What issues? I have a video about working with spot colors on gradients at kzbin.info/www/bejne/lYewo6aMmLB9nZI but if you have a different issue then maybe that'll become an idea for a new video!

Whatever is in the queue when you hit "Print now" will be associated with once cut file and have one barcode. If you need to be more granular with your cutting and barcodes then you'll either have to generate the codes and cut files elsewhere and not have Onyx handle cutting at all, or you'll have to print smaller batches.

@alexanderjtse that's actually the next video I intend to make - I could have sworn I did one ages ago but I guess it was a private one for a specific customer. So now I have to make a public-facing video, because the question comes up fairly frequently! I'm travelling a TON these days, but when I'm on solid ground at home I'll be working on it. Be sure to hit the notification bell so you'll know when it's released.

Yes - same process. Two gradients, once on top of each other, with the tip one set to overprint. Both gradients using tints of the spot colors instead of using transparency effects or any other gradient method.

​@@LeeManevitch You can give me your whatsapp number or e-mail for a personal question??

Fill Image Area will not work properly if there's any sections that are filled "white" - that is, no color. You'll need to find another strategy for adding white in those cases.

@@LeeManevitch Ah, understood. So replacing the white with a different color or gradient should be a fix. Thank you.

Perhaps. If not, and you're ok with it, please feel free to send me the file at [email protected] with a detailed description of exactly what you're trying to do, and I'll take a look at it. If there are linked files in your artwork I'll need those, too.

@@LeeManevitch I managed to just slightly decrease the level of white to a hair darker (almost unnoticeable) & that seemed to do the trick. Thanks, so much, for the help!

If it's oversaturating when you backlight the sign, then you probably need to dial back the ink density on the non-image side of your print. There's no real rule of thumb here because it's entirely dependent on the light source you're using...but lower that backside ink density and run a small test to see if that accomplishes what you need it to.

@LeeManevitch that's where we are struggling. With HP only showing us how to achieve this by ripping UF we are cuffed to that. We have yet to be able to RIP a true 3L file through Caldera to allow us control of the ink density on each color layer. Do you know how to achieve that at the RIP?

Oh! I didn't look at which video this comment was attached to. I have a sandwich mode video available at kzbin.info/www/bejne/fqfHcqGJjp5qntE

@@LeeManevitch Yes! I just watched this video! It was super helpful and I think we are closer to achieving what we are looking for! It does look like sending a file with a higher UF ink density and pass as one layer and a lower UF ink density and pass for the other layer does translate over at the printer. We are going to test this once we get our replacement white head. Is that how you achieve the muted under layer in this 3L example? Or does changing the print mode to 3L at the printer automatically create a muted bottom layer?

You can do it that way, but at the IPS if you edit the sandwich mode you'll see settings for Ink Density A and Ink Density B - the IPS will honor whatever density you select for those so if you send just one UF file and then convert it to SW, it will dial back the ink density automatically if that's how the mode is set up. For example, you could set up a mode that's 120% on the viewing side, and 80% on the non-viewing side.

Great question with an easy answer: edit your print mode at the IPS and swap the ink densities between "A" and "B." The default behavior of most print modes assumes first-surface application, so for second-surface the ink densities will be backward from what you need.

@@LeeManevitch We tried this but saw no difference in the results. Do you have a video or can you link to a video that would should on the printer how to edit the print mode at the IPS? There is no discernible visual difference that we can see from the "A" and "B" densities -- shouldn't that be apparent on the monitor so one can be sure that the correct density is selected for the preferred order? Thank you for any further resources you can recommend that would demonstrate what we're trying to achieve.

I don't know that you'll see the difference onscreen - you should look in the print mode itself on the IPS and see what the densities are for side A and B. I no longer have easy access to an R-Series without driving 80 miles, so I'm unable to give you anything step-by-step. This might be a question for the HP support team, if checking the print mode doesn't reveal anything obvious.

This feature has been around at least since CC 2017, but I don't think it existed in version 6.

That's a tough one without knowing exactly what you're trying to accomplish, but in general I'd treat your 3-color gradient as two 2-color gradients back-to-back. If you're going blue-red-yellow, for example, I'd go blue-red as one gradient then red-yellow as the second one placed adjacent to the first one. By far the simplest approach, if it's feasible to design it that way.

Design of white always goes over, regardless of print process. Make it overprint, and set both gradient endpoints to be tints of white rather than using transparency effects. So for instance 0% - 100% for the full gradient.

If not then you probably need a resync. Generally the easiest thing to do is to delete your printer from Flexi and then readd it. If that doesn't work you probably need to reach out to Flexi for support.

@@LeeManevitch Thank you sir

Cool, right? Glad you enjoyed it.

Agree! The common misconception is taht because a printer is CMYK that you'll somehow get "better" results if the design is also CMYK. The biggest problem with designing in RGB, though, is that a designer will choose WAY out-of-gamut RGB colors onscreen and then reject the job when what they get is nothing like what they expected. Honestly the biggest skill in the print business is managing expectations.

I've never tried, but my first instinct is that it could be related to the settings you have chosen under Effects > Document Raster Effects Settings. If that's not it then you need to take a close look at your JPEG export settings in the Export for Screens dialog; you might be inadvertently changing the scale or the quality.

So there's no such thing as "resolution" when it comes to colorimeters or spectrophotometers - it only takes one reading per button press, not multiple readings across a sensor like a camera would. What you're looking for is the smallest possible aperture. The Color Muse has a 4mm aperture size - that's the smallest aperture size I'm aware of for a budget colorimeter. The only 2mm aperture devices I know are spectrophotmeters. As far as variance, yes - there will be some. But for fun I measured the same color swatch 8 different times, varying my position and ortation of the sensor slightly between all readings. The worst reading-to-reading Delta-E I got was 0.55, and the theoretical min-to-max delta-E calculated as was 0.89.

3-layer was only intended to be a day/night application and there is no way at all to do what you're asking - if you want blockout you need to go to a 5-layer mode. Remember that Latex inks are transparent, so printing color/black/color would not provide the contrast you'll need in order to see your design; it will look exactly like printing color-only on black vinyl.

@@LeeManevitch Thank you for the quick reply! As of now we do Color than white. I was thinking color-White-then Black on a specific part of the substrate. Is this only doable with a completely separate pass through the R1000?

Black is only generated where the white is - so if you want a "window" through your print that's only color, you can design the white with clear sections and there will be no black there either. But if that's not really what you need then I'm afraid there's no mechanism on the printer to do what you're talking about. There's a TON of math involved with layered printing - making sure that all nozzles are apportioned equally, etc. - and adding more layers in the form of additional black would require even more calculations, and my guess is the demand was not significant enough to consider it.

Oh...I should point out that if you're looking for just color/white/black then yes, create a 3-layer print and just have your nonviewing color side be your black. People do that all the time.

@@LeeManevitch Yes! that is what I want. Color than white for the illuminated area then black in one spot to kill the light. I want to limit the backlight emission in one specific spot. Is there any documentation on this 3 layer process? Is it simply a case of another overprint layer in black above the white? Thanks again for your time! Really appreciate it!

Ridiculous or not, it's still the only way I have found that allows a spot-to-process gradient to print properly via a large-format RIP. And it's been that way for almost 30 years so I'm not holding my breath about any remedy. If you've found a better way I'd love to hear about it.

It appears to work just fine, yes.

There's no good 1:1 relationship between Δa, for example, and a numeric adjustment to get the color in line. That's where good ICC profiles come in; you build the best profile you possibly can and the color engine does the heavy lifting to get the color as close as it possibly can. Getting the ΔE value just shows you how close you are to the intended color but there's not much you can do with it other than assign a pass/fail grade based on the value.

It sounds like you need 5-layer mode based on your description, but if it's exactly the same image front and back then you're correct - it might be overkill. 3-layer sandwich is intended for day/night applications, where it is expected (and favorable) to have light coming from the non-viewing side. 5-layer sandwich mode has white/black/white as the inner three layers, which blocks light transmission from one color side to the other. Given the description in your comment I'd encourage you to first try a small sample of 3-layer and see if that meets your needs before committing to 5-layers, especially if you need to print a significant number of square feet.

@@LeeManevitch Sounds good, I'll test it out and see how it goes. My concern was due to it being the same art but one being flipped. Its intended purpose is to be placed on a window in a school building, they want the design visible from outside and inside. Luckily it is only a handful so we can test. Thanks again!

Ah - if one image is mirrored then yes, you'll likely need 5-layer.

That's way too generic a question to answer, unfortunately - it really depends on the construction of the file. In general, when you have a file like that, it's best to go back to the original components and add white to each image individually.

OK? I'm unclear on the actual question, mostly because there wasn't one. 😁 Spacing between copies and/or jobs is all-or-nothing - you can't vary it - so if the question is how to add extra gap between gang jobs, you can't do that directly. Instead create a blank file of whatever gap you need and put that between the two nested jobs you want to print.

​@@LeeManevitch I noticed that ONYX RIP has plenty of missing features which seem not logical at all. Like final output preview is only on one task but can't see all tasks in queue how long the print is going to be. Unless I am missing something.

In this case the "gutter" is a CMYK "spit bar" on the sides of the print, outside the live area. They are helpful to diagnose potential banding and also to keep the printheads exercised when there is a primary color that goes unused for a long portion of the print.

I do not - I don't have any halftone-able printers at my disposal and honestly I've forgotten that's even an option.

@@LeeManevitch so it is an option? But where? You should do a tutorial. Smile

Tough to do a tutorial if I don't have a printer capable of showing the outcome, but halftones ARE available for any non-contone printer. They're just well-hidden. When you create a new print mode in Media Manager, in the Basic Print Mode Settings you can choose Halftone in section 3 (dot pattern) by clicking the gear icon to the right of the dot pattern and choose from a variety of output options. But you're on your own as far as the options there, unless you're willing to send me a free printer for my home office so I can test. 🤣 Also note that you'll have to create an ICC profile from scratch as using a non-OEM dot pattern will almost guarantee that existing ICC profiles in the media library will not produce the desired output.

@@LeeManevitch thanks. It's interesting there isn't a tutorial anywhere to be found on this subject as it relates to Onyx

I have zero knowledge about DTF printers. In general, the workflow I laid out is for dealing with a printer that has a white channel, so in the absence of any personal experience the best I can offer is...probably?

Two ways to accomplish this, depending on your intent: 1. If you intend to make a permanent change to the artwork in the library, double-click the art in the Libraries palette. it will open in a new window where you make changes and then save the file, resulting in the changes made permanent in the Library. 2. If you just want to change the art on one file, alt-drag (or Option-drag on Mac) the library item onto your artboard and then it will be live, editable art.

If there's a difference in color between Save for Web and Export for Screens, then you need to look closely at the export settings and your document color settings. Save for Web automatically converts your color to sRGB and Export for Screens does not, so if your files aren't already in sRGB then that might be where the discrepancy is coming from.

So the case of the lion was a different design strategy. The easiest way to do this is: Convert the file to greyscale and INVERT the data - everywhere that is black in the file will print white so it needs to be inverted image data. TIP: I usually set my lightest point (once inverted) to 1% so there are no blown-out highlights. Save as a TIF and then colorize it in Illustrator or InDesign...just apply the "Spot1" spot color to the image there and then save as PDF. If you want to stay straight Photoshop then it becomes a little more complicated. Convert and invert, then create the Spot1 channel. Cut and paste the image data from Gray to Spot1. You should then have two channels - an empty "Gray" channel and a "Spot1" channel with your image data. Then just convert to CMYK and all the channels except Spot1 should still be empty. Save your file as TIF and it should do what you need it to!

Not in Onyx, no. What you're looking to do is often referred to as "common crops" and there's no easy way to overlap artwork - of which the cutlines are a part - in the RIP. Set up a multi-piece file with the cutlines you want, and Onyx will treat it as a single file and cut accordingly. I generally would set up a job for as many columns as I could fit across the media (with appropriate clear space) and several rows - so let's say 5 across by 3 down - and then just send as many copies of that 15-up job as is required.

@@LeeManevitch do you have a video that talks about Layouts in Onyx?

I do not - I can't stand the Layout Tool. In general I find it takes me more time to use that tool than it does to repoen artwork in Illustrator or InDesign and create a finished layout there...so i just avoid it.

OK let me clear up a couple of things: Pantone is a color communication system that ONLY works as planned when you're printing on a printing system that allows the use of custom inks. So, for example, dedicating an offset printer head to 7404 and actually inking that head up with 7404 ink. Or doing the same with screenprinting - printing using 7404 ink on one screen. For ALL other print processes, there's no such thing as Pantone. The color 7404 is converted by the RIP to CMYK (or whatever primaries your print process uses) and it EMULATES that color for final output. In a true Pantone environment it's entirely possible to print gradients of PMS colors - we use tints just like in my video. It's also entirely possible to overprint different Pantone colors on top of others but still only print using the two ink colors in your example. But the inks used would in fact be the correct Pantone colors; in this case you're confusing the source ink with the final output. What if I printed Orange 021 on green paper - the ink used would be Orange 021 but the output color would most definitely not be orange. That doesn't invalidate what we did, but if you measured the color then you are correct that it would not "be" Orange 021 anymore. In a process print environment like a digital printer, we're doing the same thing but the result emulates what it would look like if you actually were able to print with Pantone inks. But it's an emulation because that how all Pantone colors are reproduced on a process printer.

What does your Image Size dialog say about your dimensions and resolution? What dimensions is it resized to, and where / what RIP?

Knowing the sheen is great if you need to know if paint is matte or eggshell. For graphic communication, though, I don't think it's worth the extra cost.

PNG files don't contain white. They may contain "white" areas but that would be onscreen white and not white ink. You would have to manually add white ink to your file and save as a TIFF. The print modes are in no way connected to your artwork so you could print as spot, overflood, underflood, or sandwich. That is decided at the RIP.

If you literally need to merge the 3 files that seems more like a project that would require automation of some sort via Photoshop or other scriptable image editing software. If what you need to do is manipulate the text then that's best done right in Excel. In either case, InDesign is absolutely not the right choice for what you're trying to accomplish and way beyond the scope of this video.

@@LeeManevitch thank you for reaponse. I really appreciate it. I asked AI. Now I'm working with Python and the results are pretty good. I'm still making a modifications. BTW I have used Your advices from that video. Quick and easy job thanks to You. Greetings

The pass count defines the white density and at 6-pass, 60% is the only white density you can print. If you need more density you need to increase the passes...the heads need more opportunity to drop more ink and the only way to do that is to go to a higher pass count that offers 100% or even 160% density.

You know what? I'm not sure. I'm general, that would be controlled through the black generation settings inside the ICC profile but I've never tried it to do a 3-color profile.

Did you try this out on DTF printer ? @stuff9016

No. I have no access to a DTF printer nor do I understand that process at all.

i will be as its the software supplied with my new dtf that is on a boat from china, although i may have to get cadlink as i dont want to have to edit over 300 designs in png format to add spot colours, i am a dtg guy atm, and getting white to print with the brother rip is easy.@@babybirdscraftingmemories2468