Question about soft shadow in Omega 3.0

[GoodPeopleFlags]

So, we upgraded to Omega 3.0 and it has the fancy "Soft Shadow" effect. The thing is, when I convert the shadow to image, it has a white square (margin) around it - like any .jpg image does. I set the margin to 0% in the Convert To Image box, but it didn't make it go away; it only made it go to the outermost edges.

I need it to not be there at all. Picture this: a rectangle printed with a cyan gradient, printed Cobalt Blue text on top with a soft shadow. The white box around the soft shadow keeps me from printing the Cyan rectangle and Cobalt blue letters! Didn't they think, when they made this fancy new tool, that someone might want to print on a background that is also printed? I don't want to have to use twice as much material to use the effect, as in printing the square with the text, then printing and cutting the shadow, then spend extra time having to lay them together. I could do it in Illy, save as a tif, then print it all at once, but then it's 4-color.

Any suggestions?

 

[Dane DeFord]

I'd use a clipping path, but I'm using 2.6. I haven't seen anything on 3.0.

Dane

 

[iSign]

Didn't they think, when they made this fancy new tool, that someone might want to print on a background that is also printed? I don't want to have to use twice as much material to use the effect...

I don't know the answer, but I wouldn't assume "they" didn't think of things... I would guess that you may not have discovered everything they thought of yet.

Tony is on here quite frequently & if someone else doesn't know what he has written in there, he will often show up with an expert opinion on the subject. Good luck.

I read your other post on this subject, and on bevels. I think you are designing for an inkjet & not a thermal printer. Sure it's great to learn to exploit a technology & get everything possible from it, but you've mentioned the color limitations from 4-color printing, the extra work & material from multiple layers... and yet you are designing bevels, gradients & shadows.

The Edge is an amazing machine & mine still sees action almost every day, but it has limitations to be considered at the design stage. I am not up to speed on which of the limitations from the past have been removed, because I also have an inkjet printer, but I've pulled out some pretty cool effects by going ahead and investing the time & material to do soft gradient shadows or bevels on clear, applied as a second layer. The result is awesome & the cost is minimal.

 

[iSign]

wow... I went to find what I thought was my first thread here it signs101, and it's true, it was the first thread I posted here ...but I guess it was before Fred set this forum up to require on-site image hosting...


But that's OK, I have the same post on my Blog

I'll also attach the image of most significance... it has a soft shadow, but it was a .tiff file printed with spot color, so only one foil to pay for, & absolute control over color. I was luck it was going on white though. In other jobs, my main solid lettering would have a white underbase, the letter set as over print, & no white behind the soft shadow. this same truck has that combination on the little petroglyph guy in the graphic, applied as a small second layer on that graphic.

 

[Service Sign Co]

I guess I don't know what I'm doing,but the result in the new version isn't up to standards as opposed to other programs. I got it to work fairly well once.

 

[Browner]

What happens if you select "Pawn inc Shop" and select "bring to front"?

If that doesn't print right... then the "pawn inc shop" to overprint.

That's what I'd do... but I'm still using OMEGA 2.6 (or whatever it is - but not 3)



edit... in re-reading this thread, I think I've completely missed the point. (or.... the last images you put up don't coincide at all with your original request).

 

[iSign]

Chris, he's not even the same guy, and I think he said that it DID work fairly well... once. Then the 2 pics (both Omega 3) which I presumed to be the one that "worked"

 

[Browner]

Ugh... you'll have to forgive me. I was watching football and UFC while trying to figure out the problem.

Now that both are done, wouldn't setting the created image (blurryshadow) to "overprint" solve his problem? It may not look right on the preview screen, but should print correctly.

Again - going from memory right now. The wife won't let me fire up the computer in the office upstairs (that actually has OMEGA on it), so I'm doing this from my netbook in the living room.

 

[Service Sign Co]

Chris, he's not even the same guy, and I think he said that it DID work fairly well... once. Then the 2 pics (both Omega 3) which I presumed to be the one that "worked"

I'm just trying to figure out potential problems,the one i posted didn't work.It was an imported EPS. It seemed to work when I upgraded & ran through the new features.

 

[GoodPeopleFlags]

Sorry to bring up an old thread but I found an answer to a question I asked awhile back and thought it might help someone else. If you get the Weekly Omega Tip email from Gerber, then you already know this. This was the one I got the other day:

Print an EDGE Soft Shadow on top of another EDGE Spot Color without the
Rectangular Image "Block"

OMEGA 3.0 has a great capability called "Convert to Image" that can be
used to convert vector-based shadows with a solid edge into image-based
soft shadows with a nice soft Gaussian blur.

Because the soft shadow is an image, there is a background image block
that surrounds the soft shadow, just like any other image. Here is a
simple one-click method to print ONLY the soft shadow on top of another
EDGE color WITHOUT the background image block:

-Design the job with EDGE colors in the background and the soft shadow in
front.
-Select the soft shadow and go into the Image Fill dialog box or press 1
on the keyboard

-Turn on OVERLAP for the image. This is the key step.

-Output the job

The rectangular image block will still appear in Composer and GSPPlot, but
only the soft shadow will print onto your other spot colors.

 

[J Hill Designs]

makes sense, because you are overlapping the white as well, therefore not printing anything