30-plus year veteran of the Graphics Communications industry as well as a former college instructor and corporate trainer, I know how to accomplish the things that matter and distill them down into bite-size pieces that are easy to understand.
Hi Lee thanks for the video! Any idea on any differences when coming to print double sided WSW? I am attempting to print the same image using color (mirrored)/white/black/white/color to achieve a double sided static cling. I set up my layers in Illustrator as print image (mirrored), spot white, black, spot white, and then print image again. Let me know if I am missing anything, but I am following the end section for white sandwich printing on my 800W... Maybe the 5 layers is overkill for the same image, but wanted to make sure that neither side shows through to the other. Thanks!
It sounds like you need 5-layer mode based on your description, but if it's exactly the same image front and back then you're correct - it might be overkill. 3-layer sandwich is intended for day/night applications, where it is expected (and favorable) to have light coming from the non-viewing side. 5-layer sandwich mode has white/black/white as the inner three layers, which blocks light transmission from one color side to the other. Given the description in your comment I'd encourage you to first try a small sample of 3-layer and see if that meets your needs before committing to 5-layers, especially if you need to print a significant number of square feet.
@@LeeManevitch Sounds good, I'll test it out and see how it goes. My concern was due to it being the same art but one being flipped. Its intended purpose is to be placed on a window in a school building, they want the design visible from outside and inside. Luckily it is only a handful so we can test. Thanks again!
That's way too generic a question to answer, unfortunately - it really depends on the construction of the file. In general, when you have a file like that, it's best to go back to the original components and add white to each image individually.
OK? I'm unclear on the actual question, mostly because there wasn't one. 😁 Spacing between copies and/or jobs is all-or-nothing - you can't vary it - so if the question is how to add extra gap between gang jobs, you can't do that directly. Instead create a blank file of whatever gap you need and put that between the two nested jobs you want to print.
In this case the "gutter" is a CMYK "spit bar" on the sides of the print, outside the live area. They are helpful to diagnose potential banding and also to keep the printheads exercised when there is a primary color that goes unused for a long portion of the print.
Tough to do a tutorial if I don't have a printer capable of showing the outcome, but halftones ARE available for any non-contone printer. They're just well-hidden. When you create a new print mode in Media Manager, in the Basic Print Mode Settings you can choose Halftone in section 3 (dot pattern) by clicking the gear icon to the right of the dot pattern and choose from a variety of output options. But you're on your own as far as the options there, unless you're willing to send me a free printer for my home office so I can test. 🤣 Also note that you'll have to create an ICC profile from scratch as using a non-OEM dot pattern will almost guarantee that existing ICC profiles in the media library will not produce the desired output.
I have zero knowledge about DTF printers. In general, the workflow I laid out is for dealing with a printer that has a white channel, so in the absence of any personal experience the best I can offer is...probably?
Two ways to accomplish this, depending on your intent: 1. If you intend to make a permanent change to the artwork in the library, double-click the art in the Libraries palette. it will open in a new window where you make changes and then save the file, resulting in the changes made permanent in the Library. 2. If you just want to change the art on one file, alt-drag (or Option-drag on Mac) the library item onto your artboard and then it will be live, editable art.
The thing is that everytime I export I've got washed out colors, and everything seems pretty dull. Any fix on that? The only way I've got the TRUE colors is by exporting in "save for web" option, tho I can't export many files at once. Any clue?
If there's a difference in color between Save for Web and Export for Screens, then you need to look closely at the export settings and your document color settings. Save for Web automatically converts your color to sRGB and Export for Screens does not, so if your files aren't already in sRGB then that might be where the discrepancy is coming from.
So the case of the lion was a different design strategy. The easiest way to do this is: Convert the file to greyscale and INVERT the data - everywhere that is black in the file will print white so it needs to be inverted image data. TIP: I usually set my lightest point (once inverted) to 1% so there are no blown-out highlights. Save as a TIF and then colorize it in Illustrator or InDesign...just apply the "Spot1" spot color to the image there and then save as PDF. If you want to stay straight Photoshop then it becomes a little more complicated. Convert and invert, then create the Spot1 channel. Cut and paste the image data from Gray to Spot1. You should then have two channels - an empty "Gray" channel and a "Spot1" channel with your image data. Then just convert to CMYK and all the channels except Spot1 should still be empty. Save your file as TIF and it should do what you need it to!
Not in Onyx, no. What you're looking to do is often referred to as "common crops" and there's no easy way to overlap artwork - of which the cutlines are a part - in the RIP. Set up a multi-piece file with the cutlines you want, and Onyx will treat it as a single file and cut accordingly. I generally would set up a job for as many columns as I could fit across the media (with appropriate clear space) and several rows - so let's say 5 across by 3 down - and then just send as many copies of that 15-up job as is required.
I do not - I can't stand the Layout Tool. In general I find it takes me more time to use that tool than it does to repoen artwork in Illustrator or InDesign and create a finished layout there...so i just avoid it.
I didn't think Pantone could be printed as gradients. When you combine 2 or more PMS colors together in a gradient, such as PMS 7404 (yellow) with PMS Org21 (orange), the area where the colors begin to transition and merge into each other would create a myriad of new colors that aren't 7404 nor Org21 so they would no longer be spot PMS colors. So how would the printer match the PMS colors in the gradient to his swatch books/chips to get a correct match? Or would the gradient need to be converted to cmyk in which case the printer wouldn't need to use his PMS book for matching because the Pantone colors would no longer be considered Pantone spot, but process colors? Thanks for sharing.
OK let me clear up a couple of things: Pantone is a color communication system that ONLY works as planned when you're printing on a printing system that allows the use of custom inks. So, for example, dedicating an offset printer head to 7404 and actually inking that head up with 7404 ink. Or doing the same with screenprinting - printing using 7404 ink on one screen. For ALL other print processes, there's no such thing as Pantone. The color 7404 is converted by the RIP to CMYK (or whatever primaries your print process uses) and it EMULATES that color for final output. In a true Pantone environment it's entirely possible to print gradients of PMS colors - we use tints just like in my video. It's also entirely possible to overprint different Pantone colors on top of others but still only print using the two ink colors in your example. But the inks used would in fact be the correct Pantone colors; in this case you're confusing the source ink with the final output. What if I printed Orange 021 on green paper - the ink used would be Orange 021 but the output color would most definitely not be orange. That doesn't invalidate what we did, but if you measured the color then you are correct that it would not "be" Orange 021 anymore. In a process print environment like a digital printer, we're doing the same thing but the result emulates what it would look like if you actually were able to print with Pantone inks. But it's an emulation because that how all Pantone colors are reproduced on a process printer.
Knowing the sheen is great if you need to know if paint is matte or eggshell. For graphic communication, though, I don't think it's worth the extra cost.
PNG files don't contain white. They may contain "white" areas but that would be onscreen white and not white ink. You would have to manually add white ink to your file and save as a TIFF. The print modes are in no way connected to your artwork so you could print as spot, overflood, underflood, or sandwich. That is decided at the RIP.
Thank you! It never made sense to me that people only suggest making artwork in CMYK but wouldn’t suggest converting a photograph to CMYK before printing, and we all know photographs are RGB and print beautifully
Dear Mr. Lee. I'm facing with a problem with my e-commerce. I need to merge three pictures into the one picture. I have a spreadsheet with 3 columns (A, B, C, D). In each column, I have a filename. For example, in cell A1 W100.JPG, cell B1 S111.JPG, cell C1 R300.JPG. Column D is a name that should be named the final picture that is an effect of merged that three pictures mentioned in A1, B1, C1 cell, let's say the name in D1 is ABCDEFG.JPG. Can You please give me advice on how to do that? I was thinking I can use Your tutorial. But there is a problem with taking an exactly pictures from the Excel spreadsheet ( A1, B1, C1 cells) marge them in InDesign and the final file should be named like we have in D1 cell. Can you please give me advice on how to change your solution to solve my problem?
If you literally need to merge the 3 files that seems more like a project that would require automation of some sort via Photoshop or other scriptable image editing software. If what you need to do is manipulate the text then that's best done right in Excel. In either case, InDesign is absolutely not the right choice for what you're trying to accomplish and way beyond the scope of this video.
@@LeeManevitch thank you for reaponse. I really appreciate it. I asked AI. Now I'm working with Python and the results are pretty good. I'm still making a modifications. BTW I have used Your advices from that video. Quick and easy job thanks to You. Greetings
Hi Lee! I am trying to increase transparency of spot white. I can only get to 60% on white with a 6 pass in the icc profile.. I thought I saw you change that and increase the value in a video in flexi? Can.you assist me with that? Ink density white increase I thought was in file in properties. Can't find it to save my life!! Thanks Eva
The pass count defines the white density and at 6-pass, 60% is the only white density you can print. If you need more density you need to increase the passes...the heads need more opportunity to drop more ink and the only way to do that is to go to a higher pass count that offers 100% or even 160% density.
You know what? I'm not sure. I'm general, that would be controlled through the black generation settings inside the ICC profile but I've never tried it to do a 3-color profile.
i will be as its the software supplied with my new dtf that is on a boat from china, although i may have to get cadlink as i dont want to have to edit over 300 designs in png format to add spot colours, i am a dtg guy atm, and getting white to print with the brother rip is easy.@@babybirdscraftingmemories2468
Hello, im trying to get white and a color to print at the same time. I can get white and i can get color, just not at the same time. Im just trying to print one colored dot surrounded by several white dots. This is being printed on a clear substrate that will be applied to glass second surface. And we dont want sandwich mode with color white color, just individual color and white. Please help.
If you want white and color to print at the same time - and there's no overlap between white and color - then Spot mode is what you need. Have you tried that and you're having issues? PS second surface so don't forget to reflect your image!
im using onyx and ive tried spot mode, but when we do it, it prints the white circles and floods white over the top of the colored circle@@LeeManevitch
Are you also adding white in Onyx? It's either/or - if you create white in Onyx you can't use your designed white, and vice-versa. From your description, you need to design the white outside of Onyx and then don't do anything in Onyx to create white. If you want to send me your file, email it to youtube@manevitch.com and I'll send back a quick video of how it all *should* work.
Amazing and an underrated channel and video, I have a question to you Mr. Lee if I may ask, how did you turn the colorful face image to a CMYK printed style? (I mean the dots of printing looks as if it was scanned!)
SHORT VERSION: Use the Filter > Pixellate > Color Halftone filter in Photoshop. LONG VERSION: For what I needed, the Color Halftone filter wouldn't work as I couldn't make the effect sharp enough to capture detail. So I busted a CMYK image apart into 4 separate greyscale files, then converted each to Bitmap using the Halftone Screen option and set each screen angle to the appropriate one for the color (C=15, M=75, Y=0, K=90). Once all that was done I converted each image back to greyscale then recombined them into one multichannel file, at which point I converted from multichannel to CMYK.
Hi Lee FOr some reason when opening the PDF file into Onyx i am just getting the black to white gradiant and the overprint does seem to work any ideas??
As PNG is a raster image format, you'd be way better off using the Photoshop techniques I discuss in ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ewDE7v5ntVo.html Otherwise, your only recourse would be to generate a vector path in Illustrator either manually or through Auto-trace and tackle it that way. It's much less efficient than using Photoshop in this case.
I am using Oki 1050 printer.. and I have never printed white from it yet because I am not able to understand how exactly to do that. I watched your video I got an idea of how to do it but if i face any problem can you please guide me...
Sure thing - if you run into any snags shoot me an email at youtube@manevitch.com and I'll see if I can help you. I'm not familiar with that printer though...does it print via a RIP or directly from design software?
@@baba.onboard ah. Looking at the user guide, it does not appear that this printer supports *designing* with white ink. Your options are limited to what is supported by the print driver, which allows the option of adding white to a color-only file with certain options for how the white is generated. See page 118 of the English manual for the options. I don't think anything in this video is pertinent to your particular model of printer.
Thanks - I appreciate the kind words! It's been crazy for me at work for a couple of months and I'm way behind on delivering contact, but if there's anything you would like to see (and if it's in my skillset) let me know and I'll work on it.
Yes, I am a gifted digital artist, but I know nothing about printing. I would love to see a video about how to prepare various art pieces for the various types of print on demand print mediums; basically what you should and shouldn't do in art terms like colors, compositions, amounts of color, saturation levels, like a cartoon image i've made vs the simpler graphic designs, also I made some simple graphics for fabric print. For an example I'm about to get started selling on Etsy but had to scrap my bookmark design because I realized my artwork was too colorful to go on a bookmark, at least I think anyways... I'm wondering if my bookmarks were professionally printed if they'd look better than my silly little Canon. Thanks.@@LeeManevitch
Oh I like that. It might be a little too complicated for a video, because each provider will have its own file requirements. But I'll round up the top 3 or 4 and see if there are enough similarities that I can turn it into a one-size-fits-all video.
I was going to go with Printify since I hear good things. I guess I could do some reading and see how best to create for their printing services.@@LeeManevitch
Well something must be going wrong. Are you able to send me an example? RU-vid@manevitch.com - I'll see what's different about a file that doesn't work properly.
Hello Mr. Manevitch I happen to invest on a DTF printer (to work on t-shirts) which currently is not printing white as well. I can print any other color except white. Other than that I was able to follow your suggestions on the video however just like the user below IsabelleAustin I do not have the option to save the spot color with my version of PS which is cloud based. Do you think that buying the full version might pull the trick? Thank you for reading.
Photoshop Express and Photoshop are not at all the same thing. Sorry to say, you'll need the full paid version of Photoshop in order to work with spot color channels.
hi where can i get the test print files from. trying to create an effect like the dandelion photo you showed, but need to get the source file to understand the setup procedure
got time to talk about GAUSSIAN BLURS to print on HP indigo 20000/30000 industrial printer? what difference between blur and gradient on printing, and how do i get better print quanlity with these blur? thx
I'm not sure I fully understand the question because there's a huge difference between a gradient and a blur, but: Gradients are smooth transitions between two (or more) predefined colors. A smooth transition from black to white, for example. It's generally a transition in a straight line with specific steps in color that are usually so small that you cannot see them. Gradients can be either vector or raster. A blur is just that...a blur. Look through a fogged-up window and you've seen the effect. Blurs are raster-only, and they simply smooth adjacent pixels to make everything less clear. If you blur type you'll end up with very soft edges, and if you blur far enough then you won't even be able to read the type. But I'm totally confused as to what you're really asking...are you having a specific problem with blurs or something? The two are totally different in almost every way so I think I need a lot more information if you need me to help you solve a specific problem you're experiencing.
I found an incredible amount of value in the information presented, and appreciate your sharing of this greatly. Note: I’m not sure if perhaps, while editing this presentation, the couple of retakes I noticed were left to be included or possibly overlooked. One happened around the 16 minute mark and the other around 18:20…just in case you wanted to cut those. Thanks again for this awesome upload
Thank you! I only noticed the mis-edits after the video had been up for several days. Unfortunately, RU-vid's algorithms penalize heavily for reuploading content and so in order to keep my channel from not being recommended I really had no choice but to leave this as-is. We're learning together. 😁
@@LeeManevitch I was unaware of this. Thanks for the tip. First video I’ve seen of yours, from suggested. Great content, subbed up and excited to learn more
Hi Lee, Im having some difficulty using this print mode. Im using underflood to prints some white lettering and a white background section with color on top. But, my white is printing like is offset. like there's 2 layers of and they don't line up. Could you offer any advice? Mess with smart choke?
What "this" print mode are you talking about? In general yes - Smart Choke MUST be turned on because the diameter of the white ink drops is slightly larger than that of the colors...so even if registration is perfect, there will be white ink peeking out. Start with 4px and adjust from there. If it's misaligned by a lot, though, that's a head alignment issue.
Thanks Lee! I'm dealing with some gradient issues right now, where everything printed is giving a little color break line where the gradient ends. I just tried out these tips and am running some new test prints. Thanks for the tips and video! I just subscribed. Have a great day!
Thanks Jon! The big "gotcha" with gradients is to make sure that you have endpoints defined at the 0% and 100% sides of the gradient. I've seen lines at the end of gradients if the endpoints are dragged in and there's just clear space hanging out at one side or the other. If you're doing that then it's possible that what you're seeing is a bad calibration (linearization) on your printer. That's a totally different topic and depends heavily on what RIP and printer you're using.
@@LeeManevitch Thanks Lee for the quick reply and help. I actually made the gradient by creating a rectangle shape, in CMYK from black to white as a gradient, then I placed another rectangle under that in the colour I wanted (a deep red), then I created a mask from the two in the transparency window. Once it goes to print, it always has a lighter red colour block where the gradient is supposed to be. I tried the overprint tip in your video, but it didn't work unfortunately. Do you think it might be the customers ripping software or am I doing the gradient wrong? Thanks again for everything!
Adding that transparency mask is the problem. Can you send the file to youtube@manevitch.com so I can take a look? Just send the gradient if it's a really large complicated file.
@@LeeManevitch Hi Lee! Thanks for confirming, I figured it was something I was doing wrong. It's been driving me crazy trying to figure this out. Thank you so much! I just sent you an email. I really appreciate your time and help!
Hello Lee, greetings from DPI Direct in San Diego. Do you know if there is a way to change the spot color name that Onyx is using? We have another printer that prints white using a fiery rip and it looks for a different spot color name for its white ink setting. Therefore we have to prep accordingly to the device we're using. It would be nice if we can set them both to look for the same spot color name. Thanks!
I don't think it's possible to change the named color from Spot1 to something else - it appears to be hard-coded. However, you *CAN* make the change on-the-fly by opening the file in Job Editor and going to the Color Correction tab. Once there click the "Tools>>" button and choose "Named Color Replacements." Click the Insert button, and you can change "Spot_White" or whatever to print as 100% white in that dialog box. If this is going to be an ongoing process you probably will want to save that adjustment as a filter. At the top of the Color Correction dialog there's a "Filter..." button. Click it, then click the "Manager..." button. From there you can export the adjustment you just made, and then create a new Quick Set that uses that filter every time. (Quick Sets is on my to-do list because of how easy they make everyday adjustments) If you go the filter route be aware that any adjustment you made will be included. So to be safe make sure that the only thing you've done inside the Job Editor is to make that one color replacement.
Am just blessed to watch your videos, I work with onyx at work I have been willing to know much more on how to use onyx with HP Latex 700w, I will be glad you teach us much more on onyx
@@d-samglobaltv1623 printing on clear as first-surface, you'd be using Underflood mode as described in my Onyx RIP White Ink Workflow video here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-QGDJ8Z-5YoU.html As for "best" there's no one right answer as it depends on your specific application and needs. Latex doesn't work like solvent and UV...what you lose when you drop to lower pass counts is density, not image quality. So depending on your application needs I'd just choose a print mode with an appropriate white ink density (and/or color density) and everything else will fall into line.
Spot prints white and color at the same time, and that's not negotiable. So if you print both in the same place they will mix. The reason the other modes exist is specifically so there is separation between white and color - both in terms of time (drying) and also by dropping additional Optimizer between layers. If those modes weren't necessary to create, I promise the development team wouldn't have spent as much time as they did making them work. 😄
@@LeeManevitch thanks, I’m currently using underfloor white at 100% and the 700w is slow. I’m just trying to figure out how to get faster print speeds with out compromising the opacity of the white. Do you have any tips?
White density in any print mode is controlled by the number of passes, so unless you can get by with lower density (which you can't in this case) there aren't any additional "knobs" you can change to make the printer move faster than it does. About the only advice I *could* give is that if you're not maximizing your carriage (printing 36" media, for example) or maximizing your layout efficiency, then you can see gains that way. Max throughput on the 700W in Underflood at 100% white density is 32 square feet per hour, and that assumes a full-width roll with full-width graphics. If your workflow and job specifics allow you to change to Overflood (white over color) then you'd see that throughput change to 65 sqft/hr but if you're printing on nontransparent media then that's a no-go. It's a delicate balancing act when white is involved...if it prints too fast then the white and color will mix, or the ink won't fully cure. Both of those outcomes are way worse than having to wait for a print to finish.
I work as a graphic designer in house at a company where we have digital large format printers in house. A few Vutek machines, some roll, some hybrid with dts, also HP latex printers. My pre-press people always get frustrated that I'm sending them RGB files. But I have maintained this practice because of what you're describing here. The vibrancy of color is just not comparable if I'm using even sRGB compared to SWOP and I don't want to sacrifice the extra vibrancy. I still get some uncertainty on some blues when I'm sending to print from RGB. Can I get more certainty by matching the profile that the RIP is using? We're on Caldera for the RIP. Typically I'm sending sRGB sometimes Adobe1998 and may switch to that exclusively. Sorry if not clear, just to reiterate what's the best way to minimize shifts in blues and sometimes blacks being too dark from RGB. Thanks for the helpful video.
If you're asking "should I design in my printer's output ICC profile" then no, absolutely not. By doing that you're not only limiting your color gamut to the printer's, which makes migrating to a different printer more difficult, but you're also introducing any printer shortcomings into your design. CMYK design should always be done using profiles that adhere to standards like GRACoL or SWOP; not based on actual measurements on a specific output device. In fact, keep in mind that the default behavior of all RIP software is to take any design - CMYK, RGB, or even Greyscale - and convert it first to Lab color. After that, it then converts to the output ICC. So if your prepress department is experiencing issues with your RGB files then either there's a problem with their RIP setup or with their output profiles...but it's not your artwork.
PS for blues and blacks: Make sure you're choosing a blue that's actually possible to reproduce. You can see in the color picker if there's a gamut warning - a little yellow triangle - that tells you you're out of gamut. It may be by a little or it may be by a lot, but at least you'll have an idea. You can turn on the Proof preview to see how much it might change. Blacks...if 0-0-0 is laying down too much ink then that's a problem with your RIP...either the ICC black generation settings or the ink limit. Create a series of swatches with diminishing levels of black and print it, then determine what you should be using for "solid" black.
@@LeeManevitch That last paragraph was what I was trying to understand. It's getting better results doing rgb > lab > ICC than if I just began in CMYK. I just didn't understand that RIP process, or the how it does it I guess. Thanks also for the blacks and blues tips.
Are you 100% certain the topmost element is set to overprint, AND the file's color mode is set to CMYK? If it's RGB then you have to convert to CMYK to preview it, then undo the conversion once you're done. Overprint preview in RGB only affects spot colors.
@@LeeManevitch Hi, yes, absolutely sure. The file color mode is CMYK. The objects also are CMYK. Overprint fill has been applied to the top object, and not the bottom object.