Black lines across graphics when printing

[ErikM]

Hi, sometimes black lines (photo) appear when printing various graphics. It's not regular but it's getting more frequent. The line is not across the entire width of the foil, only in some pictures.

Can anyone help me with this? the nozzles are fine. Print test is 100%.

Thank you for your answers

Printer: Roland SP-540V

 

[Terry01]

Tile in the graphics by the looks..have a close look at original

 

[ErikM]

Tile in the graphics by the looks..have a close look at original

I also thought it might be graphics but when I put the same image printed rotated 180 degrees, the image was without lines. However, the lines appeared again in another image that was printed in place of the previous image. lines will appear on the graphics in the second half of the media (I attach a photo)

can't there be a problem with encoder stripe?

 

[StephenOrange]

Certainly not the encoder. I'm willing to put money on the fact that this is the file or software related. Hardware (mostly) gives a consistent issue, it would also appear over the entire width, and with more regularity. Inspect the file closer, change the format, if it's a PDF - flatten it. There's a bunch of things that could cause this, but like I said, I don't think it's hardware.

 

[netsol]

Strange...
Steven could be right. I would be hard pressed to say where I would start troubleshooting

When you say it appeared in another image, did you create the files, or were they provided by a client?
I am wondering if it's a matter of the way the files are created/processed

 

[ErikM]

Certainly not the encoder. I'm willing to put money on the fact that this is the file or software related. Hardware (mostly) gives a consistent issue, it would also appear over the entire width, and with more regularity. Inspect the file closer, change the format, if it's a PDF - flatten it. There's a bunch of things that could cause this, but like I said, I don't think it's hardware.

Hi Stephen, thank you for your response. I'm not sure if I understand how to flatten a PDF file, would you be able to explain it to me or send me instructions on how to do it? well thank you

 

[ErikM]

Strange...
Steven could be right. I would be hard pressed to say where I would start troubleshooting

When you say it appeared in another image, did you create the files, or were they provided by a client?
I am wondering if it's a matter of the way the files are created/processed

Hi Netsol, I create the files, I always use the same color profile. I save the file as PDF / X-3. Can there be an error somewhere in the process?

 

[netsol]

there seems to be some common thread (perhaps in your process)
Flattening is an adobe process, preparing to make a PDF. After flattening you can no longer edit the file. It is ready to rip or print

 

[StephenOrange]

Hi Stephen, thank you for your response. I'm not sure if I understand how to flatten a PDF file, would you be able to explain it to me or send me instructions on how to do it? well thank you

You can flatten it out of Acrobat (not the plain Adobe Reader). This is usually included in the Adobe Suite. There is limited output control and doesn't anti-alias the files. Better option is Photoshop. Pull the file into Photoshop and when the general dialogue pops up save the file to 100dpi at full size in CMYK. 100dpi is fine if it's general graphics. If there's really fine text on the file then this might be too low. Inspect the file up close, especially the sections where you were getting the lines. Files exported to PDF are often broken up into loads of discrete blocks (i think they're called atomic zones). This most often happens out of InDesign - it really depends on how it's saved. Those section between blocks are sometimes not read correctly and could be the cause. I'm not insisting it's the problem in your case, but it seems like it could be.
Then save this file out of Photoshop to TIFF or even JPEG if you're not too concerned about colour consistency. Hope this helps bud.