drop out is printed.

Printing with White

I printed the Harley image again today, but did so on bare aluminum printing a white base. This allowed me to find a major issue. The RIP software is interpreting the areas filled with white (0% CMYK) as a drop out. At this point the only way to get white to print where I want is to change the value to at least 1% CMYorK. This is not a major issue, but I need to try to find a better way.

File Set up

Needed additional images for testing the printer, I went through some of my old files. These are the types of images some customers might provide, so I randomly chose a couple. One image was an Illustrator file of the Harley Davidson eagle and shield. I was happy with this image when I created it about six years ago, but after I printed it I found several flaws. No one else noticed them, but I will probably adjust the image when I get some time. It is interesting to see how my personal standards have changed in such a short time.

Change of plans

My priorities have been changed, and I will be focusing primarily on the printer for the time being. It is crucial for the continued growth of this department that we have a viable work center soon.