Inlay Weld/Bleed Animated Demo

The following is one way to compensate for less then desirable color to color registration that is sometimes experienced with spot color thermal output. Gerber Edge based devices are usually more apt to having issues since it is the thermal machine with the most amount of spot color support and use with the marketplace, so the following is slighted towards that direction but can be used equally for any digital output application. These following animations were produced from within SignLab e6.1 ColorMaster, Rev9.

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Here are some quick animated gifs that reflect SignLabs equivalent of Choke & Spread inside Gerbers Omega software. Its invoked from the Inlay Weld icon shortcut normally accessed from the Weld Tools flyout (not used that way in these examples), which produces the Bleed& dialog box. This Bleed operation should not be though off as the same &
Bleed inside Gerbers software.

First two examples are of the same file. Fig 1 displays the actual operation of Inlay Weld/Bleed while Fig 2 reflects how the objects have been modified by the software. This particular example uses six different shapes and six different colors. As you see, all six objects/colors are manipulated at once. The Bleed dialog box also allows you to change the stacking priority for each color, keeping it separate from the stacking order of the design itself, keeping full design integrity. For those with SignLab experience, and familiar with the thermal module in particular may know, SignLab allows visual representation of Overlap and Overprint states by mesh fills. Like so many other things inside SignLab, the end user can toggle this view on or off (displayed off effects the display only, not the output itself).

Fig 1




The example below, Fig 2, is the same file from above, but shows how each box has now been welded/trimmed/and set to Overlap one another based on the Bleed priority set when performing the Inlay Weld.

Fig 2




To show off a little, I made another quickie to help illustrate the power of this tool, Fig 3. ive more then doubled the boxes in this design to 16 and also have 16 individual colors. Selected all boxes and performed the Inlay Weld/Bleed operation without fail!! I didnt change the Bleed priority at all in this example, electing instead to use the default it came up based on how it was designed. This would be an area I would like to see some improvements. If you have more then seven colors, its a little bit more laborious to change the Bleed priority. It would also be nice to select how one wanted to treat corner styles as well. Compared to other alternatives currently in the market place, Ill take these short comings any day!!

Fig 3




This last one, Fig 4, was a throw together just for this post. This could reflect a real world decal or sign that would be ready for output. All done in one operation with the software calculating what needs to be done based on the information the end user sets. In this example, I changed the bleed priority to spread the lighter color under the darker.

Fig 4



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