Need Help White undercoat not lining up (Onyx Thrive 12 & Arizona 318GL)

[DPICopy]

I'm having issues with the alignment of a white undercoat and color top coat.

I regularly print on dark substrates. When I do, I make one file with a solid fill and use that as the spot color, then run a separate file with the color to print on top of the white. On fine detail prints (text especially) there is always some white poking out the bottom, it looks like a white drop shadow. Files are both vector, and lined up according to the RIP and printer.

I've tried different quality settings, as well as bi/uni directional modes without any noticeable difference. It happens across all medias I've tried so I don't think it's the substrate that is causing it.

Does anyone have any advice on how to alleviate this, or is it just something you have to live with?

PS - If you think this post should be moved to the flatbed forums let me know, I wasn't sure which was the best to post in.

PPS - I tried to search for this in the forums but didn't find anything, maybe I didn't use the right terms...

 

[Pauly]

The problem is a head alignment on the printer.

Also, why don’t you print in quality layered mode?
So it prints white and CMYK at once.

 

[DPICopy]

The problem is a head alignment on the printer.

Also, why don’t you print in quality layered mode?
So it prints white and CMYK at once.

Ok, I'll explore what I can do with the head alignment, thank you.

Whenever I've printed both at once the colors never come out right, the colors always seem muted/overpowered by the white. Attached is an example of the same file sent with 'Fill Image Area' on the Spot color rather than printing them separate. Is that the wrong way to go about this? I saw in another post them talking about 'Define Layers' in Printer Settings, but that is always greyed out for me.


Edit: Just found how to use the 'Define Layers', I was in Fine Art not Quality mode. Will give that a shot shortly. Thanks!

 

[signheremd]

In Onyx, in Job Editor, you can trap your white layer too - if you need to.

 

[DPICopy]

In Onyx, in Job Editor, you can trap your white layer too - if you need to.

I'm not clear on what you mean by trap, or how to go about it...

This is what I just set up to try to test (with no success):
I currently have a PDF, outputted from Illustrator, with a white layer named 'Spot1'.
In 'Spot Channel Replacement' I changed the Document Spot Color Name to 'Spot1' next to the 'Spot1' ink channel.
I turned on 'Enable Spot Layer Generation' and the Spot Channel is on Spot1
I changed the 'Define Layers' to 'Quality Layered' and set the middle and bottom layers to 'White Spot Data'.
With these settings it is not printing any white. I feel like I'm missing something basic here but I have no idea what...

 

[DPICopy]

Started the thread for the shadowing issue, but I've learned a lot about Onyx and Spot colors as a side benefit! I got the 'Define Layers' to work fine, I think my problem was a combination of not having 'Overprint Fill' on in Illustrator, and not having the Spot1 layer as the top layer... This will save me a bunch of time in the future, thanks Pauly and signheremd!

 

[Saturn]

Small consolation but anytime I see eco-solvent stickers that are using white ink (like on clear or holographic), 1) They're rarely trapped, and 2) The white layer is almost always off a bit one direction or another. I know my own S80600's white ink lays out a hair to one side, and I don't think there's any end user adjustments that can be made.

 

[ToTo]

In spot color tool just reduce white one pixel

 

[DPICopy]

In spot color tool just reduce white one pixel

This looks like it has done the trick nicely. Thank you so much, such an easy solution!

 

[johnnysigns]

The CMYK and White are definitely not aligned. Trapping will certainly help, but I'd still run any alignment calibrations on the printer first.

 

[ToTo]

This looks like it has done the trick nicely. Thank you so much, such an easy solution!

Your welcome.
In addition, even if you have done a perfect alignment the cmyk droplets are different then w, because white pigments are titanoxyd. This makes the ink heavier and the droplets splatter more.

 

[Caren Hines]

In spot color tool just reduce white one pixel

On some of my prints, I have to offset it to -4
Quality layered
Then go to Color Correction
Spot1 (Fill choke/Spread) -3 at least
Hit print
Highlight the job, Then Right mouse click- Edit
Printer settings-Define layers
Print mode to Quality-layers
To layer CMYK
Spot1
Spot1
However, I am having trouble with lines under some of the colors.
If I go (bi-directional) If I go (Uni-directional) which is so much slower it doesn't show as much.

 

[ToTo]

-4 is way to much. Points to an alignment issue. I guess the alignment of printheads needs to be done.