Fuzzy barcodes

[EmilyAlice3]

Currently running: Fuji Acuity Select 26 (OCE Arizona) CMYKWW, ripping with ProductionServer 9, printing on .018" white clay coated polystyrene.

I print a lot of POP signage, some of which has many many barcodes. I'm finding that when I reprint files from a couple years back, the smaller barcodes no longer scan.

If barcodes print in the direction that the print head moves, they are fine, but the opposite direction is blurry. Just rotate the document 90 degrees, right? Nope. I have barcodes running in both directions on several files.

Things I've tried: Thorough cleaning
Checking that the print heads are all physically in place
Printing the barcodes as 100%K using spot color replacement to avoid rich black conversion
Changing media
Using "Fine" setting to print

The Acuity was installed in 2016. Is this just a symptom of extended wear on the heads + trying to print small detail? Any ideas?

 

[WhiskeyDreamer]

i'm not familiar with your machine, but if it prints correctly in one direction and not in the other, is there a chance that the material isn't laying flat? is there a buckle that is causing it to be closer to the print head and therefore it gets blurry?

 

[EmilyAlice3]

Not likely. The bed is clean and the vacuum is holding the material down tightly. I even tried on a thicker .035" polystyrene with a different finish and I get the same results. I'm running in circles!

Thanks for responding.

 

[Solventinkjet]

I'm not familiar with that particular setup but I have run into this with other printers. If you have the option to slow the motor speed down and up the resolution, that should print crisp barcodes in any direction at the cost of speed however.

 

[EmilyAlice3]

Fantastic, thank you. That's what I will try next.

 

[White Haus]

Try printing in uni-directional, or lowering your head gap, and see if it improves.

 

[EmilyAlice3]

Also another excellent suggestion. I will certainly try this.

I can't wait to do some more troubleshooting and hopefully get this figured out. Trying to stay moderately productive while my second printer is down with a network issue. My brand new Roland TrueVIS SG2-300, that I haven't even gotten to play with yet!

 

[netsol]

Emilyalice3,
Let's call this netsol's rule
Barcodes have to be razor sharp to scan
If they don't scan properly, you are doing the client a disservice. If I walked by their sign, tried to scan and couldn't get it to work, that is worse than never seeing the barcode in the first place

They may have provided you fuzzy copy, not realizing it. Or we may need to tweak your copy or printer settings
Can we go back and print what was sent on a regular printer in your office?
You can scan on an app on your phone or iPad, as a test, no need to buy the app, they all have a 30 day trial

Can you post a couple, or send to me in a pm?
I would like to see the symbology. (The flavor of barcode)
Once I know what kind I barcode, I can probably be helpful

I am not a barcode expert, but I provide support for a few clients who print & scan thousands of barcodes a day

Even perfectly sharp barcodes don't always scan for lots of reasons.
I will be happy to put my 2 cents in on this, if it helps

 

[White Haus]

Another angle, you may be getting overspray due to change in environment/humidity levels?

Just a thought. I know we have to keep humidifiers running to keep our printers happy, although our Arizona will usually have ink drips rather than printing fuzzy.

 

[netsol]

I am late for a meeting, I will do research in a while. But...
Keep in mind that many printers will provide a resolution of
600x300, 1200x600 or 1440x720 in which case, it all goes to hell
If you rotate the barcode

 

[netsol]

Lowering the printhead is ALWAYS a good idea, in cases like this

 

[Kemik]

Barcodes print best from a vector file, and using only black ink, not CMYK.
It's true that printing the lines of the barcode in the direction of the head movement will produce the best results.

A few things to try..
Printing in unidirection was a great recommendation.
Rotate your image so the lines run the same direction as the head.
If at all possible enlarge the barcode.
Barcodes also require a quite zone, enough white space around the code so that no other print is mistaken as part of the barcode.
If you are able to recreate the barcode, you can use something that is called a bar reduction, which makes all the lines in the barcode thinner for Ink Jet printing that tends to bleed out a bit making lines thicker.
If you can not recreate the barcode and it is vector, you could try stroking the lines with white and seeing if that still scans. I've never tried this personally because I create my own barcodes and use the bar reduction feature.

 

[EmilyAlice3]

Barcodes print best from a vector file, and using only black ink, not CMYK.
It's true that printing the lines of the barcode in the direction of the head movement will produce the best results.

A few things to try..
Printing in unidirection was a great recommendation.
Rotate your image so the lines run the same direction as the head.
If at all possible enlarge the barcode.
Barcodes also require a quite zone, enough white space around the code so that no other print is mistaken as part of the barcode.
If you are able to recreate the barcode, you can use something that is called a bar reduction, which makes all the lines in the barcode thinner for Ink Jet printing that tends to bleed out a bit making lines thicker.
If you can not recreate the barcode and it is vector, you could try stroking the lines with white and seeing if that still scans. I've never tried this personally because I create my own barcodes and use the bar reduction feature.

Yes - the barcodes are vector and I have them set as a spot color I can control in the RIP so they print 100K and there is no rich black conversion happening. Unfortunately, there are barcodes in both directions on the documents - it's POP that goes behind the product with a reorder barcode. I had enough room to enlarge 115%, but that still wasn't working. As a band-aid fix, I rotated some of the barcodes so they would all print the same direction, but I have a lot of files, so I'm looking for an easier remedy. The same files printed and scanned fine a year ago. I'll try unidirection and post an update.

 

[Kemik]

Yes - the barcodes are vector and I have them set as a spot color I can control in the RIP so they print 100K and there is no rich black conversion happening. Unfortunately, there are barcodes in both directions on the documents - it's POP that goes behind the product with a reorder barcode. I had enough room to enlarge 115%, but that still wasn't working. As a band-aid fix, I rotated some of the barcodes so they would all print the same direction, but I have a lot of files, so I'm looking for an easier remedy. The same files printed and scanned fine a year ago. I'll try unidirection and post an update.

The best solution would be a bar reduction. We've had the same artwork printed on 2 different materials, one where the code scanned perfectly, and the other where the ink tends to bleed more and makes scanning difficult, but with a bar reduction of about +4, it scans perfectly. I use software called BarTender to create barcodes, and print to PDF, there are a lot of software options and plugins out there, but BarTender gives you a lot of control over the barcode creation. I've never tried it, but I imagine adding a white stroke to the bars to make them thinner would be the same thing as a bar reduction.