Illustrator file gradient issues

[mitsfreak12]

Silly, but this should be an easy fix. Hi everyone, hope someone can help as I ran into a dead end and wasted so much material test printing it.

ISSUE: An Illustrator root file created in vector format. File has a gradient feature that consist of one pantone red 1797C. On the gradient slider, one side has 40% fill and the other 100%

PRINT ISSUE: GRADIENT comes out of the printer with two distinct color only, the lighter and the darker pantone.

PRINTER = MUTOH VJ1614 ECOSOL
RIP = ONYX POSTERSHOP VER X10

TRIED FIXES

1. Typical fix = flattened file and converted to tif/jpeg/pdf/psd/eps and imported it as a link.
2. Converted to CMYK and also RGB
3. Turned off "all ICCC profiles" in ONyx X10 rip
4. While saving as an EPS file in Illustrator, turned or selected "compatible gradient and gradient mesh printing"

and a lot of other ways of trying to fix it and still coming out the same - a two tone print instead of a gradient.

Hope someone has other ideas or if anyone experienced it and found a solution. HELP

 

[Custom_Grafx]

Select it, go to object menu, hit rasterize at desired resolution, then send to printer.

 

[mitsfreak12]

thanks...forgot to mention - done rasterizing it too to 300dpi and tried 150dpi as well. Been talking to an onyx support, it might be some of Onyx Postershop x10 default settings. Gave me some instructions to try.

 

[J Hill Designs]

if you open the tiff etc in photoshop does it look right?

 

[MikePro]

tried selecting "Compatiible Gradient and Gradient Mesh printing" option in .eps save window? I hear it helps with certain rips/printers.
otherwise i've also solved my gradient issues by importing it into photoshop and saving a gradient as a .tiff, bringing back into illustrator and making a clipping mask of the shape you need.

 

[signswi]

Haven't ever seen this in Onyx. Is the raster resolution set really low in the file? Is the gradient part of a gradient mesh? I print similar grads all day long using Onyx x10 that were generated in Illustrator (ICC Off is your best bet when specifying PMS color in this particular scenario--ICC Off still uses the internal Onyx PMS color table and there's nothing else that needs color management).

Obvious question: are the sliders on the gradient set to have a really sharp transition?

Have you tried printing it from a PDF? You talk about a million fixes but the first one I try is Save As from Illustrator as a PDF, choose High Quality Print (I use custom presets, but this is just a test). Load up the PDF in Preflight, RIP, Print. Don't bother pre-rasterizing or anything else.

 

[mitsfreak12]

thanks for all the response...

jhilldesigns

Yes, saved it as a tif, it looks alright in the screen. But print problem still occurred.

MikePro = done that as well

jesse:Yep, been there. Although one thing I'd like to mention. Root file was created from CS5 illustrator.

Current trials as of today.

1. saving it again as a pdf file (this time with pdfx-4-2008) *didn't work either*
2 played ripping with smart 16bit and only 16bit and 8 bit as well *didn't work*

sigh......

 

[Custom_Grafx]

Please scan your print and post it.

 

[mitsfreak12]

attached is the image that I just took a picture on how it was printing. Currently did my own gradients (fills) using Illustrator and Photoshop (tif format).

Not sure if that'll work either as its almost similar to what I've done to the client's file. Just maybe...maybe the file is the culprit.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

 

[mitsfreak12]

same results nah..

 

[boxerbay]

take your ai file and open it in photoshop - it will rasterize the file. convert to cymk then save as a tiff.

 

[John Butto]

slider

"ISSUE: An Illustrator root file created in vector format. File has a gradient feature that consist of one pantone red 1797C. On the gradient slider, one side has 40% fill and the other 100%"

You mean one color has 40% on the slider in the color box and the other side is 100% color and they are all the way on each end in the gradient box in Illustrator. Have you tried to create this in Photoshop with the same results when printing. Do all your gradients print this way or only this file because it seems everyone has given you good advice and there have been many threads on this before but it is always about smoothness in color change.

 

[Custom_Grafx]

John you just reminded me of something... I remember there is some issue with a pms gradient that doesn't go from 0-100%. Some bug or glitch.

Fix is to convert that PMS to cmyk before sending to print. On both ends of the gradient slider.

 

[visualeyez]

Rasterizing gradients consisting of transparent levels of spot colors in illustrator always works for me. You might need to create a layer with white fill color below the gradient layer, and select both before rasterizing. Sometimes I encounter problems however, where the only fix is to create a new document and recreate from scratch properly.

-Keith

 

[Bly]

Rasterising the gradient won't fix it entirely. Open in Photoshop and blur, then add noise.

 

[Mosh]

syntax. error

 

[graphicmaniac]

Rasterising the gradient won't fix it entirely. Open in Photoshop and blur, then add noise.

agree with this solution.....with very low settings on both filters.

 

[ForgeInc]

bumping this thread as we are having similar issues with both of our new HP printers. Can't get a blue gradient to print without banding for anything. Actually had to outsource parts of our first job to get it done on time. We are running onyx 10, and am coming to the conclusion it may be rip issue. We have been troubleshooting for days with no resolution. We have tried everything mentioned above. Adding noise, forcing 16bit, etc, saving as postscipt3 eps to no avail. Ugh!

 

[mikey-Oh]

Little bushmilled, so I'm not sure if this'll been tried. Raster the whole thing as a tiff or jpeg then apply your eps contour cut, less it's a wrap... some reason masks don't appear once it's rastered; some masks appear regardless, though they can cipher a contour cut

 

[Custom_Grafx]

There's something else which I haven't seen mentioned yet.

Ink linearization.

Certain shades can "clip", if your linearization is off. Say your Cyan 70-100% is set with very little differential, anything that falls in between that will look the same, hence causing it to look like it jumps from one colour to the other... if that makes sense.

Just a thought...