Printing Gradients .ai

[Supergirl]

Hi,

I am new to printing (well, i got 2 months experience and a nice wall of shame, but it's going pretty good), but i've been cutting vinyl for a couple of years.

I use Illustrator for most of my work (stickers, decals, etc) and use PhotoPrint10 to rip and send to my Mutoh 1324.


I can not figure out the gradients and transparency.

Sometimes, it's enough if i convert the gradient to bitmap and print, but sometimes it just doesn't look good.

what i get is white big squares in the middle of gradient. Gradient is used mostly to fill letters.


I've tried flattening at high res. Converting to bitmap. Printing from Illustrator. Saving as pdf. Using "super" gradient handling in photoprint.

I am out of ideas and i'm sure it's something i'm missing.


I thought i've seen this with transparency before, and banding with gradients.


I would really appreciate your help!


t.

 

[SightLine]

As much as I dislike CMYK color for its limited gamut I've found that native Illustrator gradients for us print best when all colors in the gradient are CMYK with no transparency to any of the colors. Spot colors in gradients will almost always get weird. Pretty much have to select the gradient, then in the gradient panel select each color and make sure it is a CMYK value. I also make sure the document raster effect settings for the file (in Illustrator) are at 300dpi.

On very complex ones or ones that just cannot easy be changed I just rasterize (open) the Illustrator file in Photoshop and save it as a 150 to 250 dpi flattened Adobe RGB Profile tiff image. Can end up with a pretty huge file but the results are pretty much always excellent.

 

[Supergirl]

As much as I dislike CMYK color for its limited gamut I've found that native Illustrator gradients for us print best when all colors in the gradient are CMYK with no transparency to any of the colors. Spot colors in gradients will almost always get weird. Pretty much have to select the gradient, then in the gradient panel select each color and make sure it is a CMYK value. I also make sure the document raster effect settings for the file (in Illustrator) are at 300dpi.

On very complex ones or ones that just cannot easy be changed I just rasterize (open) the Illustrator file in Photoshop and save it as a 150 to 250 dpi flattened Adobe RGB Profile tiff image. Can end up with a pretty huge file but the results are pretty much always excellent.

Thank you!

This particular file is in CMYK, but good idea to investigate each color. I tried yesterday by adding more shades to the gradient, but it didn't help.

I will try the .tiff version as well!!


Thanks again,

t.

 

[Feldspar]

0. Put your gradient on a light background.
1. Make a gradient from the color you want to white.
2. Select the gradient shape, go to your transparency pallet, change none to darken

 

[Supergirl]

Thank you, I will try that as well!!

So far i've been importing files into photoshop to flatten and saving as .tiff, then printing, and cutting from the original in illustrator.

I will give it a try though, thanks a lot!

 

[John Butto]

0. Put your gradient on a light background.
1. Make a gradient from the color you want to white.
2. Select the gradient shape, go to your transparency pallet, change none to darken

Could you explain this or show how this is accomplished, a gradient is from two colors and do not understand step 1.

 

[rjssigns]

For flawless gradients we use the blend tool. I was taught this in college. Digital prints turn out nice, but more importantly offset prints come out great. Being taught to build in cross platform compatibility removes headaches down the road since clients invariably ask to do other things with their art. You don't make money correcting things that should have been part of the original process.

And I will admit I've burned myself once or twice when in a rush. Thinking: "They'll never do anything other than the doors on their trucks".

 

[Supergirl]

Thank you! Will give that a try first actually!

 

[John Butto]

For flawless gradients we use the blend tool. I was taught this in college. Digital prints turn out nice, but more importantly offset prints come out great. Being taught to build in cross platform compatibility removes headaches down the road since clients invariably ask to do other things with their art. You don't make money correcting things that should have been part of the original process.

And I will admit I've burned myself once or twice when in a rush. Thinking: "They'll never do anything other than the doors on their trucks".

So how did the college teach you this, is it steps or smooth color, please enlighten me with some more specific information.

 

[rjssigns]

Okay ya caught me I never went to college but I stayed at Holiday Inn last night.:Big Laugh


I was very fortunate my instructor for Ai is an award winning designer with international clients. He was up front in telling us how the real world of design worked and what given printers like to see. Also taught us all kinds of neat little tricks too. He also taught my typography class. (that was brutal)




Blend Tool 101:


1) Make a thin vertical rectangle of your start color.
2) While holding Option + Shift(mac) drag and drop another rectangle to the right. Change to "end color" of gradient.
3) Click Blend tool. Hover over an end point on the left triangle.(upper left) You'll see a + sign. Left mouse click.
4) Repeat this procedure on the right triangle.(upper right) It will blend automatically.
5) Double click Blend icon. Select Smooth Color.
6) Perfecto!

 

[John Butto]

Thank you, that worked nice.

 

[miker]

+1 for Blends. Far superior to Illustrator gradients.

 

[Andy_warp]

Blends are great, just know that when blending to a very close version of the same color...you will see banding.
The closer the shades are to each other the more likely it is to occur.

 

[Supergirl]

It's actually not banding, it doesn't print at all. well it does, in chunks.

i try to remember to bring the gradient in as pds or tif but when trying things out, it's quicker to just use gradient.
and then i still forget to replace it.

So, here (sorry for the wrinkles, was already in the recycling bin) a fresh sample. still the same problem, HOWEVER, for whatever reason, it prints fine when the image is flipped. tried twice!
it definitely happens less (or not at all) when the gradient is CMYK, but i really prefer the range of colors for this style decals that RGB offers.

 

[Laz0924]

I have had that same problem, I solved it by grouping all the elements before flipping then it worked. Hope it helps

 

[Supergirl]

I have had that same problem, I solved it by grouping all the elements before flipping then it worked. Hope it helps

i mostly print them right side up. (the photo is actually turned 90 CW)
Last week i flipped two images and was quite astonished to see it print right.
today i did it on purpose and it worked.

i wonder if this happens only with illustrator and photoprint.

do you guys have the same problem in flexi?

 

[Laz0924]

i mostly print them right side up. (the photo is actually turned 90 CW)
Last week i flipped two images and was quite astonished to see it print right.
today i did it on purpose and it worked.

i wonder if this happens only with illustrator and photoprint.

do you guys have the same problem in flexi?

I have that problem with corel, after adding the gradient have to group everything or the gradient gets left behind, when you group it keeps the gradient with the rest of the objects.

 

[Laz0924]

I'm talking in vector format

 

[Laz0924]

I like your logo supergirl

 

[Supergirl]

Thank you!

so, just group (except for the cut line) and it should work?

i can't wait to try it. could it have really been so simple?
do you flip them too or does grouping just do it?

Thank you so much!