-
Newbie with Gerber P2C – cutting paths probs
Hope you experts can point us in the right direction. Just bought Valuejet with Gerber P2C plotter/cutter. We are design company and work in Freehand, Illustrator and Photoshop. We are having problems getting the paths to cut labels out after printing. We have been told by installer that a 1% Cyan path will create the cut path but this does not seem to work. When we try to see if the file has worked we get "nothing to cut" message. We can do this in photoshop by creating a clipping path but its more time consuming after we have created the graphic and vector path in illustrator. EPS or PDF? Any help or clues much appreciated here. By the way using Mistral RIP to print and cut. Thanks Tim
-
7 Replies
-
Hello,
You have the same set-up as I do. When i produce labels i add a 1% cyan hairline around the object to act as a cut path – you should not be able to see the line, unless it intersects a coloured area.
I have also found that eps files seem easier to cut, normally i use corel X13 for my designs but this should also work in your programes.
Robert
-
Hi Tim
I purchased the same set up recently. I’ve not used a file direct from Freehand yet, but I imagine that exporting the file as an EPS should incorporate any cutline that’s you’ve created.
John
-
Sometimes rips are set to ignore any dot size smaller than 1%, often when it rips a 1% dot it will read it as a 0.99% dot and will therefore ignore it and then basically you have nothing there.
Try a 2% dot or check the rip settings, I’m not sure why it has to be so light but then again I don’t have a printer and only know about this because of my flexographic printing background.
Other than that I can’t help, sorry.
cheers
Warren
-
Thanks for the responses. Our graphics often include imported images, tifs etc. The last label we were trying had a couple of tifs in it. When exported as pdf Mistral sees the images and graphics fine but not the cutting path. When exported as eps Mistral sees the cutting path but the images are missing from the eps file and Mistral asks for the missing images (calls them all "untitled"). This is from Freehand. Also tried the illustrator route and as an eps Mistral sees the graphics but not the path. I am sure once we establish the correct procedure it will be OK but I am pulling my hair out trying to sort this one. By the way we are using macs to create the artwork initially. Perhaps it is the way we are creating the 1% Cyan in the colour pallet- should it be process or spot colour? Thanks again guys – food for thought. Tim
-
Produce the cut line in cmyk. and export as cymk when exporting as an eps file. You may find you are exporting as rgb by mistake and this may alter the percentage of the 1% in your cutline.
Karl.
-
Success – just to let you know. Freehand eps do not work if there are imported graphics as they do not get embedded. Succeeded using illustrator 10 and saving as eps file postscript level 3 – cutting path .5 pt in 1% Cyan process colour. Thanks for all the tips. Tim
-
Tim
I will get some one to give you a ring and send some info out for you on how to print and cut with Illustrator and photo-shop.
Stu
Log in to reply.