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L26500 Backlit glossy film issue. Too much ink?
Hi All,
Looking for a bit of advice on printing to backlit glossy film. This is the first substrate that I’ve had any print issues with since getting the printer late last year.
Here are a couple of pics of the issue:
As you can see there is both vertical & horizontal banding but it’s only really visible when backlit. I’m presuming the issue is too much ink? I used a profile with 16 pass as I wanted to make sure it wasn’t too washed out when illuminated.
I used the same profile on a matt face backlit with no issues whatsoever here
Is there another technique for increasing colour density for backlit films other than increasing the number of passes?
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6 Replies
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What colour profile did you use?
What rip are you running?
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Hi Andy,
Using Flexi Production Manager 12 & using HP Backlit Polyester film 16 pass bidirectional profile -
Hi Myles,
Ive printed loads of backlit and not seen this problem, I’m running Onyx and theres a feature in which you can tell the printer to run high ink level (i would probably turn this feature off when running such a solid colour) . Id say the pass rate is fine if you run any higher the substrate could become saturated. Could be the substrate, maybe try running a printhead clean…..Andy
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Hi Myles
Try changing from bidirectional to single direction (cannot remember the name lol) instead of putting ink down in both directions it just puts it down the same way each time, which might be enough to sort this for you.
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Andy,
Yes, the profile I used is high ink but there is an option to change the parameters in "Printer Mode" drop-down menu. Different options for high/low ink, the number of passes & uni/bi-directional, so might just try that. I’m presuming it must be tied up with the fact it’s gloss rather than matte & that the matte somehow soaks up the ink better whereas with the gloss it sits more on the top??Kevin, I’ll try the unidirectional next step if the low ink doesn’t sort it I guess.
Just out of interest, do any of you with a 26500 know does it definitely have an internal spectrometer? I was lead to believe it does but last time I tried to do a colour calibration in the RIP It didn’t seem to detect one on the printer.
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OK tried 3 different versions based on the suggestions above:
1/ 16 pass bidirectional low ink
2/ 16 pass unidirectional low ink
3/ 10 pass bidirectional low ink& I’m surprised to say that the 10 pass was actually the best both back-lit & front-lit. All three eliminated the banding issue I originally had so that’s spot on.
My issue now is how do I go about stopping it looking so grey when back-lit? Obviously adding more ink or more passes is not an option. Would it make any difference to increase the saturation in the colour settings in the RIP, or what about the DPI? (currently at 600, could increase to 1200) or would they both end up with the same issue as having the high ink setting?
I’m wondering also if I tried printing double sided but not sure if the film would take ink on the back.
Any suggestions welcome.
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