Question about die sub printing on a mesh for outdoor feather banners

[gabagoo]

I had a customer who wanted a feather outdoor banner and I had it done by a local supplier. We were printing a solid black with minimal white knowckouts.

The banner and hardware arrived and I opened it up to check it out and I can only describe the colour black as a form of light navy blue. My first inclination was to check the file I sent. I had it set up with a rich black and even explained in the email that I wanted a rich black, so it was nothing at my end. I called the art dept and explained this colour dilemma and they told me that this was the best black they could print, but he would jheck his files and get back to me

I told the guy that there is a good chance that I may not get paid on this so maybe they better reprint and make sure I get something that resembles black this time.

I just got it, opened it and it is almost the same colour again. I understand that they are printed on a mesh sort of fabric although it does look pretty solid to me.

I called my sales rep and explained to him that would it not make sense to let me know that certain colours are not attainable with this material ahead of time? Now I am in the position of sending the banner out with the possibility of not having it acceptable.

What do those that die sub out there say about this?
thanks

 

[WildWestDesigns]

The biggest thing that you have to remember is that with dye sub, you are actually dyeing the fabric, it's not going "on top" of the substrate, so you get a blending effect. Also depending on if the color that was in the file is outside the gamut for the color profile that they are using for their inks, you could end up with some strange color on the product.

I do know that when I do black coffee mugs with a white rectangle for sublimation, if I flood it with black, the black will not match up compared to what was originally used on the mug. In fact, I do think it is a dark navy color as well. Sometimes the effect is cool, but sometimes it irritates me to no end.

 

[wmshuman]

I had a customer who wanted a feather outdoor banner and I had it done by a local supplier. We were printing a solid black with minimal white knowckouts.

The banner and hardware arrived and I opened it up to check it out and I can only describe the colour black as a form of light navy blue. My first inclination was to check the file I sent. I had it set up with a rich black and even explained in the email that I wanted a rich black, so it was nothing at my end. I called the art dept and explained this colour dilemma and they told me that this was the best black they could print, but he would jheck his files and get back to me

I told the guy that there is a good chance that I may not get paid on this so maybe they better reprint and make sure I get something that resembles black this time.

I just got it, opened it and it is almost the same colour again. I understand that they are printed on a mesh sort of fabric although it does look pretty solid to me.

I called my sales rep and explained to him that would it not make sense to let me know that certain colours are not attainable with this material ahead of time? Now I am in the position of sending the banner out with the possibility of not having it acceptable.

What do those that die sub out there say about this?
thanks

We do a lot of dye sublimation printing and chances are they aren't using correct profiles, pressing too long/not enough or perhaps the material they are printing on has some sort of blueish sheen to it. When I first got into the dye sub business, I had a hell of a time with color correction. When you first print your image it is one color and once the ink starts to dry under a press, the colors start to darken and then they change again once the print is actually on the fabric in the heat press. So ultimately the goal is to create the profiles so that what you see on screen will actually look close to the finished product. Easier said than done.

Ask them if they are printing in RGB mode or CMYK. My guess is CMYK. I know that printing images with a RGB profile really brings out the richness of the colors. For years I printed in CMYK and once I switched to RGB, I couldn't believe the difference it made.

If they will print you another one, try embedding the Adobe RGB 1998 profile and try that instead. This is just a suggestion as it could really be a number of different things.

 

[gabagoo]

These guys are a large company that do lots of display printing so I have to think this is the best black they can achieve. I know if it were me I would definately let customers know what they can expect before getting into this sort of situation.