HELP: darker clear background when I print my design on transparencies

[yoonbokim]

Hello my fellow theshirtboard community!

I am getting into screen printing and starting from the very bottom of understanding the entire process. As you guys probably will assume, I've come across various problems and questions.

I am having trouble resolving my most recently problem. When I print my design (which will be placed against my screen before putting the screen and design in the exposure unit for the emulsion to harden around the design) there is a dark clear background on my transparency even though in photoshop the background is transparent (the checkered background). It's still clear but it's not the same clearness as the transparency paper. I'm wondering how I would be able to get rid of this darker clear background that gets printed with my design.
I've attempted to play with the settings but nothing gets rid of that clear dark background around my design.
I am using a Epson Surecolor p400
and "Rite Film Premium Waterproof Film - 13x19in" as the transparency paper

Any advice or thoughts would be extremely helpful
Thank you in advanced!

[im_mcguire]

Try printing it through illustrator:
save your file as a .pdf or a tiff, and place it into illustrator.  See if you are still having issues.

[Frog]

Maybe I'm missing something, I'm not sure what I'm looking at. Is that your film sitting on glass? Looks like a lot of waterproof films I see, kinda' "frosty".
Have you tried burning a screen?
Although ideally, we have a very  high d-max (the density and opacity of the black of the film, and a low d-min (the transparency of the film) many non detailed designs work just fine shooting through a higher than desirable d-min, especially with a decent light source.

[3Deep]

I think the OP is printing from Photoshop and getting a halftone shadow box around his art, you need to check your print mode RGB,Bitmap etc  I've had that problem before when I print from Photoshop which I don't do alot, but one of those print modes is giving you that halftone shadow box I can't remember which mode is causing the problem.

[yoonbokim]

Try printing it through illustrator:
save your file as a .pdf or a tiff, and place it into illustrator.  See if you are still having issues.

I dont have abode illustrator
And this image was printed as a TIFF file in photoshop. Is that the problem?; That I'm using photoshop?

[yoonbokim]

Maybe I'm missing something, I'm not sure what I'm looking at. Is that your film sitting on glass? Looks like a lot of waterproof films I see, kinda' "frosty".
Have you tried burning a screen?
Although ideally, we have a very  high d-max (the density and opacity of the black of the film, and a low d-min (the transparency of the film) many non detailed designs work just fine shooting through a higher than desirable d-min, especially with a decent light source.

Nono its not sitting on a glass. Thats just the way it appears and that is what I am trying to get rid of/resolve. Every time I print, the transparent background becomes a darker clear tone instead of being completely transparent.

[blue moon]

to me that looks like it's printing white ink around the design. Are you using a RIP?

pierre

[Sbrem]

The picture doesn't tell the story that well, it looks like regular film to me, except for what looks like some water stains. In photoshop, even with a checkered background showing, doesn't mean it's 0%; open your info pallet, and move your cursor around the transparent area to see if your getting a reading other than 0. If you are, you can make a selection of the transparent area, and use the curves or levels tool to make it 0%...

Steve

[blue moon]

The picture doesn't tell the story that well, it looks like regular film to me, except for what looks like some water stains. In photoshop, even with a checkered background showing, doesn't mean it's 0%; open your info pallet, and move your cursor around the transparent area to see if your getting a reading other than 0. If you are, you can make a selection of the transparent area, and use the curves or levels tool to make it 0%...

Steve

Steve,
that seems to be only one piece of film with a white square where the image is.
pierre

[blue moon]

Hello my fellow theshirtboard community!

I am getting into screen printing and starting from the very bottom of understanding the entire process. As you guys probably will assume, I've come across various problems and questions.

I am having trouble resolving my most recently problem. When I print my design (which will be placed against my screen before putting the screen and design in the exposure unit for the emulsion to harden around the design) there is a dark clear background on my transparency even though in photoshop the background is transparent (the checkered background). It's still clear but it's not the same clearness as the transparency paper. I'm wondering how I would be able to get rid of this darker clear background that gets printed with my design.
I've attempted to play with the settings but nothing gets rid of that clear dark background around my design.
I am using a Epson Surecolor p400
and "Rite Film Premium Waterproof Film - 13x19in" as the transparency paper

Any advice or thoughts would be extremely helpful
Thank you in advanced!

can we get a closeup picture of the film?

pierre

[yoonbokim]

Hello my fellow theshirtboard community!

I am getting into screen printing and starting from the very bottom of understanding the entire process. As you guys probably will assume, I've come across various problems and questions.

I am having trouble resolving my most recently problem. When I print my design (which will be placed against my screen before putting the screen and design in the exposure unit for the emulsion to harden around the design) there is a dark clear background on my transparency even though in photoshop the background is transparent (the checkered background). It's still clear but it's not the same clearness as the transparency paper. I'm wondering how I would be able to get rid of this darker clear background that gets printed with my design.
I've attempted to play with the settings but nothing gets rid of that clear dark background around my design.
I am using a Epson Surecolor p400
and "Rite Film Premium Waterproof Film - 13x19in" as the transparency paper

Any advice or thoughts would be extremely helpful
Thank you in advanced!

can we get a closeup picture of the film?

pierre

Heres a close up. Did you want a different angle?

[blue moon]

Hello my fellow theshirtboard community!

I am getting into screen printing and starting from the very bottom of understanding the entire process. As you guys probably will assume, I've come across various problems and questions.

I am having trouble resolving my most recently problem. When I print my design (which will be placed against my screen before putting the screen and design in the exposure unit for the emulsion to harden around the design) there is a dark clear background on my transparency even though in photoshop the background is transparent (the checkered background). It's still clear but it's not the same clearness as the transparency paper. I'm wondering how I would be able to get rid of this darker clear background that gets printed with my design.
I've attempted to play with the settings but nothing gets rid of that clear dark background around my design.
I am using a Epson Surecolor p400
and "Rite Film Premium Waterproof Film - 13x19in" as the transparency paper

Any advice or thoughts would be extremely helpful
Thank you in advanced!

can we get a closeup picture of the film?

pierre

Heres a close up. Did you want a different angle?

even closer. see if you can get just the registration mark to fill the image area (without cropping).

pierre

[Prince Art]

Just to confirm, is that only one piece of film? From the picture, it looks like a smaller piece stacked with a larger piece.

Are you seeing a fine halftone pattern anywhere outside of your main image?

What inks are you using? Standard Epson, or something else?

I looked up the Epson Surecolor p400, and I see that it includes "gloss optimizer". If you've got just one piece of film, and no halftone pattern showing, my first guess is that your printer is printing the gloss optimizer across the whole surface of the film. I'd look for a way to turn that off, and see if that fixes the problem.

[yoonbokim]

Hello my fellow theshirtboard community!

I am getting into screen printing and starting from the very bottom of understanding the entire process. As you guys probably will assume, I've come across various problems and questions.

I am having trouble resolving my most recently problem. When I print my design (which will be placed against my screen before putting the screen and design in the exposure unit for the emulsion to harden around the design) there is a dark clear background on my transparency even though in photoshop the background is transparent (the checkered background). It's still clear but it's not the same clearness as the transparency paper. I'm wondering how I would be able to get rid of this darker clear background that gets printed with my design.
I've attempted to play with the settings but nothing gets rid of that clear dark background around my design.
I am using a Epson Surecolor p400
and "Rite Film Premium Waterproof Film - 13x19in" as the transparency paper

Any advice or thoughts would be extremely helpful
Thank you in advanced!

can we get a closeup picture of the film?

pierre

Heres a close up. Did you want a different angle?

even closer. see if you can get just the registration mark to fill the image area (without cropping).

pierre

Would this image suffice? And ignore the little white marks/dots; the film just got a little dirty after I printed

[yoonbokim]

Just to confirm, is that only one piece of film? From the picture, it looks like a smaller piece stacked with a larger piece.

Are you seeing a fine halftone pattern anywhere outside of your main image?

What inks are you using? Standard Epson, or something else?

I looked up the Epson Surecolor p400, and I see that it includes "gloss optimizer". If you've got just one piece of film, and no halftone pattern showing, my first guess is that your printer is printing the gloss optimizer across the whole surface of the film. I'd look for a way to turn that off, and see if that fixes the problem.

Yes that is one piece of film but when I print, the background of the image gets darker even though the background is transparent on photoshop

I'm not sure what a half tone pattern would look like. But it doesn't appear that theres any sort of pattern.

I believe I'm using the standard Epson Ink. I just put in the inks into the printer that the printer came with.

Yes, I did see the gloss optimizer and I had it on when I printed. I will try to turn that function off!

Thanks so much for your feedback!!