Problem with gradient black

[Nuagedesigns]

Printed a large vector style tribal like vehicle graphic for a 2008 Honda ridgeline on my JV3. Graphic shifted from a black to charcoal to grey gradient style. I actually used the steel cylinder swatch in AICS2 for the effect. Printed it out on a sample piece of Avery 1005 EZRS for customer. Looked good black fade like he wanted. Printed entire graphic, 208" X 54". still looked good. Laminated with Dol1000 and it turned green. WTF. now inside or in the shade it looks black. In the sun or direct light it is clearly green. Customer is not happy I said I would reprint but now I need to find out how to get it black. any comments greatly appreciated.

 

[GK]

right off the jump, i would say it was caused by an improperly calibrated profile. if black looks green then 99.9% of the time its the profile. it happened to us the very first time out we did something like this...looked great inside etc etc...brought it outside...holy crap its greenish....did custom profiling....no more green.

 

[Sign Works]

I have noticed that standard lam film will turn a lot of greys green, optically clear lam will prevent this.

 

[Nuagedesigns]

George,

Thanks was thinking along those lines just weird that it took the lam to change the look. Going to try and ghange the profile to use pure K only and see what happens. Thanks for the input.


Sign works,

Being kinda new to this isn't optical clear just for window perf? never heard of using it on other applications.

 

[DRPSignsNGrafix]

Sounds like the biggest problem is in the color. Change values to 100%K all the blacks that come in software is not that way. It does not print right.

 

[Sign Works]

George,

Thanks was thinking along those lines just weird that it took the lam to change the look. Going to try and ghange the profile to use pure K only and see what happens. Thanks for the input.


Sign works,

Being kinda new to this isn't optical clear just for window perf? never heard of using it on other applications.

It is designed to be used with window perf but I've talked to a lot of shops that use it on everything because of the fact that it does not alter any colors at all. The Oracal 290 F is a 2 mil cast vinyl, the only difference is that the adhesive is optically clear unlike the non optically clear lams.

 

[jc1cell]

I was having similar issues with my black looking a bit on the weak side and not as a strong black. It turned out that the profile turned my blacks no matter what percentage into a 76%K and spread the rest of the ink into 50-70% of the CMY based on the ink limit for the media.

I solved this by going into the rip and selecting a replacement color at 100K and spreading the difference evenly in the CMY. This works predictably with vector images but I feel that with raster it could cause some unpredictability.

The best solution for you and your specific gradient situation is to work with the GCR or UCR settings when creating your profiles allowing for a 100 K ink usage and less of a combination of the process colors to create your blacks.

jc

 

[GK]

It is designed to be used with window perf but I've talked to a lot of shops that use it on everything because of the fact that it does not alter any colors at all. The Oracal 290 F is a 2 mil cast vinyl, the only difference is that the adhesive is optically clear unlike the non optically clear lams.

**PLEASE READ**
whoaaa, i think some people are confused with material usage. Optically Clear over laminates are for usage on window perfs and window perfs only. It sounds like you have optically clear and gloss clears (such as Avery DOL1000, 3M 8518, Oraguard 290) mixed up. What they might be comparing is the Gloss clears as opposed to using a Standard or a Luster overlam which can make the colors appear slightly off. Gloss clears are "optically clear" in the sense that it is like looking though glass, however the term Optically Clear in overlaminating refers to Window Perf over laminates and Window Perf only. I can tell you this right now --- using a window perf overlam on a wrap, will void your warranty from the start.