Activity Feed Forums Printing Discussions General Printing Topics 100% magenta stroke is a non printing line?

  • 100% magenta stroke is a non printing line?

    Posted by Simon Worrall on September 5, 2023 at 8:32 am

    The other day I got a PDF artwork with some printing and cutting.

    The designer had used 100% magenta stroke for the cutting line, but hadnt outlined any of the fonts, so I was prevented from opening it up and converting the line into a contour colour.

    When I got back to the designer, she threw a minor wobbly, insisting that 100% magenta stroke is a NON PRINTING STROKE.

    We had a back and forth, but finally she relented and sent me a file with outlined fonts and it was sorted.

    Having not encountered it before, I decided to try printing it as an experiment. It printed, as expected, in magenta.

    This leads me to ask the question; Is 100% magenta a non-printing line in any rip that anybody knows about? Or is it possible to designate this line as a cutting line in Flexiprint (or any other rip)?
    The Roland Versaworks contour cutting line DISPLAYS as magenta, although its not magenta, and works as a non printing line in both Roland and Flexiprint.

    I imagine this lady got confused with this line and had the wrong information.
    Im happy to be proved wrong though.

    Hugh Potter replied 1 year, 3 months ago 6 Members · 6 Replies
  • 6 Replies
  • David Hammond

    Member
    September 5, 2023 at 10:45 am

    From my experience of different RIPs, Magenta seems to be the normal colour for cut paths, however, it is the colour name (Spot Colour) that dictates whether it is printed, or if it is not and used as the Cut Path.

    CutContour works for Roland, it also works with Onyx and the HP we’ve now got.

    Felt Tip Fairy strikes again…

    • Martyn

      Member
      September 5, 2023 at 12:52 pm

      +1 for what david said. Its the spot colour name that makes it a cut line and everyone tends to use the magenta

  • Jamie Wood

    Member
    September 5, 2023 at 1:45 pm

    Agree. Magenta is the colour usually used, but re-named to whatever the RIP needs. If left named 100% magenta, then not necessarily a cut-path.

  • Colin Crabb

    Member
    September 5, 2023 at 5:09 pm

    Can use any colour (we use blue, white & magenta! depending the type of cut, or colour of artwork) its all down as people have said, creating it as a spot colour with a name that can be identified by the RIP or cutting software.

    For Adobe users, create a spot colour with set name (eg: ContourCut <– case sensitive) and add this to your 'Library' feature.

    RIP / Cutting software, use the created name to indicate its a cutting guide and not a print guide – POW your all set. See Contour Cutting (onyxgfx.com) if your a Onyx user for examples.

  • Colin Crabb

    Member
    September 5, 2023 at 5:11 pm

    its a similier process if you use white ink – needs to be a spot colour and set as overprint, but this is getting off topic!

  • Hugh Potter

    Member
    September 7, 2023 at 2:41 pm

    As David says, however, I’ve had a mare with a file this past couple of days, continuously printing some magenta 100% cut contour outlines and not cutting them. Eventually realised it was the only part of the drawing that was still a font (not that in itself is a problem usually), I converted to curves and it’s all good now. That was with Calibri.

Log in to reply.