How to increase ink density on clear material? HP 300 series

[kcorcoran]

Printing on HP 310 with Flexi Basic
- Printing reverse image on clear laminate.
- Mounting to glass/plexi.
- Backing with thin white vinyl.

I started with the generic adhesive backlit profile and ran calibration.

Ended up with 2 profiles
- 20 pass at 130% (probably could have gone to 150% but was sure I saw a little bleed)
- 16 pass at 130%

They both look very nice with reflective light but even on 20 pass 1305 the black is a little more washed out than I'd like it to be.

Wondering if I can get my blacks darker, maybe with some setting in flexi, to get it to lay down a little more black ink?


Thanks in advance.

 

[Precision]

Try a 100% at 16 pass with a heavy interpass delay.

The intervals delay allows for more time between passes allowing the ink to dry and helps saturate the color. Or so I think!

 

[kcorcoran]

Try a 100% at 16 pass with a heavy interpass delay.

The intervals delay allows for more time between passes allowing the ink to dry and helps saturate the color. Or so I think!

thanks for the reply!

do I adjust interpass delay in the profile itself on the printer or through flexi?
i 'think' i saw it that setting under the ADVANCED button

 

[Precision]

You should be able to do it at the printer control screen once it starts printing. Look for the adjustments button. In there you'll see multiple setting options you can set on the fly.

I run a 360 though, hoping your 300 is similar.

Good luck.

 

[kcorcoran]

thanks I'll check it out.

any recommendations on an inexpensive white backer vinyl that's good for backlit applications.. even if it's not printable?

You. can see it in the center. left and right were some unkown thin vinyl I had scrap of. definitely thinner than 2.75 mil which is a little darker but the thinness seemed to allow colors to wash out from increased light transmission.

The prints will essentially be in a lightbox with a single 18" flourescent bulb behind it. (classic arcade machine marquee)

 

[Precision]

3M ij39

 

[guillermo]

change the black to a rich black.

 

[balstestrat]

You need more ink = increase ink limit
More ink bleeds = increase heat, optimizer or time.
130% is very low for backlit application.

 

[kcorcoran]

You need more ink = increase ink limit
More ink bleeds = increase heat, optimizer or time.
130% is very low for backlit application.

Ok thanks. I'll have to try to figure out how best to adjust those 3 variables so i'm not just randomly increasing each of them as I assume there's a balance.
I'll see if there's some HP videos on increasing ink density.

 

[kcorcoran]

change the black to a rich black.

I assume you mean in the input file itself... something like 30/30/30/100.

The confusion I have with that is I've been reading it's best to send RGB files to the latex printer and let it do the conversion for widest color gamut (unless I'm trying to match a specific color).
Also not sure about bitmap images. In a vector file I oculd select the black eaily and set it to a rich black but on a bitmap with various levels of black I'm not sure how I'd make that happen unless I created a black alpha layer and filled that with the rich black.

Thanks for the tip though because it has me understand the concept of what I need to do.

 

[dypinc]

thanks I'll check it out.

any recommendations on an inexpensive white backer vinyl that's good for backlit applications.. even if it's not printable?

You. can see it in the center. left and right were some unkown thin vinyl I had scrap of. definitely thinner than 2.75 mil which is a little darker but the thinness seemed to allow colors to wash out from increased light transmission.

The prints will essentially be in a lightbox with a single 18" flourescent bulb behind it. (classic arcade machine marquee)

View attachment 173700

So is the black in your test print sample not dense enough?

 

[kcorcoran]

So is the black in your test print sample not dense enough?

i feel like it's going to look washed out (grayish) instead of black when backlit.

As an example I've seen some prints like this.
But, the original marquee of this game was printed on backlit film and had much darker black.

Since I'm not printing on firm maybe there's a limit to how opaque I can get it when backlit but seeing as how I havent really tried anything yet, i'm trying to see if maybe someone kwnos something about it

I'm thinking maybe this section which was 150% 20 pass but as you can see I'm getting some bleed in bottom bleed area..