Creaing a gradient in Flexi

[Mac34]

Hi,
I have an older version of Flexi (it was their top version, but that was 6yrs. ago). I am having alot of trouble getting colors to print accurately, and I know I am missing the boat somewhere with my settings? The current job I'm working on is trying to create a gradient fade from solid black to Arlon Dove Gray. The problem is that I'm using "cut" vinyl as well, and the print color isn't even remotely close? I know it won't be perfect of course, but I am still way off unfortunately. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can print a gradient such as this? (I'm kind of in the dark when it comes knowing which settings I should be on in a case like this... absolute colormetric, spot color, etc.? (I'm printing on 3551). Thanks!

 

[thewood]

The first thing I would do is print an acceptable swatch of each color that makes up the gradient and save the colors in your swatch table. You'll never print a good "black to Arlon Dove Gray" gradient if you can't print black and Dove Gray. Then, in the Advanced Tab of the Gradient Editor, select each color. Don't forget to make the gradient color mode match the color mode of the swatches you used. For example, if you used RGB black and Dove Gray, make sure the gradient color mode is set to RGB.

 

[Gene@mpls]

I have never had any luck with gradients in flexi- if you make a block of
2 colors and then do a gradient from one color to the other and compare
to the 2 original colors they will not match when printed- they will on your
monitor tho. I think I have imported the colors to AI or PS and made a
bitmap that worked OK in a pinch.

 

[thewood]

I have never had any luck with gradients in flexi- if you make a block of
2 colors and then do a gradient from one color to the other and compare
to the 2 original colors they will not match when printed

Do you have the gradient color mode set to match the color mode of the swatches?

I use a custom CMYK swatch table, set the gradient mode to CMYK and my printed gradients match exactly.

 

[Gene@mpls]

I will give that a try Dr. Wood. Thanks Gene

 

[thewood]

Also, I seem to recall that pre-v7.5 (I think), Flexi did not support CMYK gradients--only RGB and maybe Spot Colors.

Also, RGB is the default gradient color mode. So, if you are working with anything but RGB swatches, you will need to specify the matching gradient color mode. Otherwise, everything will look great on the screen but will print completely different.