What resolution is everyone printing at

[Mata]

Hi everyone

Just curious as to what resolution everyone tends to print at? I know it's preference but I'm looking to tweak some settings.

Here's my list:
Workwear Vinyl: 16 Pass Uni Directional
I do this because the detail is small on chest logos and I want to get the best possible quality as it's up close.

Wraping/Vehicle graphics: 8 Pass High Quality / Bi Directional
I'm not sure if this is the way to go ,seems ok, seems fast enough but I wonder what everyone else does?

Banners: 6 Pass, Bi Directional
Not sure if this take too long to print but the quality is ok, again what does everyone else use?

 

[SightLine]

None of those are resolutions.

For us its mostly vehicle wraps and fleet graphics at 720x720 resolution.
Print speed settings - 8 pass BiDi
When we do get something that warrants higher quality up close we go to 720x1080 @ 12 pass bidi.

 

[Mata]

None of those are resolutions.

For us its mostly vehicle wraps and fleet graphics at 720x720 resolution.
Print speed settings - 8 pass BiDi
When we do get something that warrants higher quality up close we go to 720x1080 @ 12 pass bidi.

Apologies, I forgot when I change the pass rate, my resolution changes. This could be because I am using Flexi and the Epson S60600.

On my system, my 8 Pass BIDi is 720x1440, I tend to use HQ because why not, it's high quality.

If I was to do 720x720 my pass rate is 4 passes and my 12 pass is 1440x1440.

 

[White Haus]

Does anyone know what the difference is with using HQ quality setting?

 

[DL Signs]

We run Mimaki printers, resolution and passes are treated separately. I run just about everything at 720x1080 8 pass unless it really needs something higher, then i usually just up the number of passes, very rarely do I ever have to increase resolution for what we do, and the materials we use. If I want speed for long runs, I run at 540x720 if the artwork is right for it.

 

[victor bogdanov]

No clue, most matte jobs I run on Matte Speed, most gloss jobs I run on High Quality. I think both modes are 4 pass. Colorado 1650

 

[SightLine]

Yes like DL we also run Mimaki and the resolution and print speed settings are independent but really are tied to the color profile being used so while you can manually choose a different setting Flexi will warn you that it does not match the profile. In Flexi you can override it and try anyways but the results might not be nice.
More specifically the actual resolution is the one that will generally have a bad effect when you override - dither type can also have a dramatic effect. Changing the printer settings as well but in different ways - like increasing or lowering the passes or turning off high speed or bi-directional printing. Resolution and Dither are on the Rip & Print dialog "Output Settings" tab then you can choose "Driver Options" from that same tab and change the printer settings like passes, high speed, etc.

Printer settings speeds like passes and bidirectional are also tied to the resolution when the color profile was created (either a canned profile or when you make you own custom profile with a colorimeter).

 

[Mata]

Thank everyone. I'll check if I can separate the resolution and passes. I thought High quality were finer drops (I'm sure I read that somewhere but I could be wrong)

 

[JBurton]

Chiming in here, still running everything at 20 passes, slow as it can go. Ran a whole 54" roll of SLX Friday into the evening, 8 freaking hours...
Didn't print a damn thing today though, so it's all good.

 

[somcalmetim]

For vehicle graphics on a Roland I have never felt the slow speed of high quality is needed...the high speed option is too fast and has lightened colors but the medium 10p 900x600dpi setup I am using on the VG2 and VG3 seems to print some nice rich colors fairly quick...
Starting file resolution is SOOO much more important than printing resolution now the printers are capable of printing at such high resolution normally...
I have pretty good eyes but I really cant see much change in starting file resolution past 150dpi at full size printed on the medium 900x600 option unless you are within about a 12" and specifically looking at the resolution.
...even medium quality is so good you are more likely to find low res bitmap artifacts from bad starting files than notice printing resolution problems on most modern digital printers.

 

[Mata]

Thanks everyone.

Now onto Dither. I’ll be honest I never really understood this but from I understand it’s the pattern on how the droplets are laid on the media.

I’ve always thought my onyx prints were better than my Flexi Prints. I always put this down to the print resolution but now I’m thinking it could be the Dither.

I’ve always left this as the standard one, not sure what it was on Onyx but on Flexi it’s Enhanced Stochastic.

I understand KF diffusion is the best quality but can take 5-6 times as long rip. I’ve read a few posts about the old Flexi and it using SO diffusion and people complaining that their prints were not as good in later Flexi versions.

 

[Pauly]

Thanks everyone.

Now onto Dither. I’ll be honest I never really understood this but from I understand it’s the pattern on how the droplets are laid on the media.

I’ve always thought my onyx prints were better than my Flexi Prints. I always put this down to the print resolution but now I’m thinking it could be the Dither.

I’ve always left this as the standard one, not sure what it was on Onyx but on Flexi it’s Enhanced Stochastic.

I understand KF diffusion is the best quality but can take 5-6 times as long rip. I’ve read a few posts about the old Flexi and it using SO diffusion and people complaining that their prints were not as good in later Flexi versions.

how close are you analysing your prints? Stochastic works fine for most printers. Unless some have a built in hardware where it does it itself and i think you leave it in contone in onyx (i forget) and im pretty sure this is what epson does when using the epson profile workflow.

this is how we work and set up our products

higher resolution for small or closer viewing products.
lower resolution, higher speeds for larger products. With no banding.

 

[Mata]

how close are you analysing your prints? Stochastic works fine for most printers. Unless some have a built in hardware where it does it itself and i think you leave it in contone in onyx (i forget) and im pretty sure this is what epson does when using the epson profile workflow.

this is how we work and set up our products

higher resolution for small or closer viewing products.
lower resolution, higher speeds for larger products. With no banding.

Thanks Pauly

I tried printing a few of the ink limit charts using various Dithers but Enhanced Stochastic seemed to work the best.

I think I've nailed my process but I am going to repeat it using the Contone method and see how they compare. I know Flexi has a icc profile compare feature but is there anything better I can compare them? I created a profile in i1Profiler and on paper it seemed better (according to Flexi) but the results were terrible. I had a tool a while ago and now can't think what it was.

 

[Pauly]

Thanks Pauly

I tried printing a few of the ink limit charts using various Dithers but Enhanced Stochastic seemed to work the best.

I think I've nailed my process but I am going to repeat it using the Contone method and see how they compare. I know Flexi has a icc profile compare feature but is there anything better I can compare them? I created a profile in i1Profiler and on paper it seemed better (according to Flexi) but the results were terrible. I had a tool a while ago and now can't think what it was.

id be looking at gradients and photos with the different dot patterns. thats where it matters most.
i dont have exp with flexi so can't help too much there.

i1 profiler does a great job, and you can do a gamut size compare in there. you can also compare to a standard and other profiles, but it's been a while since i've used it

 

[Humble PM]

I think I've nailed my process but I am going to repeat it using the Contone method and see how they compare. I know Flexi has a icc profile compare feature but is there anything better I can compare them? I created a profile in i1Profiler and on paper it seemed better (according to Flexi) but the results were terrible. I had a tool a while ago and now can't think what it was.

Colorthink from Chromix is amazing, but not inexpensive, when viewed in isolation (Basiccolor etc).

 

[Notarealsignguy]

Chiming in here, still running everything at 20 passes, slow as it can go.

Why?

 

[JBurton]

Why?

Initially it was to lay as much ink down as we could for back lit signage, which is what we bought the thing for. From there, moving into other stuff like door vinyl, I just kept it at 20 passes in order to match prints on clear. Then moving into partial wraps, I see no reason to skimp on ink for either time or material usages' sake. Since I print a handful of things a week, I'm not tying up the machine to a point that it hurts production, but I'm aware that I'm using more power to print for 8 hours compared to the 3 hours it would take at something like 8p.
Also, everything pretty much comes out perfect every time, aside from those difficult colors.

In the end, I have a printer for convenience sake and control, I make my money with my router and bucket trucks.

 

[myront]

Latex HP's here. I'm not the print tech but I know our standard is 8pass. We have certain clients who are very particular of their branding colors, as they should be, so sometimes in order to hit that we have to bump up passes but rarely above 12. Interesting too that pantone colors print closer to the swatch book using nothing less than 10passes. Once we hit a color we print a small sample with the profile info and keep it in a notebook.
Not sure about resolution. I rarely export raster files any larger than 150dpi. Vectors or a mix of, always pdf files.

 

[JBurton]

Interesting too that pantone colors print closer to the swatch book using nothing less than 10passes.

That's likely because your profiles were generated at 8 pass only, and not expanded beyond that.

 

[myront]

That's likely because your profiles were generated at 8 pass only, and not expanded beyond that.

Right you are. Our print tech has just relied on the "canned" profiles available for the type of media. He has only tweaked a few and gave them unique names.