versacamm printouts

[Phil Halling]

Is it possible to remove the text and then drop it back on as an eps file seperatley that will give you clean text, as for the banding are you printing bi-directional or uni-directional? uni will give you less banding but will take twice as long to print.

Phil

[mark walker]

Thanks Phil, I’m printing in bi directional but will try uni as the file doesn’t take too long anyway, aswel as text I have some logos on the file but I may try and clean them up a little and then reprint, thanks for the reply.

Mark 😀

[Robert Lambie]

what size is the printout?
was the orginal 300dpi?
when you say banding do you mean little darker lines like overlaps?

[Gordon Forbes]

Sounds like you are to big with the pic
What you need to do in Signlab is clip it. Make a vector outline of what you need text or a bitmap. Either contour cut and make the contour cut go inside the boundary slightly (past the jagged pixels) make a path with this lay it over your drawing and Clip it it creates a mask with a hard edge.
If you need to do text in the same pic just duplicate the pic and just clip the bits you want then overlay them on the finished output.
When you come to the finished item again make a contour or draw what you need around it What I do often in a square for example is draw one the size I need contour cut it and just drag the contour cut line to the finished drawing works a treat.

Great for cleaning up effects from photoshop.

Be SURE to do plenty saves as you go along. I will post some examples of what I am working on now later to let you see what can be achieved be carefull layering etc to get rid of the jagged bits.

Hope this helps Goop.

[Rodney Gold]

DPI is actually irrelevant when it comes to digital printing , as its only pixel count that matters. Despite the 1440 dpi capability of the machine , it can only really print at best about 100 pixels per inch , pixellation will start at about 50 or less pixels per inch.
When you get the file you will see that its lets say 2000 pixels by 3000 pixels which really means that for good output , you can print it 30″ x 20″.
Banding will not be caused by low pixel counts , its a function of many things
The steps to take to avoid/minimize banding are these.
1) do an environmental calibration
2) Then do a media feed calibration
3) Do a bidirectional calibration
4) Check and clean heads
5) Use the right inkloading (too little causes banding , too much causes puddling)
6) Check your heater temp is correct
7) Set the scan to full width rather than media or graphic width
8) Slow down the head speed
9) Up the print resolution
10) Print unidirectional
11) I’ve probably miseed something 😉
The RIP has plenty to do with it as well , the original versacam RIP is one of the best there is , it’s a Wasatch. We have signlab but I would never print out of it , I use Corel and export out to EPS and use the RIP to do it all for me. Workflow and queuing are so much better using a stand alone rip. I would try that , use signlab as the design package and Colorip as the actual thing that drives the printer.

[mark walker]

Thanks for all the replies folks. Plenty there for me to try this morning, will post later with results.
Cheers Mark 😀

[Mike Grant]

Banding can also be caused by the drag of the roll. Always run out enough vinyl to do the job so that there is no pull on the roll.

[Gordon Forbes]

Think it actually tells you not to do this with the versacamm says leave it tight !!!

Goop