What's Your Method of Color Registration

[Stephenedwardgraphic]

Just curios how others register a two color vinyl job together when applying to a vehicle. We use stars for registration marks that are cut in place for each color -- just curious what others do. We install dry on the vehicle. So for this example I would put the black down first and then put the silver down last trying to line up the marks. Only problem is that if you aren't dead nuts on then the border looks thinner or thicker on one side.

How do you guys do it?

 

[signcrafters london]

Squares instead of stars.

 

[J Hill Designs]

2 triangles

 

[bulldozer]

We don't use registration marks. We would cut the gray, but when we go to cut the black, we cut the grey and black, weed where the gray is and line it up.

 

[Biker Scout]

Yeah, what he said...

Stars, squares and triangles? I've never heard of such a technique. I thought you just needed a good eye and steady hand. (Or just break things down into smaller, manageable pieces) Was this technique in some beginners guide to cut vinyl or something? How can so many people be using a similar technique?

I've always treated it like inlay wood, or marble flooring. Just cut both, weed what you don't need and lay in the new. Wet if necessary and it slides right into the void. Or if non critical install, just straight overlay.

 

[J Hill Designs]

I'd rather spend 5 seconds drawing in 2 triangles then 5 minutes wetting, lining, etc

 

[signcrafters london]

Yeah, what he said...

Stars, squares and triangles? I've never heard of such a technique. I thought you just needed a good eye and steady hand. (Or just break things down into smaller, manageable pieces) Was this technique in some beginners guide to cut vinyl or something? How can so many people be using a similar technique?

I've always treated it like inlay wood, or marble flooring. Just cut both, weed what you don't need and lay in the new. Wet if necessary and it slides right into the void. Or if non critical install, just straight overlay.

In the days before printers, I'd sometimes layer as many as 8 colors. You think you can eyeball that many and have them come out correctly?

How about registration on an 8' x 8' graphic? I'd like to see you wet that and slide it into a void.

 

[Signed Out]

We use rectangles, usually about 2"x.5". Sometimes we'll cut the registration mark out (tape, vinyl and backer) of the second layers on bigger graphics to create a "window" to look through.

 

[Biker Scout]

What kind of cut vinyl comes 8' x 8'?

This sign place I worked as basically an intern, they did large sign cans with polycarbonate faces. Had to use translucent vinyl, and couldn't overlap anything other than black. We slid those into place all the time. They had their own soapy/alcohol mixture in one of those garden pump sprayers. We hosed everything... including our hands and forearms, worked fast and let the signs dry for a day before peeling masking (clear, I might add... not paper mask Sometimes we renegaded it and didn't use mask at all) Always perfect registration, never a lift/peel bubble.

8 layers though... yeah, I can see that as being a pain in the butt!

 

[decalit]

Yeah, I use all kinds of shapes.... Makes life easy... if you cut out and weed then inlay if your vinyl shrinks any you will have a gap between the two colors.

 

[2B]

Tried all of the mentioned shapes and we found using a hexagon works best.

No acute angles / points for the plotter to handle and weeding is a breeze.

plus you have nice straight angles to ensure the alignment is correct on all axis

 

[HIGHSPEEDGRAPHIX]

Tried all of the mentioned shapes and we found using a hexagon works best.

No acute angles / points for the plotter to handle and weeding is a breeze.

plus you have nice straight angles to ensure the alignment is correct on all axis

i switched to hexagons after i saw you post that a couple weeks back. but typically i do it by eye unless its a lot of layers, very detailed or close margins.

 

[bulldozer]

In the days before printers, I'd sometimes layer as many as 8 colors. You think you can eyeball that many and have them come out correctly?

How about registration on an 8' x 8' graphic? I'd like to see you wet that and slide it into a void.

we do it daily. really isn't that difficult. we even do it with jobs that require digital and cut vinyl to be combined.

 

[bob]

In the days before printers, I'd sometimes layer as many as 8 colors. You think you can eyeball that many and have them come out correctly?

How about registration on an 8' x 8' graphic? I'd like to see you wet that and slide it into a void.

No matter what form of registration mark you choose to use, vagaries in media and app tape almost guarantee that multiple layers will not line up precisely. The larger they are, the worse they will be.

By far the easiest way is to cut the same, exactly the same, bounding rectangle around each layer. Apply at least the outline of the bounding rectangle with the first layer, lop off each corner of the bounding rectangles of subsequent layers and simply line up each corner. Then remove the first bounding rectangle.

 

[signcrafters london]

What kind of cut vinyl comes 8' x 8'?

None that I know of. That's why I said "graphic." As in 8' x 8' graphics (or larger) that have to be paneled and layered.

 

[signcrafters london]

No matter what form of registration mark you choose to use, vagaries in media and app tape almost guarantee that multiple layers will not line up precisely. The larger they are, the worse they will be.

By far the easiest way is to cut the same, exactly the same, bounding rectangle around each layer. Apply at least the outline of the bounding rectangle with the first layer, lop off each corner of the bounding rectangles of subsequent layers and simply line up each corner. Then remove the first bounding rectangle.

View attachment 98739

That doesn't work:

1. If you are paneling.
2. If you have a several small areas of different colors that must be precisely placed in a larger graphic. If my first layer (black outline) is 2' x 5' and I have four other layers of smaller colors (like below), I'm not going to cut each color 2' x 5'. I'll use squares and won't have to measure, guess, eyeball or waste vinyl.

 

[bob]

That doesn't work:

1. If you are paneling.
2. If you have a several small areas of different colors that must be precisely placed in a larger graphic. If my first layer (black outline) is 2' x 5' and I have four other layers of smaller colors (like below), I'm not going to cut each color 2' x 5'. I'll use squares and won't have to measure, guess, eyeball or waste vinyl.

View attachment 98741

So then, in your straw man example, where would you put these squares? If this example were a real live thing, I'd just drop the various colored objects in by eye. It would be at least as accurate as any other way.

Waste vinyl? Vinyl used for registration is not wasted. If a bit of vinyl in the trash bin after a job is going to make a measurable difference in anything you might want to re-visit your pricing model.

 

[Mosh]

we print two color stuff now a days, back in the old times I used four circles.

 

[J Hill Designs]

So then, in your straw man example, where would you put these squares? If this example were a real live thing, I'd just drop the various colored objects in by eye. It would be at least as accurate as any other way.

Waste vinyl? Vinyl used for registration is not wasted. If a bit of vinyl in the trash bin after a job is going to make a measurable difference in anything you might want to re-visit your pricing model.

something like this is how I would tackle it

 

[signcrafters london]

bob, you are one of my favorite posters, but IMO you are FOS in this instance.

Here is the layout, this time with the registration marks. Let's say the black is 2' x 3'. The others are less than a square foot each. Why would I waste 5+ square feet of vinyl and transfer tape on the other 5 colors? If I have 6 of these signs to do, I will use the same total amount of vinyl for all 6 of them as you will for a single sign using your method.