Dotty prints

[Ljb596]

Hi all,

I'm having an issue where light colours are printing with dots all over them. If there are lots of colours in a design, the darker and brighter colours are fine but the light ones are dotty. It's like a noisy photo except they are 300 dpi graphics?!

When I print them myself you can see it but it's not that bad. However, if I send it to a printer to do for me, they're coming out a lot worse. Obviously we will have different equipment but I'm not sure if there's anything I can do my end up ensure the dots go away completely?

I'm using a ricoh SG 3110 printer with sawgrass inks. Print from photoshop using sRGB profile and Powerdriver. Using Listawood duraglaze mugs.

Does anyone have any insight? Could it be to do with if it's 8 bit or 16?! I really have no idea. The rest of the image is clear e.g. if there's text with it, that is always clear.

Thanks in advance!

[logobear]

do you see the dots on the paper before heat pressing?
if not, could be a flaw in the coating?

[Ljb596]

do you see the dots on the paper before heat pressing?
if not, could be a flaw in the coating?

Yeah I can see them on the print. You have to look quite closely when I do it.
But when I get a mug from somewhere else printed for me it's really obviously dotty just on the light colours so don't think it's that :(

Thank you! :)

[InkExpress]

Have you looked at the design artwork to see if there's an issue with it, possibly not a solid spot colour? If the digital image has the colour made up of spotted colour this would be produced by the printer and then transferred to the mug.

The only other thing that jumps to mind would be the paper, check you're printing on the correct side (printing on the wrong side means the paper surface is very fibrous and this can make solid colours look spotted and fuzzy)

Alex

[Ljb596]

Have you looked at the design artwork to see if there's an issue with it, possibly not a solid spot colour? If the digital image has the colour made up of spotted colour this would be produced by the printer and then transferred to the mug.

The only other thing that jumps to mind would be the paper, check you're printing on the correct side (printing on the wrong side means the paper surface is very fibrous and this can make solid colours look spotted and fuzzy)

Alex

Hi Alex,
I'm definitely printing on the right side of the paper and what I'm producing is better than print on demand companies! haha And the rest of the print is fine, just the light colours. I know what you mean about the wrong side though.

When you say not a solid spot colour do you mean that it wouldn't look solid on the screen or is there a deeper level to the colour I might not know about? I filled it in illustrator with one colour and made it into a png. Then put the png into photoshop and printed. It's happening on a lot of light colours so I don't think it's an issue with specific artwork but some kind of over arching misunderstanding about colour?

Maybe something happens to light RGB colours when they go to CYMK?

Thanks! :)

[InkExpress]

Hi Alex,
I'm definitely printing on the right side of the paper and what I'm producing is better than print on demand companies! haha And the rest of the print is fine, just the light colours. I know what you mean about the wrong side though.

When you say not a solid spot colour do you mean that it wouldn't look solid on the screen or is there a deeper level to the colour I might not know about? I filled it in illustrator with one colour and made it into a png. Then put the png into photoshop and printed. It's happening on a lot of light colours so I don't think it's an issue with specific artwork but some kind of over arching misunderstanding about colour?

Maybe something happens to light RGB colours when they go to CYMK?

Thanks! :)

No worries just thought I'd check as it is quite easily done.

If the colour is solid on screen and has be filled in with one solid colour then the artwork is fine. Why don't you try printing directly from Illustrator rather than exporting to Photoshop. I do not know of any issues with converting RGB to CMYK but the change in image mode / change in file type and software may be having an effect on the image.

If you open the original file that was made in Illustrator and printer from Illustrator see if the same thing happens

Alex

[Ljb596]

No worries just thought I'd check as it is quite easily done.

If the colour is solid on screen and has be filled in with one solid colour then the artwork is fine. Why don't you try printing directly from Illustrator rather than exporting to Photoshop. I do not know of any issues with converting RGB to CMYK but the change in image mode / change in file type and software may be having an effect on the image.

If you open the original file that was made in Illustrator and printer from Illustrator see if the same thing happens

Alex

Just tried printing from Illustrator and it's the same. To be fair it isn't bad and when it's pressed it's acceptable and I would send it out.
But when I send the same file to a print on demand company, it's much worse and I wouldn't want it to go out to my customers.

The colour from print on demand companies is also lighter. It happens on pale colours that come out even paler with a few print on demand companies I've tried. Do you think you can just go too pale?!

Thanks

[Ljb596]

Just tried printing from Illustrator and it's the same. To be fair it isn't bad and when it's pressed it's acceptable and I would send it out.
But when I send the same file to a print on demand company, it's much worse and I wouldn't want it to go out to my customers.

The colour from print on demand companies is also lighter. It happens on pale colours that come out even paler with a few print on demand companies I've tried. Do you think you can just go too pale?!

Thanks

I thought I'd just add 2 photos:



Top- dotty, printed by a print on demand company
Bottom- fine, printed by me

Both the same file.
I'm so confused!! :(

Thanks

[webtrekker]

Maybe the POD mug has a poorer coating.

[GoonerGary]

I would blame budget paper and maybe the ink. It's bad quality printing, who is the POD company?