Need Help SVG files from WEB solving problem with CutContour spot color

[Stian Lokser]

We are going to create a webshop for custom name tags where the customer will generate a design on the web that we print and cut on our Mimaki CJV150-107 machine. The machine comes with RasterLink6 RIP software. The RIP software for Mimaki needs a spot color named "CutContour" to create cutlines.

This is no problem as long as we test with Illustrator and create a job with the color "CutContour" there. The problem is that the scripts / code on the WEB page works in SVG format. The SVG format does not support spot color nor does it support to give a color a name such as CutContour. How can we solve this / og around? After all, there are many web-to-print companies that have solved this so that the production can run as automatically as possible.

The ideal finished format on production file from the webshop would be a PDF where cutlines are created in spot color named CutContour.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

It's going to have to go thru a separate program to bring its colors to cmyk. SVG are more for the web as it was a format the w3c was wanting.

I love it for web apps and electron apps (what I've been doing for inhouse solutions), but it's going to take a little more work for print.

Should be able to script it all to automate the process, but it does still have more steps involved.

 

[Stian Lokser]

I see.

Suggestions for programs to convert and have to for instance make a spesific layer in the SVG to become the spotcolor CutContour?

... or to see it another way; Is it possible to work directly with PDF and CMYK colors in a online web-to-print solutions?

 

[WildWestDesigns]

I would take the SVG and run it through a program that allows for printing capabilities. I don't have your use case, but I use Scribus to take an SVG to CMYK use and for need contour cut etc.

But anything with good SVG and printing support should work.

You can automate through scripts for a more efficient workflow.

SVGs are good for web use case, because you have the HTML Canvas as well as with SVGs that are embedded either inline or using the object tag (NOT img tag) still have js interactivity.

 

[ProPDF]

We are going to create a webshop for custom name tags where the customer will generate a design on the web that we print and cut on our Mimaki CJV150-107 machine. The machine comes with RasterLink6 RIP software. The RIP software for Mimaki needs a spot color named "CutContour" to create cutlines.

This is no problem as long as we test with Illustrator and create a job with the color "CutContour" there. The problem is that the scripts / code on the WEB page works in SVG format. The SVG format does not support spot color nor does it support to give a color a name such as CutContour. How can we solve this / og around? After all, there are many web-to-print companies that have solved this so that the production can run as automatically as possible.

The ideal finished format on production file from the webshop would be a PDF where cutlines are created in spot color named CutContour.

What you will find out is the online designer tool will at it's best be a very poor proofing tool that lets customers design something close to what they want visually even with excellent templates. Expect to rebuild almost every single file especially one that needs bleed and cutcontour, that is what the developer won't tell you and their clients also won't tell you is going on in the back end. The developer will portray it as some magic all in one design tool that outputs "print ready SVG or PDF files 300 dpi" and it really is not. If you want to sell coffee mug and let someone put a photo of a cat on it, yeah it can work really good for this if your templates are correct and the customer uploads a quality image.... When you start getting outside of that though it becomes very time consuming especially if you don't have a image quality warning feature. Good luck with it, we have been down this road and you might find your energy is better put in other avenues.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

The developer will portray it as some magic all in one design tool that outputs "print ready SVG or PDF files 300 dpi" and it really is not.

Nope, they (SVGs) aren't designed for printing in the first place. Why "you" have to do extra work to get it going. Some things like sublimation it works ok out of the gate. It's great for web work and web/electron apps. It can work for logos and such, but for print, have to run it through something else.

I don't know if there is anything in the back end that could do it unless it's interfaced within a backend dev package. Kinda like if I wanted video conversion in my web app, I have to build in ffmpeg into the backend into it as well. That type of thing.

 

[shoresigns]

Hire a developer to build a custom tool for this. It doesn't sound that difficult to figure out. Put the cutting paths into a separate layer in the SVG file or add an attribute to distinguish them. Then build a Python tool to parse the SVG, separate the cutting paths, and then convert to PDF with the spot colour. There are always plenty of pre-built Python libraries for these sorts of things.

 

[ColorCrest]

The SVG format does not support spot color nor does it support to give a color a name such as CutContour.

This is your root trouble.

Why not use the more typical format of PDF templates using methods such as PDFlib® (existing libraries for such processes) at the site instead of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole?