Film

[spotcolorsupply]

No joke, that explains it well, especially if I would have understood it. 

Same here... I do think he said 2.5 isnt that bad...?? 3.0 is better...?? 

[Frog]

No joke, that explains it well, especially if I would have understood it. 

Same here... I do think he said 2.5 isnt that bad...?? 3.0 is better...?? 

and 4 is damn near perfect!

[mk162]

I am working on testing the WP vs non WP.  I am getting glow edges around my WP film after it sits for a few days.  I think the ink is bleeding out and I am getting bid dot gain.  I am going to test the dot gain and adjust linearization.

[Homer]

I am working on testing the WP vs non WP.  I am getting glow edges around my WP film after it sits for a few days.  I think the ink is bleeding out and I am getting bid dot gain.  I am going to test the dot gain and adjust linearization.

that's the exact same thing i had -is it a brownish color? I thought I had bad ink carts or something, it sotpped when I went to WP a few years back.

[mk162]

mine is white, like when you get the film wet, I am not sure if the ink has actually spread or if it is just the excess moisture.  I am testing the non-wp film now for d-max, so far the spread is better on the non-wp film.  I will cut some screens today and see how it works.

The nice thing about the RIP i have is I can easily go in and change the percentage of ink it dumps down.  I had it cut back to 82% for the old film I used to run, I am testing 100% to see what happens.

[blue moon]

mine is white, like when you get the film wet, I am not sure if the ink has actually spread or if it is just the excess moisture.  I am testing the non-wp film now for d-max, so far the spread is better on the non-wp film.  I will cut some screens today and see how it works.

The nice thing about the RIP i have is I can easily go in and change the percentage of ink it dumps down.  I had it cut back to 82% for the old film I used to run, I am testing 100% to see what happens.

make sure you run teh full gamut of halftone percentage at a pretty good size. One RIP I tested could never get the balance right. If low percentages were good it was pooling ink on the other side. Or, if I adjusted the 90% to print right, there was not enough ink below 10%. This was obvious when the 90% area was at least an inch or possibly a little wider. . .

[mk162]

OK, so I tested WP and non-WP.  I forgot to turn off my linearization tools, which is fine actually but I tested 20-80% and with the non-WP i was dead on for everything, with the WP films, I was 20% high on 20, 10% on 40, 7% on 60 and 5% on 80.  So clearly there is more gain on these than the non-wp.  This is strictly on the film, not on the print.  I turned off my dot gain compensation so I could get an accurate reading and know what I was shooting for.

If anybody wants me to test their films, let me know, I can send you my address and I can check for density and dot%.  Some of this won't help people because they adjust at 1 time for both dot gain on press and dot gain on film, but if you know what your press does and you know what your film does, it makes it easier to tune the process.

And of course, this is no charge.

I have attached a file for you to print, it ain't fancy, but I can test this well.  Go 50lpi minimum, 55 is recommended.

[inkman996]

Brad your post makes me wonder how consistent the WP film manufacturers are with their product. I highly doubt any seller QC's the product they receive by batch. So there could be the possibility that one batch to the next could have different characteristics albeit minor to 99% of us but important to people like Pierre.

I have films that frost up like Brad talks about and I have films the leech a magenta tinged color I can still shoot both films no prob but wonder why they could be different?

[mk162]

I have been struggling with some issues in the screen room, one of which was it seemed like my finer detail was filling in.  And this explains why.  When dots are bigger and lines are thicker, it will effect your final print.

I am sure there are QC issues with most films, after all, look at how the prices have dropped over the years, most of them are probably cheap imports.

[inkman996]

Gain on the film then gain on the press yep wonder what that adds up to total?

[blue moon]

Brad your post makes me wonder how consistent the WP film manufacturers are with their product. I highly doubt any seller QC's the product they receive by batch. So there could be the possibility that one batch to the next could have different characteristics albeit minor to 99% of us but important to people like Pierre.

I have films that frost up like Brad talks about and I have films the leech a magenta tinged color I can still shoot both films no prob but wonder why they could be different?

you know, I have not even thought of that. Thanx for making me worry about more stuff!!!! 

I guess the idea of printing the halftone scale on every film (well, the important ones at least) is something I should think about. Photoshop has the option of adding them on the side which might be a good way to keep things in check . . .

[blue moon]

Gain on the film then gain on the press yep wonder what that adds up to total?

I measured it few months back. My 50% read 53% or so on the film. It read 72% on the shirt!

[mk162]

that is pretty normal.

It's a big deal though that you calibrate them separate I think.  That way if you change films, ink or event the printer, you can narrow down your changes to one thing.  Rather than 1 thing that compounds into another.

If you PM me, I will send you my address, and you can send me films to test.

[inkman996]

This brings up a problem I had a couple of years ago with WP film.

I started to have very thin streaking going on with our R1800. The streaks were not normal but actual perfect clear very thin lines. I assumed it was the printer and ended up wasting a ton of ink and film on cleaning flushing etc. When nothing changed it finally dawned on me it may be thew film. I dug out an old piece of film already printed and reprinted on an open area not one single streak.

It had to be the film, it was not noticeable by eye till ink was printed on it. So obviously they had an issue when they applied the coating. I double confirmed by printing a piece of the film rotated and sure enough the streaks went the other way.

As CTS becomes more popular and saturated in the industry I wonder if quality for film will drop because of the drop in demand.

[Frog]

As CTS becomes more popular and saturated in the industry I wonder if quality for film will drop because of the drop in demand.

Or will it be more like the transfer industry and the influx of DTG? They had to step up their game to remain competitive.