Ghost Reflective - Dark Gray Truck

[wonderings]

I have a client who wanted "ghost reflective" on his dark grey F-150. I have never dealt with this before and am trying to find information on how this process is actually done. From what I have found it seems like the option is finding a coloured vinyl reflective that is as close to the vehicle as possible is the main way of doing it. In this case I don't see anything that is a dark gray reflective. Is this the process, so some cards just might not work well for ghost reflective?

 

[unclebun]

Reflective comes in so few colors that it wouldn't be an option on very many cars. Usually when I've seen people doing ghost lettering they aren't doing reflective. Maybe people are digitally printing the color onto the reflective?

Found this. Example was white on white. https://signwarehouse.com/blogs/content/ghost-reflective-vinyl-graphics

This shop is advertising that they print them. https://svigraphics.com/custom-vinyl-graphics/police-ghost-graphics/

 

[ikarasu]

But a color muse for $50, can the paint color, and use those values for your print.

You will have to tweak it a bit once you get the base values since your printer probably isn't calibrated perfectly, and greys are always the hardest to hit nicely .. but with a cheap color scanner you can get pretty close with some tweaking.

 

[Gino]

But a color muse for $50, can the paint color, and use those values for your print.

You will have to tweak it a bit once you get the base values since your printer probably isn't calibrated perfectly, and greys are always the hardest to hit nicely .. but with a cheap color scanner you can get pretty close with some tweaking.

Got that right.

 

[wonderings]

But a color muse for $50, can the paint color, and use those values for your print.

You will have to tweak it a bit once you get the base values since your printer probably isn't calibrated perfectly, and greys are always the hardest to hit nicely .. but with a cheap color scanner you can get pretty close with some tweaking.

How is the reflective quality when printing on reflective silver or white?

 

[ikarasu]

How is the reflective quality when printing on reflective silver or white?

Grey will be fine. So the road signs you see .. those are all printed.
You get just as much reflectivity as the colored stock almost, except for black of course.

We've done thousands of police cars, all are printed and work fine.

 

[Signarama Jockey]

Hadn't heard of ghost reflective wraps before. Looks cool.

 

[Gino]

I don't think it's a wrap on there, sparky.

 

[Signarama Jockey]

Could be though. You could print a wrap out on wrap film and then add the reflective on top. That way you could match the color on the same printer with the same color.

But, yeah, you're right. It's not a wrap.

 

[jfiscus]

We do them a lot. Pretty simple. Black reflective on black cars, white reflective on white cars. (obviously neither are a perfect match)
For other colors print onto IJ680CR-10 and laminate. No colors are ever going to match perfectly; they don't ever disappear, they just get real subtle.

For printing true grays (only), our Onyx rip has an option to rip/print using only the black ink.
Make a file with every 5% increase in black 5-100% in boxes and print that out onto your reflective. Take that and hold it up to the car and have them choose.

 

[ProColorGraphics]

On cop cars that did ghost graphics, it was black reflective graphics on a black car. That is probably what he saw.

 

[Splash0321]

I’ve got some black reflective and it’s not like black vinyl. I’d say it’s a dark gray and might be what you are looking for.

 

[jcskikus]

I’ve got some black reflective and it’s not like black vinyl. I’d say it’s a dark gray and might be what you are looking for.

This is my daily thing as I do police and ambulatory vehicles as part of my 9-5 gig. Depending on the gray (Ford changed their colors again this year), run a CMYK black and do a color swatch strip showing 5% - 100% opacities. Printing grays on reflective is fine. Latex or solvent, it's still showing the reflective.

 

[Printy McPrint-Print]

I’ve got some black reflective and it’s not like black vinyl. I’d say it’s a dark gray and might be what you are looking for.

Agree. We do 3M's black reflective on black police cars and it looks great.

 

[wonderings]

For printing true grays (only), our Onyx rip has an option to rip/print using only the black ink.
Make a file with every 5% increase in black 5-100% in boxes and print that out onto your reflective. Take that and hold it up to the car and have them choose.

What printer are you using? We have had trouble with grays because it is printing CMYK. we use Caldera but are contemplating switching to Onyx for their RIP as well as Align.

This is my daily thing as I do police and ambulatory vehicles as part of my 9-5 gig. Depending on the gray (Ford changed their colors again this year), run a CMYK black and do a color swatch strip showing 5% - 100% opacities. Printing grays on reflective is fine. Latex or solvent, it's still showing the reflective.

when you print on a reflective stock doesn't it diminish the reflectiveness of the vinyl?

For this specific order client has approved going with the black reflective.

 

[jcskikus]

What printer are you using? We have had trouble with grays because it is printing CMYK. we use Caldera but are contemplating switching to Onyx for their RIP as well as Align.


when you print on a reflective stock doesn't it diminish the reflectiveness of the vinyl?

For this specific order client has approved going with the black reflective.

I use an HP 560 Latex at work and VJ1324, VJ1324X, and a VJ1617H at home. NONE of these reduce reflectivity even when printing doubles strike.

 

[Bengt Backhaus]

What printer are you using? We have had trouble with grays because it is printing CMYK. we use Caldera but are contemplating switching to Onyx for their RIP as well as Align.


when you print on a reflective stock doesn't it diminish the reflectiveness of the vinyl?

For this specific order client has approved going with the black reflective.

I use a HP 310 Latex and it prints very well on reflective. And I have had the same result on an Epson 40600.
In the picture the blue text and arrows are cut in Orafol blue reflective, and the IAL logo is printed on Orafol White.

 

[jfiscus]

What printer are you using? We have had trouble with grays because it is printing CMYK. we use Caldera but are contemplating switching to Onyx for their RIP as well as Align.


when you print on a reflective stock doesn't it diminish the reflectiveness of the vinyl?

For this specific order client has approved going with the black reflective.

We are printing on Epson S60600 printers through Onyx rip. We are pretty happy with Onyx.

 

[Graphic Extremes]

when printing reflective vinyl, does the printed color area still reflect.. I have tried a few times and never get it to be really reflective where the ink layer is put down. Maybe I'm laying to much ink down, maybe a custom profile is needed.

 

[Bengt Backhaus]

I used my regular vinyl profile in the pictures i posted. It reflects plenty, albeit with less color.