[4u2bSeen]

I am doing a last minute job for this weekend and I am trying to print white not as an underbase but as a regular or spot color. This is the shirt. I think the colors print fine without any underbase. But the rider's shirt would look better if I could highlight it with white. Trying all kinds of different ways but with no luck. Just can not get the white to print. Corresponded a little with Cadlink this morning but after I sent the file to them I have not heard back.

Also if I did print this with an underbase it would be nice to restrict the underbase to just the color and not the black as there would be no need on this color shirt. Any ideas.

Just a heads up that in all my other jobs, the RIP is saving me about 50% in white.

 

[JeridHill]

I'm not in front of Digital Factory at the moment so I can't really explore it for you, but you could create the file twice, both the same size. The first file only has the white, the second is the same as you see above. You want the dimensions of the files to be the same between the two so when you bring it in, the placement is identical.

 

[23spiderman]

the only other thing i'll add in addition to Jerid's comment, is that a little white ink under the black isn't a bad idea. i have no experience with Epson's pretreat, and i don't know what brand of pretreat you are using, but i know from experience that the white in and the pretreat are chemically made to bond to each other. then the cmyk is made to bond with the white ink. with some brands, there tends to be a higher washout when cmyk is printed on the preatreat with no underbase. i know that Image Armour Light corrects this issue, but again, just a misting of white ink will actually help your black areas to remain "rich" after washing.

so i don't derail this thread, Jerid is right on for a workaround on what you want. does the cmyk pass in Cadlink print a highlight white? in that case, you could rip the file as if it was printing the white underbase, then just print the cmyk layer with the white highlight (don't print the white underbase). in my RIP, you just uncheck the "white underbase" box. i don't know if that is possible with Cadlink or not.

also, i think the shirt looks great "as-is", and i wouldn't even mess with white ink unless the customer wants it.

 

[cavedave]

Hello,

Am at Fespa, so sorry for the delay in replying but haven't been following the forums for the last few days.
One of the techs in Canada sent me the image this morning, first thing is its an indexed PNG file and if you want to use white automatically you need to save this as RGB (for generating white from these file use RGB or CMYK 8bit).
So resave as RGB before doing any of the following.

On the question of not printing any white under black / dark areas, select the job and click on the layer tab and with the underbase tab selected, click on show bitmap processing options and in the underbase strength change the value, at 19 you will not have any white under back areas and as you lower the value you will use less white under dark / shadow areas.

If you want just the white in the shirt area (or other pure white areas), then select the job and click on the layers button and with the underbase layer selected, click on show bitmap processing options and change the underbase / highlight option to highlight, select a value of 9 as start.

If you want to get really advanced you can create a alpha channel and create a custom white channel which you can then print exactly as you want. This is covered in the videos and you should watch this as the alpha channel in Photoshop needs to be a spot channel (there are three types of alpha channels in photoshop) and you need to save it as a TIF.
But I think all you need to do is use the highlight feature from your description.

Note: The Epson F2000 doesn't physically allow us to print color and white in the same pass, so you will need to print the highlight white separately.
If you want to print the highlight white after the color (rather than before) you will need to delete underbase layer and create a new layer and select only the white channel (a white underbase print mode, so it knows its printing white) and setup the highlight option.
Let me know if you want to do this and when I am back I can do a Teamview session with you and show you how to do this, its pretty straight forward.

Best regards

-David

 

[cavedave]

.

so i don't derail this thread, Jerid is right on for a workaround on what you want. does the cmyk pass in Cadlink print a highlight white? in that case, you could rip the file as if it was printing the white underbase, then just print the cmyk layer with the white highlight (don't print the white underbase). in my RIP, you just uncheck the "white underbase" box. i don't know if that is possible with Cadlink or not.

also, i think the shirt looks great "as-is", and i wouldn't even mess with white ink unless the customer wants it.

yes we do, but as I said there is no way to print white and color in the same pass on the Epson F2000 (its firmware is design to specifically not allow this).
Therefore you have to print the highlight white as a separate pass.

Best regards

-David

 

[JeridHill]

but as I said there is no way to print white and color in the same pass on the Epson F2000 (its firmware is design to specifically not allow this).

I thought I remembered you saying this, but I didn't want to repeat it without confirming.

 

[EricDeem]

One of the techs in Canada sent me the image this morning, first thing is its an indexed PNG file and if you want to use white automatically you need to save this as RGB (for generating white from these file use RGB or CMYK 8bit).
So resave as RGB before doing any of the following.

I am a little confused by this statement. In CS6 atleast, the only way to save or export a file as a .PNG is if color mode is already set to RGB. Can you elaborate a little bit more?

 

[JeridHill]

I am a little confused by this statement. In CS6 atleast, the only way to save or export a file as a .PNG is if color mode is already set to RGB. Can you elaborate a little bit more?

You might have some strange settings, but take an image, convert it to indexed color and you will be able to save it as a png file.

 

[4u2bSeen]

The file I sent to tech support was not the file I was printing from. The original was 80mb so I outputted it in haste at a smaller size to email it. I was printing from a rgb tiff file. Not sure what a new day and a reboot of the computer can do but I was using your suggested settings yesterday and no luck... but today it worked. Not sure why. Interesting thing also is that yesterday when I went to print (anything) I had to hit the ok button which was new. Today though it is the big blue button as it has always been. A glitch somewhere. Not sure. Here is the shirt with the white. Looked good before but I like this better. Total ink used was .27 cents including .02 of white. These are for me to hand out this weekend at the parade. Putting my name and phone number on the back in vinyl.

 

[Smalzstein]

You applied PT to print white but under CMYK there is no white right? Check if the washability is good because I've heard that with epson ink when you use PT there must be white beneath it otherwise there will be washability problems.

 

[4u2bSeen]

There is 0 percent underbase in this. I used Image Armor Light. It says on the jug cmyk "or" cmyk+white. I am pre washing them all tonight.

 

[Smalzstein]

Well with IA you will be probably fine

 

[cavedave]

Interesting thing also is that yesterday when I went to print (anything) I had to hit the ok button which was new. Today though it is the big blue button as it has always been. A glitch somewhere.

I suspect you had a USB stick in the printer (that's what causes this normally).

We have a tech note on this and does the same with Garment Creator, its been reported to Epson and I think they also have documented this somewhere.

Best regards

-David

Long Pause or Unable to Print with Epson SureColor F2000

Software Applications​

Digital Factory Apparel - Epson Edition​

Summary​

Printing to the Epson SureColor F2000 takes longer than expected before printing begins, or you are unable to​

print. This issue can be caused by having a USB flash drive connected to the printer.​

Description and Solution​

Note:​

A USB flash drive is like a portable hard drive, except that it uses a memory chip to store data. Due to their size​

and shape, flash drives are also known as “thumb drives” or “memory sticks.”​

One feature of the Epson SureColor F2000 is that a flash drive can be used to store PRN files (pre-RIP’d jobs),​

which can then be printed by connecting the flash drive to the printer. Another feature is that the printer will buffer​

incoming jobs whenever a flash drive is already connected to the printer.​

However, as a consequence of these flash drive features, the following issues can occur:​

A. The printer will not begin printing until the entire job has been buffered on the flash drive, which equates to​

a long pause before printing begins.​

B. Once the job has been buffered on the flash drive, it must be deleted before further jobs can be printed from​

Digital Factory.​

To resolve these issues, it is recommended that the flash drive be disconnected, as follows:​

1. Before removing the flash drive, the current print job must be cancelled and deleted, otherwise the printer​

firmware can become unstable.​

2. From the printer control panel, press the​

Rubbish Bin icon to cancel and delete the current print job.​

3. Once the print job has been cancelled, remove the flash drive.​

Note:​

Do not disconnect the flash drive when the Print Job <|> light is flashing.​

 

[cavedave]

I am a little confused by this statement. In CS6 atleast, the only way to save or export a file as a .PNG is if color mode is already set to RGB. Can you elaborate a little bit more?

We actually supply plugins for CorelDraw, Illustrator and Photoshop, these send the file to the RIP and always do so in a good format.
So in general its always better to use these.

I wouldn't recommend exporting from AI as a PNG at least to our RIP, PSD would be better, although a PNG works, its limited to RGB and doesn't embedded a profile.
However as far as I am aware there is no way to export a PNG from AI as indexed (its always RGB) so I don't think the file came from AI, probably resaved from Photoshop.

Best regards

-David

 

[4u2bSeen]

Thanks Dave. I have yet to try a USB stick on the printer. When I was having problems with the USB cord your tech suggested it but going to a cat5 cable cured my communication problems. Has to be something else. When I export from illustrator to your rip I believe it converts it to a psd for the job. I have also dropped ai files directly into it. That was one of the great features over garment creator. Are you saying I shouldn't do this? Also, I imported the file from illustrator into Photoshop and then saved for web to reduce the size and sent it to you. You know your adobe for sure

 

[Jmelwak]

so should we be applying a white layer on a white shirt then printing the cmyk over that white layer of ink? or is pretreat enough for epson ink on white shirt?

 

[JeridHill]

When there isn't white ink, pretreating isn't necessary. A white shirt also wouldn't require white ink. That being said, using a pretreat specifically for light garments can improve the quality of print, but I wouldn't bother with white ink on a white shirt.

 

[allamerican-aeoon]

Apply Light pretreat on White shirts is good idea if you are quality oriented person and love your customers. Not white ink.
Much better output quality can be archived and superior wash result than without. It will be OK (not pretreat on white) to who does not seek for solid success and be a top.
Wear customers shoes. Always, think this way will help your business grow faster. IMO.
If you are the buyer Which way will you want? Short cut is never Greatest.
Fact is AA sells almost equal amount of white pretreat as dark pretreat.
I hope it will help all newbies.
If printing is my business I will pretreat white all day long.
Customer's success is your success.
Cheers! Beers are on me always.

 

[cavedave]

When I export from illustrator to your rip I believe it converts it to a psd for the job. I have also dropped ai files directly into it. That was one of the great features over garment creator. Are you saying I shouldn't do this?

No you can do this for White shirts, but you wont be able to use the automatic underbase feature for AI files as this only works with bitmaps.

But if you are not printing white ink, the format doesn't matter.

You are correct about the Send to with underbase saves it as a PSD.
The normal Send To is a PDF (same as AI).

Best regards

-David

 

[moosejam]

Hello,

Am at Fespa, so sorry for the delay in replying but haven't been following the forums for the last few days.
One of the techs in Canada sent me the image this morning, first thing is its an indexed PNG file and if you want to use white automatically you need to save this as RGB (for generating white from these file use RGB or CMYK 8bit).
So resave as RGB before doing any of the following.

On the question of not printing any white under black / dark areas, select the job and click on the layer tab and with the underbase tab selected, click on show bitmap processing options and in the underbase strength change the value, at 19 you will not have any white under back areas and as you lower the value you will use less white under dark / shadow areas.

If you want just the white in the shirt area (or other pure white areas), then select the job and click on the layers button and with the underbase layer selected, click on show bitmap processing options and change the underbase / highlight option to highlight, select a value of 9 as start.

If you want to get really advanced you can create a alpha channel and create a custom white channel which you can then print exactly as you want. This is covered in the videos and you should watch this as the alpha channel in Photoshop needs to be a spot channel (there are three types of alpha channels in photoshop) and you need to save it as a TIF.
But I think all you need to do is use the highlight feature from your description.

Note: The Epson F2000 doesn't physically allow us to print color and white in the same pass, so you will need to print the highlight white separately.
If you want to print the highlight white after the color (rather than before) you will need to delete underbase layer and create a new layer and select only the white channel (a white underbase print mode, so it knows its printing white) and setup the highlight option.
Let me know if you want to do this and when I am back I can do a Teamview session with you and show you how to do this, its pretty straight forward.

Best regards

-David

Hi David

I came across this thread and hoping you can help?
I have a similar problem using CADLink RIP to a R-JET 5.

I’m trying to print a file which is mainly made up of a black textured background using CMYK black, but have picked out two items in the image which are full colour and have white. I need to print this onto a light Desert t-shirt. So I have created an alpha channel in photoshop as the underbase for the two items within the image. Now when I save the file as a flatten RGB tif file and import into CADLink. It ignores use the alpha channel but prints the whole image as if its an image on a white sheet of paper. I can send you file in question if that helps. It might be I haven’t set the queue up correctly, which I may need help with.

Be great to her back from you with some guidance?

Dion