Weird issues when printing fades and gradients

[mdjamesd]

Long time lurker.....

We have had Onyx11 for about a year, and recently had a problem with it. so, after an uninstall and a re-install I'm having an issue with fade/gradients.

Files are saved as an eps with a cutpth. Color should fade from red to orange to yellow. I'm plum out of ideas...and of course, customer is coming in tomorrow morning to have his vehicle lettered.

Thank you for any ideas

 

[GAC05]

Not a fix for your problem but couldn't you rasterize the gradients into bitmaps?
Get your customer out the door and then go back and trouble shoot what looks like an eps parsing error.

wayne k
guam usa

 

[jfiscus]

I JUST had this happen for the first time EVER about two weeks ago.
(Exact same circles in the radial gradients from Illustrator)
I have even printed from the same artwork in the past w/o issues.

I rasterized the artwork and overlaid the cut paths and everything was fine.

*this was also on Onyx11 with an EPS coming from Illustrator CS5.1

 

[danno]

would it be possible to change the artwork to a .pdf format? Onyx and other RIP providers are migrating towards a .pdf format print service. We have had similar issues here and have solved them in various ways. By changing the file to a .pdf seems to be the quickest and easiest.

 

[SignMeUpGraphics]

+1 for PDF solution. My Onyx has a host of issues with EPS files that Versaworks has no problems with.
Made the move to exporting designs in PDF and all problems have disappeared.

 

[bob]

would it be possible to change the artwork to a .pdf format? Onyx and other RIP providers are migrating towards a .pdf format print service. We have had similar issues here and have solved them in various ways. By changing the file to a .pdf seems to be the quickest and easiest.

Pdf isn't a file format in the context in which you seem to use the word. A .pdf is far more a container for collections of objects in text, vector, and bitmap etc. formats. Eps files are much the same.

The problem is that there are no objective standards for gradients, or transparencies for that matter. Different software exports and imports these items in their own way as interpreted by their own proprietary engines. That being the case, anytime a gradient is exported out of one software package and imported into another there's no telling just what might happen. Since bitmaps are handled via an objective standard one sure-fire way to avoid inter-package gradient conflicts is to always convert the gradients to a bitmap and then export and import that..

 

[danno]

Pdf isn't a file format in the context in which you seem to use the word. A .pdf is far more a container for collections of objects in text, vector, and bitmap etc. formats. Eps files are much the same.

The problem is that there are no objective standards for gradients, or transparencies for that matter. Different software exports and imports these items in their own way as interpreted by their own proprietary engines. That being the case, anytime a gradient is exported out of one software package and imported into another there's no telling just what might happen. Since bitmaps are handled via an objective standard one sure-fire way to avoid inter-package gradient conflicts is to always convert the gradients to a bitmap and then export and import that..

I agree. To me is a false way of telling an "artist" that they have completed a file for large format printing. With that in mind, RIP providers are attempting to comply to those standards. I'm basically saying that from my experience, it works. It saves me from missing a deadline for somebody that doesn't know how to design anything bigger that a 8.5" x 11" page.

 

[MikePro]

big fan of rasterizing my gradients prior to exporting for print.

 

[mdjamesd]

Thank you everyone!

So, after siting on the phone with the corporate help desk, he contacted Onyx, and apparently Onyx11 has issues with radial gradients. They said to go under setup, rip configuration, configure Jaws rip, and to check the CCADL box. They also said that if that didn't work, to save gradients s bitmaps, and to save s pdf.


you guys are awesome. Thanks again