DTF White Ink

[amxprint]

Hi all,

We recently acquired a Kingjet DTF printer and with the help of a supplier have managed to get it up and running and printing however, the white ink will only flood the job rather than printing only behind the images.

I am creating files in Photoshop with a white spot layer (Spot_1 or W1, we've tried both) and exporting as a TIFF, using Flexi to rip the file and F-Print to communicate with the printer. I have been given a .prn file to try out of Cadlink DTF and it does the same.

Does anyone know what could be going on?

 

[somcalmetim]

Pretty sure that converting to TIFF kills any spot layers you set up as it flatten everything to single tiff bitmap...dont think tiff has transparency so you are flattening everything to large single layer bitmap with white background.
Our DTF prints right from transparent background PNG files and detects the white automatically...I think you need to use PNG files with transparency so it can tell the difference between white and a transparent background...

 

[amxprint]

Pretty sure that converting to TIFF kills any spot layers you set up as it flatten everything to single tiff bitmap...dont think tiff has transparency so you are flattening everything to large single layer bitmap with white background.
Our DTF prints right from transparent background PNG files and detects the white automatically...I think you need to use PNG files with transparency so it can tell the difference between white and a transparent background...

Thanks for your reply, it's appreciated. I have tried PNG's from both photoshop and illustrator, TIFFS and PDF's etc. but all seem to give the same flood background result. TIFF files seem to be the only type which exports an extra layer that is shown within the RIP software but still produces a full white background.

 

[somcalmetim]

My bad, guess tiff does have layers but it still sounds like your tiff export doesnt have transparency turned on...
We don't use any layers, we export to single layer PNG with transparency and the rip recognizes the white, color and transparent sections automagically from a one layer bitmap...
Still getting a white background layer sounds like no transparency in export options...or maybe the document color options is set to export a white matte layer...
I would rather send layered vector files but our works best with the transparent png files...bright side is we dont have to worry about doing any special layers.

 

[Gettin'By]

I generally use PNGs with Colorgate RIP. There's an option under the RIP tab for Use Document Transparency. Might see if your rip has something similar. Also make sure it knows it's printing to a black substrate, and the White/Color order is set correct. DTG and DTF use a different order.