Linux and Dye Sub - is it difficult?

[rossdv8]

Thanks both of you. This is what I am using now.

http://www.rossdevitt.com/ww/cylwrap/

It is fine for me if I just want to see what a layout will look like on a mug, but no good for showing customers and no way for them to upload images.

[Paul]

Ohhh... So animator may for you then

[rossdv8]

Yes Paul. I can write something like that page in ten minutes. On my computer I can easily preview a layout I am working on, change fonts etc. But it is not dynamic.

If Press It On lets me do that with less fiddling it might find a way onto my desk.

[Paul]

Well... All you need to do is uplod your photo and click preview. It will show up on spinning mug that you can save to animated gif and send to customer nothing fancy but helpful. I used it few times and ppl loved it

[rossdv8]

Thanks Paul. I tried it on the website. I will check again to see if it will run stand alone on my systems. Looks like it is flash based so it might have a few problems with some operating systems.

Has to be an improvement on what I was working on though.

[Paul]

It wont work as desktop app. It need php to work so need to be on server. Also it has security future so it wo t work stand alone. Sorry.

[rossdv8]

Paul, my desktop computer is runnung php5 server. i can run a bulletin board system from it if i want. i use it for something else.
If i installed animator i could probably access it from one of the laptops. alternatively from the desktop through a VM.

[Paul]

In this case is woth to check then i can send you link and you can see if it showing up.

[rossdv8]

Before I do that Paul my priority is to expand the experiments to ICC Profiles. I've established to my satisfaction that it is relatively easy to get consistently nice results without having to fiddle with settings.

My findings/suggestions to LINUX users so far:
If you want to do Dye Sublimation as a business - consider getting a windows system.
If you want to do Dye Sub as a hobby, enjoy and try the following:
Get a couple of industry standard test charts in high resolution.
Print a few on each type of paper you plan to use.
Press them onto some fine weave polyester cloth. (100% Polyester bed sheets are cheap)
BEFORE you print them, add text to explain the settings you used.
On the printer settings for generic inkjet printers with piezo heads you will be altering things like :-
Paper Type
Quality
Brightness
Contrast
Red
Blue
Green

Make the first prints with everything set for ZERO. (Default) and settings for PLAIN paper and Plain Normal quality (or equivalent. Then try Inkjet paper and a couple of different settings.
Using Photo and Best quality settings on my printer with my ink and my paper was giving me lovely bright images, but the colours were a bit off. Dropping back to lower settings made a big difference and made my blacks actually black again and got rid of the hint of brown in my greys.
AVOID settings like 'Vivid'. Stick to 'Natural'.

Boost the Brightness and Contrast on some prints (generally increase contrast by half as much as you increase the brightness. i.e. Bri 5 Con 2, Bri 10 Con 5 etc. Make some prints at other paper and quality settings. Look at greys. If they look brown, try lowering the brightness and contrast, and print at lower quality, before you mess with red, green and blue. If I have to change colour output at the printer, I reduce red more than green, reduce green a bit, and increase blue. But that is for my brother printers. An example might be Red -10 Green 15 Blue +2.

While this is NOT the same as printing with an ICC profile, I get nice vibrant colours with my Brother printers and I can print from Linux and Android to make mugs. Combining that with a generator for the press and batteries and inverter for the computer will work nicely for sublimating and pressing aboard my yacht - where I don;t have access to fancy equipment and windows.

My next step is to experiment with using ICC profiles and Linux for Dye Sub, and comparing the resulting output with the results I am getting now.

Paul, I will need your help for the next experiments, and is PayPal ok? I believe my inbox is empty, but as a moderator you might also have my email address - which would be better.

Cheers,

RossD.

[rossdv8]

Deleted by RossD