S40600 Ink running Issue, watery stains

[lora]

Hello everyone. I tried to print an image on S40600, using Rad Grafix vinyl media. While printing I noticed the ink was running or dripping (don't know the proper terminology), and watery stains (please see attached pictures). It seems like ink didn't cure fast enough...

I downloaded the proper profile from Grimco website, preheating and heater temperature were as follows: 38C, 40C, 50C.

Also, when I load a high quality (resized in Photoshop) image in Gama Print, do the tiling it loses the quality. When it starts printing a little pixilation is noticeable.

Does anyone experienced similar issues? Thank you in advance for your advises.

 

[unclebun]

I don't see anything that looks like an ink drip in your photos. When you have ink drips, it's almost always due to a piece of fuzz or lint that is stuck to the print head or something just around the print head, and it catches the ink mist as the head moves side to side. Eventually enough ink condenses onto the fuzz that it drips some ink onto the print.

What I do see looks like misting in the areas where multiple lines come together into a vertex in the pattern. This looks like misting/ghosting from too-low humidity and static electricity attracting the aerosolized ink mist to the vinyl. If this is what you experience, you need to run a humidifier when the air is dry. Around where we are that only happens when you are running heat in the building and it's very cold outside, but other places have drier air than we do. Another quick fix for that kind of misting is to open the printer cover and stick something in the sensors to fool it into thinking the cover is closed. This lets the ink mist dissipate into the air rather than collect in the printer.

I never used the Gama Print; we used Onyx from the beginning, but I don't think there should be any loss of image quality from running through the RIP. It does look like you've greatly enlarged the image as diagonal lines show stair-stepping.

 

[lora]

I don't see anything that looks like an ink drip in your photos. When you have ink drips, it's almost always due to a piece of fuzz or lint that is stuck to the print head or something just around the print head, and it catches the ink mist as the head moves side to side. Eventually enough ink condenses onto the fuzz that it drips some ink onto the print.

What I do see looks like misting in the areas where multiple lines come together into a vertex in the pattern. This looks like misting/ghosting from too-low humidity and static electricity attracting the aerosolized ink mist to the vinyl. If this is what you experience, you need to run a humidifier when the air is dry. Around where we are that only happens when you are running heat in the building and it's very cold outside, but other places have drier air than we do. Another quick fix for that kind of misting is to open the printer cover and stick something in the sensors to fool it into thinking the cover is closed. This lets the ink mist dissipate into the air rather than collect in the printer.

I never used the Gama Print; we used Onyx from the beginning, but I don't think there should be any loss of image quality from running through the RIP. It does look like you've greatly enlarged the image as diagonal lines show stair-stepping.

I will try to open the cover first.
Gama Print is a Tiling Tool built in Onyx Rip software. The original image file is .ai vector file. I saved it as a jpeg, that's why I had the pixelation. I tried loading EPS or PDF files and there is still pixelation. Kind of confused...

 

[SignMeUpGraphics]

Just looks like poor scaling to me. Would you be comfortable sending through your original vector file to have a look at?

 

[lora]

Just looks like poor scaling to me. Would you be comfortable sending through your original vector file to have a look at?

Sure, I will send a direct message to you. Thank you

 

[balstestrat]

I will try to open the cover first.
Gama Print is a Tiling Tool built in Onyx Rip software. The original image file is .ai vector file. I saved it as a jpeg, that's why I had the pixelation. I tried loading EPS or PDF files and there is still pixelation. Kind of confused...

No, Gama Print is the Onyx RIP, it's just a version of it. Tiling is a tool built into the RIP.
Never ever save vector as a jpeg, you will lose the scalability.
If you look at the print in Onyx it will always be pixelated because it's not rendered with full resolution. If you want to do better review loot at it with adobe reader etc.
I bet all those issues you have in the first post is just pixelation because you used a jpeg...

 

[lora]

No, Gama Print is the Onyx RIP, it's just a version of it. Tiling is a tool built into the RIP.
Never ever save vector as a jpeg, you will lose the scalability.
If you look at the print in Onyx it will always be pixelated because it's not rendered with full resolution. If you want to do better review loot at it with adobe reader etc.
I bet all those issues you have in the first post is just pixelation because you used a jpeg...

I realized my mistake, and tried saving it as pdf or eps. It still printed with some pixelation. What is your suggestion? How should I scale the image properly, and how should I save it properly?
Thank you

 

[balstestrat]

If you think it's completely vector and you save it properly and still see pixelation then your file has an issue/it's not actually vector.
You can easily test by printing anything else that you know is working or the Onyx quality test file from samples folder to see if that's working properly.
You should save it to the real print size in illustrator. If it's too big to fit in illustrator then you can do it in 50% size there and scale to 200% in Onyx for example.

 

[lora]

If you think it's completely vector and you save it properly and still see pixelation then your file has an issue/it's not actually vector.
You can easily test by printing anything else that you know is working or the Onyx quality test file from samples folder to see if that's working properly.
You should save it to the real print size in illustrator. If it's too big to fit in illustrator then you can do it in 50% size there and scale to 200% in Onyx for example.

How do I save it properly, what format to use the best for Onyx:eps, tiff, pdf or something? Also how to scale it properly in without losing a quality: it is for wallpaper, so scaling usually is big.

 

[SignMeUpGraphics]

Absolutely no problems printing to scale using the original file you have provided me with.

I will send you back the file scaled correctly and ready for GamaPrint to tile. Import the file as is, and do not convert to another format.