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Can anyone do fine printing?

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149motorsports

New Member
Right now im trying to find someone who can print in fine detail. Like font 1,2,ect
I am doing 1:32 scale race cars. Have a bunch of orders, but everything ive tried comes out too fuzzy.
Any suggestions? Attached is a pic of what other guys prints look like.
Thanks
 

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unclebun

Active Member
It may depend on your printer's capabilities. But it also requires a good profile. The biggest threat to fine detail is overinking.
 
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BigNate

New Member
if it has to be perfect, and you don't mind paying, use an old-skool offset press from a shop that uses only optical imaging for plates and negatives--- with digital we are limited to the resolution of the output. No matter what if you zoom in to a digital print it will appear pixelated. but similar to the difference between working with rasters vs vectors, the optical process gives as good a resolution as the focus, but the digital is always limited.... (for example, lets look at a 1" letter on a full scale race car, being reduced to 1/32" on the model --- at 600dpi output there is only 18 pixels high to make up the letter; now I am not sure what quality you are looking for, but to reverse the process, how would a 1" letter printed at 18dpi look? kinda pixelated.... photography is only limited by the optics and the size of the grains in the emulsion - usually exponentially finer than digital printing.)
 
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damonCA21

New Member
Have you actually seen other peoples print though? That pic you have posted is a photoshop mock up, not a photo of an actual race car...
 
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damonCA21

New Member
It will also depend on which printer you have, and the settings. On a Roland solvent printer if you print from vectors in high quality and overlay 2 times, the output will come out looking pretty much the same as screen printing. Because of the overlaying you don't end up with any visible pixellation.
Are your graphics you are printing from vectors or jpegs?
 
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BigNate

New Member
damonCA21 said:
It will also depend on which printer you have, and the settings. On a Roland solvent printer if you print from vectors in high quality and overlay 2 times, the output will come out looking pretty much the same as screen printing. Because of the overlaying you don't end up with any visible pixellation.
Are your graphics you are printing from vectors or jpegs?
Click to expand...
So are you saying that if you print using the overlaying feature, then use a loupe or glass to zoom in, there wont be any pixelation? I have met people who do scale reproductions, they expect that if you take a photo of the model, then zoom in, the pic should look like a pic of the full size original object.

Me thinks that if you take a pic of a 1/32 print (made using vectors on your Roland with overlay turned on), then zoom in the actual print quality when magnified 32x will look like crap.
 
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damonCA21

New Member
BigNate said:
So are you saying that if you print using the overlaying feature, then use a loupe or glass to zoom in, there wont be any pixelation? I have met people who do scale reproductions, they expect that if you take a photo of the model, then zoom in, the pic should look like a pic of the full size original object.

Me thinks that if you take a pic of a 1/32 print (made using vectors on your Roland with overlay turned on), then zoom in the actual print quality when magnified 32x will look like crap.
Click to expand...
If you magnify anything enough it will look like crap :D Who looks at print under extreme magnification? When you print something it is designed to be looked at using someones eyes, not examined with a microscope.
If you zoom in enough on an offset press it will also 'look like crap'
 
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BigNate

New Member
ho
damonCA21 said:
If you magnify anything enough it will look like crap :D Who looks at print under extreme magnification? When you print something it is designed to be looked at using someones eyes, not examined with a microscope.
If you zoom in enough on an offset press it will also 'look like crap'
Click to expand...

hobbyists, scale modelers, movie set designers - just to name a few.

imagine how small the print on the original Enterprise model for Star Trek was.... yet when blown up to fit your screen it looks totally clean. Your Roland set on overlay could not make those graphics. If someone is truly making a scale model and wants the graphics to hold true at the scale, then you need a process that is either optical or if digital, has incredibly high resolution. OP said he was trying to print fine detail on 1:32 scale race cars - the resolution of your Roland does not scale accurately to this size.
 
Solventinkjet

Solventinkjet

DIY Printer Fixing Guide
Yup, highest resolution file with properly set ink levels, slowest motor speed available, and perfect head alignments.
 
MikePro

MikePro

New Member
would be cool if there was a media intended for this. like when you draw on a piece of expanded plastic, and then heat it in the oven to make it shrink ....can totally get some fine detail into decorations with a fat sharpie, so why not a wideformat printer?
 
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149motorsports

New Member
damonCA21 said:
It will also depend on which printer you have, and the settings. On a Roland solvent printer if you print from vectors in high quality and overlay 2 times, the output will come out looking pretty much the same as screen printing. Because of the overlaying you don't end up with any visible pixellation.
Are your graphics you are printing from vectors or jpegs?
Click to expand...
Vector I create all artwork.
 
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Vassago

New Member
It's all about the artwork.

Always use vectors as they scale.. Bitmaps don't.

When printing use the highest dpi possible. Canon and Epson printers tend to have some of the highest dpi settings possible.

Models tend to use water slide decals. You can make them on consumer inkjet printers.

For some ideas - look at the "Amalgam Collection" - Anything is possible for the right price lol
 
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149motorsports

New Member
Vassago said:
It's all about the artwork.

Always use vectors as they scale.. Bitmaps don't.

When printing use the highest dpi possible. Canon and Epson printers tend to have some of the highest dpi settings possible.

Models tend to use water slide decals. You can make them on consumer inkjet printers.

For some ideas - look at the "Amalgam Collection" - Anything is possible for the right price lol
Click to expand...

How would you contour cut the water slide decals if you print them on a home computer?
 
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Vassago

New Member
Usually not.. Just cut them out roughly.. Its basically just the ink attached to the lacquer film with a water based glue underneath. Very fragile. But fine once on the model and protected by lacquer
 
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