ONYX 10 running Mutoh Printer - blend / gradient fill issues

[mitsfreak12]

I'm wondering if anyone in the board had this issue and was able to find a fix for this. Once in a while I get client files that have a blend or drop shadow feature in their graphic files. Once ripped and printed the gradient feature somehow shows a clipping section where the two color meets (like a blend of black to white). It doesn't print a smooth as its supposed to be.

Trouble shooting steps I made
1. If its an illustrator fill/blend application - I re-rasterize it or save it as a tif or jpeg in photoshop.
2. Created a blend or gradient in photoshop and tried using both of these method to print it. Still the clipping issues occurs.

My fix was...

In illustrator, instead of using the swatch fill gradient feature I used the "blend" tool where you can control the amount of gradient steps you want. This works either printing it as an eps or ai file or even exporting it as a jpeg/tiff etc. Even exporting it back to illustrator still prints nice and smoothly. However I don't think majority of designers use this tool. And I talked to an Onyx tech support and says they've been having that problem since "version 6". Funny, I had Onyx 7xxx running an HP5500 machine and never had that problem. Another advise from them was to rip it using 16bit or smart16bit. Still didn't help at all.


Hopefully someone here had this experience and finally found a fix for it. Help..?

thanks

 

[MikePro]

I save my illustrator files as .eps, outline strokes and text just to be safe, but the gradient was always an issue for me until I realized that there's a "Transparancy" setting in the save options.

Default is medium resolution, but hit "Custom" and you can dial-up your resolution (save mine at 300dpi, when @ 50% scale for production files).
There's also a "Compatible Gradient & Gradient Mesh Printing" option here, but I've never had it checked. Might be worth looking into, as well.

After that, your ICC profiles should be able to handle the rest!

 

[mitsfreak12]

Hi Mike, thanks for the input. I've tried it after your advise. Still clipping. I thought maybe photoshop have that same feature and tried there as well, no luck either.

 

[genericname]

Odd that just exporting it as a TIFF doesn't do the trick; always solved our gradient/drop shadow issues quickly with no fuss.

Another option you may want to try, when saving as an EPS, is to make sure your Adobe Postscript version (in the save dialogue) is set to Language Level 3. This is supposed to have better handling of gradients in postscript files. We also have "compatible gradient" selected.

 

[wildside]

we are trying out onyx 10 now ourselves...

just noticed the same gradient issue here, in onyx 7 this was not an issue just had other issues with colors and rip times etc....

we are using corel x4 with onyx 10.1 running a mimaki jv3

a grand to upgrade and then have issues with gradients isn't looking good, but it does load and rip faster

 

[mitsfreak12]

we are trying out onyx 10 now ourselves...

just noticed the same gradient issue here, in onyx 7 this was not an issue just had other issues with colors and rip times etc....

we are using corel x4 with onyx 10.1 running a mimaki jv3

a grand to upgrade and then have issues with gradients isn't looking good, but it does load and rip faster

I also never experienced that with the ONyx 7xxx. Although 10x loads and rips faster, what good it will be if it doesn't produced the kind of expectation. I spoke with an Onyx rep/ tech guy that day and admitted having that issue. He's dead end on it as well and just brushed it off and or even saying just do the gradients the old way like using your blend tool in illustrator...bring it in Photoshop and bla bla bla.... Well, not a lot of client designer does that nowadays and may have forgotten that method.

 

[ForgeInc]

we ended up having to switch to caldera for exactly this issue. we had a certain gradient that no matter what we did, could NOT eliminate banding. We tried our reseller, hp, and onyx support to no avail. Determined, we finally downloaded a trial version of caldera to test and the problem file printed perfectly first try, absolutely smooth.

that said, we have already switched over one rip to caldera, and will soon be dumping second version of onyx as well.

we were running v10.

 

[mitsfreak12]

we ended up having to switch to caldera for exactly this issue. we had a certain gradient that no matter what we did, could NOT eliminate banding. We tried our reseller, hp, and onyx support to no avail. Determined, we finally downloaded a trial version of caldera to test and the problem file printed perfectly first try, absolutely smooth.

that said, we have already switched over one rip to caldera, and will soon be dumping second version of onyx as well.

we were running v10.

Thanks, maybe I'll try that as well. Sad...Onyx have been great over the past. Could this be the product deterioration every company faces?

 

[ForgeInc]

I noticed your onyx support said "try doing it this way or that way..." I got basically the same reaction. We sent files to onyx, spent hours on the phone with them, yet they couldn't come up with an answer.

I also wanted to mention we tried EVERY POSSIBLE WAY OF BUILDING A GRADIENT and no method eliminated our problem. We rastered it, built it in photoshop, tried 8 bit, 16 bit, different file types, different save methods, etc etc. We are very tech and design/file build savvy and nothing worked. I get so heated with all our problems and this issue I take every moment I can to convince people to go with Caldera over Onyx if they have the option.

(Other than that I don't have much of an opinion on it.)

 

[mitsfreak12]

I noticed your onyx support said "try doing it this way or that way..." I got basically the same reaction. We sent files to onyx, spent hours on the phone with them, yet they couldn't come up with an answer.

I also wanted to mention we tried EVERY POSSIBLE WAY OF BUILDING A GRADIENT and no method eliminated our problem. We rastered it, built it in photoshop, tried 8 bit, 16 bit, different file types, different save methods, etc etc. We are very tech and design/file build savvy and nothing worked. I get so heated with all our problems and this issue I take every moment I can to convince people to go with Caldera over Onyx if they have the option.

(Other than that I don't have much of an opinion on it.)

There is one fix that I was able to get away with. Instead of clicking a gradient color or mixing it. You have to use your blend tool in illustrator and create the fountain steps you desired. In the past this method creates so much vector steps that could potential end up of having a huge file. I guess in CS5 they've changed that. It is still a gradient fill (manually input) without the extreme vector steps. But not all designers would like to do that. I am thinking of trying Caldera

 

[ForgeInc]

we tried that too

Our problem was, it was basically a gradient from a 80% cyan to white. We could get it fairly smooth with other colors, but this one just would not do it. When we talked to Onyx, they said many of their customers had the same issue. I also hear rumors HP was going to start recommending caldera over onyx for their machines, but that might be sales talk.

If anyone ever wants to test a printer or rip, I would do a gradient like the above, cause MAN, is that a tough one to get smooth!

 

[Digital D-Signs]

A quick gradient fix for Flexi & Valuejet

I know this thread is about Onyx, which I know nothing about, but seem to have found a ridiculously easy fix for most of our gradient woes in the Flexi rip. I definitely agree creating gradients in Flexi, Illustrator, Corel, or Photoshop, and the varying methods used w/in each all net varying levels of banding in the print. The big breakthrough for us was simply increasing the dither type from the default fmx press to kf diffusion or even error diffusion. Do not expect a perfect blue to white but with a properly built Photoshop file it is the difference between completely unsellable to something I have absolutely no problem putting out of my shop.