Printing fine print for labels

[Signature Sign Guys]

Hey all,

I have a client that wants to print some very small labels. 1.5in x .5in with font point size of 3pt.
We have told the client that we suggest printing of fonts no smaller than 6pt but she insist that we print them this small. We printed the run and now she is complaining she cannot read the font because it is blurry.

how would go about this job with telling her that 3pt font is just to small to have printed clean? Can this even be done as we have tried basically all of the print profiles in Roland to try and make the cleanest print.

Printer is Roland Pro4 xr-640 , material is GB, setting we used is Generic Vinyl II HD - High Quality

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

[White Haus]

If you're already printing on high quality, the only other thing you could try is to print uni-directional and slow the head speed way down.

Might not make much of a difference, but it might be worth a shot.

Good luck, hope you guys are doing ok out in BC.

 

[woolly]

depends how well the heads are set up and no defections.
recently done similar on a vs540. black only head low, half head speed the vinyl 11 hq.
if your bi-directional is off a little then use uni-directional just a thought can you just use one of the two heads to remove any alignment issues.

the other thing is does the customer require new glasses before sending the finished job out asked a couple of younger people if they could read this

 

[P Wagner]

Hey all,

I have a client that wants to print some very small labels. 1.5in x .5in with font point size of 3pt.
We have told the client that we suggest printing of fonts no smaller than 6pt but she insist that we print them this small. We printed the run and now she is complaining she cannot read the font because it is blurry.

how would go about this job with telling her that 3pt font is just to small to have printed clean? Can this even be done as we have tried basically all of the print profiles in Roland to try and make the cleanest print.

Printer is Roland Pro4 xr-640 , material is GB, setting we used is Generic Vinyl II HD - High Quality

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Let's see a pic of the output

 

[Solventinkjet]

For text that small you're basically out of spec for the machine but the best way to go is high res low speed. Find a profile with a 1440x1440 resolution, unidirectional, slowest motor speed and variable dot. Then orient the print so that the height of the letters are parallel with the movement of the head. That will cut down on blurriness between letters. Make sure your heat setting is as high as possible without buckling. Even a little buckling at 3pt will blur it out but you want the heat high so the dot cures faster.

 

[Signature Sign Guys]

here is the pic of the first print that we did. definitely a bit hard to read as it is blurry. We did explain to her that 3pt font is to small to print clear so how do we explain to her that we told her this in the first place.

I have also slowed the print speed right down to 400mm/sec and I am using a 720x1440 dpi print setting. Seems to be a bit better

 

[rjssigns]

Head height makes a huge difference on my Mutoh. If I forget to set the head height small text turns out terrible. Been doing labels with part numbers in the range of 0.060". Super crisp.

 

[unclebun]

You've got 1/2" of wasted width you could use to make the ingredients bigger.

 

[ProColorGraphics]

If I have super fine text I need to do, I just do unidirectional and it works great.

 

[MikePro]

vectored file, black-only output, uni directional, gloss laminate (if applicable)

 

[2B]

You've got 1/2" of wasted width you could use to make the ingredients bigger.

Agreed, The layout needs to be changed to enlarge the text.

try unilateral print direction. This will help with the sharpness of the imprint, especially with small details.

How many are they wanting?
there are plenty of MM that has the equipment that can print small and sharpness of imprint instead of you struggling to do it.


as suggested, if they are requesting a service/product that you know has concerns, have it in writing before starting.
In this case, print a test run. have them review and SIGN IT before starting the full order

 

[Jim Hancock]

In addition to what everyone else has suggested, you could also create a special black only profile in Versaworks. Note this is only for printing black only text. This should force Versaworks to print with just the black channel.

1. Go into Media Explorer
2. Find a profile that has a 1440x1440 setting.
3. Make a copy of this profile and name it Black Only.
4. Set up Quality Settings on this profile as suggested above - Uni-directional, head speed 400.
5. Still in that settings window click Print Chart and set CMY limits to 0 and K to 100. Do not print the chart as it's not needed.
6. Still in that settings window click Set Ink Limit and set Max. Ink Limit to 100. Again, no need to print the chart.
7. Click OK all the way back out.
8. Edit the Queue Settings and click Quality button.
9. Change media type to Black Only, selecting the High Quality setting, which should set your resolution to 1440x1440.
10. Set Color Management to Density Control Only.
11. Click OK.
    
12. Print some labels with this profile and the print head in the low position
13. Let us know if this works...

 

[RICHARD SIMMONS]

Hey all,

I have a client that wants to print some very small labels. 1.5in x .5in with font point size of 3pt.
We have told the client that we suggest printing of fonts no smaller than 6pt but she insist that we print them this small. We printed the run and now she is complaining she cannot read the font because it is blurry.

how would go about this job with telling her that 3pt font is just to small to have printed clean? Can this even be done as we have tried basically all of the print profiles in Roland to try and make the cleanest print.

Printer is Roland Pro4 xr-640 , material is GB, setting we used is Generic Vinyl II HD - High Quality

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Did you tried to change the font ?