Versaworks help - Green Gradient on black only prints black

[VinylLab]

Hey everyone,

I've ran into this issue a few times. When trying to print green onto vinyl or banner, versaworks only shows black where the green should be. I'll save it in Illustrator as a PDF, and it will show green when I open the file, but Versaworks only prints black. Do you have any ideas on what is happening? I have attached a photo of the banner I am trying to print. The green border is what is coming out black.

 

[HDvinyl]

Maybe Versaworks is trying to help with the design?

Seriously though, transparencies have caused this issue with me before.

 

[VinylLab]

Flatten Transparencies

Thanks for the help, Pat. The picture I attached is what it's supposed to look like, but once I print, there is no green in the picture. I haven't ever flattened transparencies so that might be it. I am going to try to learn how to do that in Illustrator. Do you know how?

 

[P Wagner]

There are a couple of things that could be happening with this. As others have stated, the transparency effects in the postscript file could be causing the problem. The easy way to test this would be to rasterize the file in Illustrator or Photoshop, turning the file in to flattened pixels. Then print as normal. If the edge color is 'green', then the transparency is probably the issue.
If the edges still print black as before, the problem is that there is too much ink going down onto the media (your ink limits are too high in the media profile that you are using in Versaworks). In this case, your options are:
Test with different media / print modes. Look for one that uses more aggressive ink limits. Better yet, you can elect to custom build a media profile for the media yourself.

 

[LarryB]

Thanks for the help, Pat. The picture I attached is what it's supposed to look like, but once I print, there is no green in the picture. I haven't ever flattened transparencies so that might be it. I am going to try to learn how to do that in Illustrator. Do you know how?

You could also export as a JPEG from illustrator. This would take care of any layer or transparency issues.

 

[SignMeUpGraphics]

I too would like to see a photo of the resulting print.
It could be a profiling issue for the media or there might not be enough separation between the green and black colour values and the rendering intent might be pushing it back to black.
Have you tested both colorimetric and perceptual options in the Matching Method section in the Color Management properties page?

 

[splizaat]

As suggested above, save it as a JPG and print the JPG image rather than the vector file.

 

[karl moik]

the problem could be the pdf. try it as a jpg in the correct size.

 

[J Hill Designs]

most likely a problem with 'overprint' settings in your design/output program -- as stated, a jpg export should fix it