Heres a noodle scratcher

[Stormyj]

Basic info. Printing with roland sc540 on 3mil vinyl. Prints fine everything is great, except that black takes a lot longer to dry than other colors. I do have a heater. If I try to apply it to a substrate, areas of the vinyl where the black is tend to be softer and stretch out uneven causing creases. As black areas get bigger, problem gets worse. Im wondering if my black is just spraying on too much or if this is just the way it is. If I let it dry ,longer, it seems to be ok then. Any thoughts?

 

[lodcomm]

Basic info. Printing with roland sc540 on 3mil vinyl. Prints fine everything is great, except that black takes a lot longer to dry than other colors. I do have a heater. If I try to apply it to a substrate, areas of the vinyl where the black is tend to be softer and stretch out uneven causing creases. As black areas get bigger, problem gets worse. Im wondering if my black is just spraying on too much or if this is just the way it is. If I let it dry ,longer, it seems to be ok then. Any thoughts?

Hello Storm,

My Roland SJ500 Over prints the black ink in all DPI settings. I Have my Black Ink limit set down to 75% as a "Base" setting, and as low at 45% for some Media.

-t

 

[nashvillesigns]

black ink

what are the values of the black?
black = 100 K
= 100% ink coverage.
or
Black = 100 y, 100 m, 100 c
= 300% ink coverage.

which do you think will take longer to dry??

-mosher

 

[TyrantDesigner]

what are the values of the black?
black = 100 K
= 100% ink coverage.
or
Black = 100 y, 100 m, 100 c
= 300% ink coverage.

which do you think will take longer to dry??

-mosher

This. When I send stuff out for printing or do it myself my black values are always 100,100,100,100 because I want a rich dark black. On photos I have to drop it down to a 75, 75, 75, 75 otherwise I will get oversaturation of most photo papers and canvases because having 400% saturation of black causes an almost metallic over gloss on prints (aqueous anyways) ... on solvent that isn't so much of an issue as it causes a posterization wave around black areas that I never liked.

Now ... while you can achieve black 0,0,0,100 ... which is called bone black or lamp black due to the lack of color included in the ink. that in comparison to a rich colored area around it is grey because you are printing onto a white area and coverage is not 100% due to even black inks allowing a small amount of light to pass through it and reflect. Sorry, it's still ink, it's still a liquid that cures to a rigid bond, it's still slightly transparent due to the qualities of ink and binders in it.

Now, of the blacks, a blue black is vibrant and can be achieved with making your code 50,10,10,100 and will have a slightly bluer but black as night tint to it and will have good coverage without saturation. with solvent mediums like vinyl this will be an ideal compromise of darkness vs saturation. you will find it still heavy on ink, but will not affect mediums as long as "rich" black (100,100,100,100) does.

But yeah ... your entire problem probably stems from using rgb and having it convert to cmyk (making it around 75,75,75,75 ... actual numbers depend on your rip and number of ink cartridges you use) or you're using cmyk and it's a highly saturated number ... either way, changing your values will change the saturation and the effect it has on the material ... most of the time at the cost of vibrancy.

I know it's odd to talk about vibrancy of black inks ... but it's important to know why your blacks look muted and faded on your work vs a dark void of light that almost shimmers as light passes through it giving the cmy in the inks a chance to add to that.

Personally ... if you're not trying to save pennies worth of ink to speed up the sit time of prints ... take the time to find out how long your acceptable dry time is and schedule it into your jobs. Using rich blacks give you a better product.

 

[DavidT]

black ink

Your media profile should apply correct ink limits.

For printing opaque vinyl film, generally CMYK 0,0,0,100 will give a deep black, if not 50,50,50,100 for example. More than this can cause problems and wastes ink.

David

 

[Stormyj]

Thanks all for the replys. Ill try some different settings and see which one looks best and provides the least amount of drying time. And of course the particular job.

 

[Desert_Signs]

Your media profile should apply correct ink limits.

For printing opaque vinyl film, generally CMYK 0,0,0,100 will give a deep black, if not 50,50,50,100 for example. More than this can cause problems and wastes ink.

David

Define deep black? 0 0 0 100 is NOT black in CMYK. It comes out grey-ish, at least printed with Latex, Eco-Sol, or UV.

For CMYK, a "black" black is 75 68 67 90

 

[DavidT]

Black

I am not sure about UV or Latex, but Solvent and Eco solvent printed 0,0,0,100 Prints look solid black, printing 75 68 67 90 for example looks about the same , just puts down more ink. this is the case on the 5 different solvent printers I have run over the years.

Now if you are talking backlit that's another question