Has anyone else downloaded Digital Factory? I'm trying to wrap my brain around it. It looks like it has some cool features but comes with a learning curve. I'm not understanding the layers option. I was hoping I would be able to selectively underbase by color but it doesn't look like it does. I wanted to remove underbase for black on light colored shirts which would reduce ink cost. If anyone knows how to make it do that please help.
Digital Factory
[Brother GT-361]
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Drew,
You can always reach out to your dealer or CADLink directly and ask them to give you a quick tour of the software. http://www.cadlink.com/products/digitalFactory/ps_digitafactoryapparel.php
As for removing the underbase under the black, you don't want to do this. The black ink does not have a good washability when printed directly on top of the pretreat fluid. So you want to have white ink under it. We went through this process while testing the software and noticed this specific thing. That is the reason why the default levels are set the way they are.
The RIP will allow you to do this even though it is not recommended. Just go into the Layers window and click on Show Bitmap Processing Options. Then click on the drop-down box for Underbase Strength. Set it to the lowest number. Think of the Underbase Strength as the Highlight in the GT Driver. The Maximum Ink is similar to the Mask in the GT Driver.
Here are some videos on how to use the DFA software:
- Digital Factory Apparel Brother - YouTube
- Digital Factory Apparel Queue&Job options - YouTube
- Digital Factory Apparel Plugins - YouTube
- Digital Factory Apparel General features - YouTube
- Digital Factory Apparel Photoshop - YouTube
- Digital factory Apparel Media Setup - YouTube
- Digital Factory Apparel Illustrator - YouTube
- Digital Factory Apparel CorelDraw - YouTube
Feel free to post any additional questions that you might have. Best wishes,
Mark
Interesting links thanks. Too bad they are in 480p. In 2014 kinda odd..
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Ralph,
From what I have seen, yes you get brighter colors and the color gamut is larger than the GT driver. This is because it reads the incoming profile and sends it out with the same profile.
Next week, I hope to have some prints that I can share that will help show the difference. Tell then, you can always try the software out. There is a 30 day trial. Great way to see if it is worth it for your business before dropping any money.
Mark
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I have been playing around with it. Printed a half dozen or so test shirts. I really like the color profiles. Still playing with the settings, maybe if I slow down next week I can dig deeper into it.
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Youtube down samples these when you upload them, we didn't create them at this resolution.
We are in the process of putting them on our main web site, but you can download the originals from our FTP site.
If you want a link, just PM me.
Best regards
-David
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Using the underbase strength you can control how the white prints under color and use less in darker shades, but as Mark said the issue is that if you don't use enough white ink you have wash issues and these colors fade when washed a few times.
You can also create a complete custom underbase using an Alpha channel in Photoshop (its in the videos), but all our default queues are shipped to give the best print quality and wash with minimum fade and the underbase we generate by default will reflect this.
We did work closely with Brother and in particular Mark on these settings.
Best regards
-David
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How do i download the 30 day trial? Thanks
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Hi guys - I just tested this software and compared with the prints from using default settings with the PDIP tool. I am puzzled on the ink usage though and hope someone can help.
According to the costing details, the ink usage is very very low as shown below. I believe the white should be multiplied by the number of passes. The figures I get are (white is not multiplied by 8 passes yet):
Black 0.00003
Cyan 0.00001
Magenta 0.00002
White 0.00004
Yellow 0.00001
However, the ink used shown on the printer LCD is 0.49cc while the above calculation is 0.39 (assuming white is multiplied by 8 passes).
Apart from this, I must say the colors are much more vibrant and I am liking it more after spending the weekend playing with it.
Dave
According to the costing details, the ink usage is very very low as shown below. I believe the white should be multiplied by the number of passes. The figures I get are (white is not multiplied by 8 passes yet):
Black 0.00003
Cyan 0.00001
Magenta 0.00002
White 0.00004
Yellow 0.00001
However, the ink used shown on the printer LCD is 0.49cc while the above calculation is 0.39 (assuming white is multiplied by 8 passes).
Apart from this, I must say the colors are much more vibrant and I am liking it more after spending the weekend playing with it.
Dave
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539 Posts
There are training videos available on youtube (you can click the link below to go directly to them.
One of them is specifically on the Brother and covers setting up the costing for the Brother machines.
You are correct there is a multiplier option you need to use for White, and the value depends on the queue you are using, but for a 381 at 600dpi it would be x8, but it I all covered in the video.
Best regards
-David
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