Printer doesn't print part of the image - who is at fault?

[Stinkhorn Press]

When I our vector art is too complicated, the print from the printer will be missing elements.
Corel DrawX4 on an aging and none too powerful computer.
Through Accurip.
To an Epson1400 printing all black on waterproof film.

Where does the loss occur, besides "making the art less detailed" (which is hard to so with someone else's work) - where can I look to make this not happen?

In the print popup, using accurip as the printer, ALL the detail that should be printed will appear in the preview box. It won't show up on the film however.
The printer seems pretty proud of itself and seems to show no signs of realizing that it simply hasn't completed the task.

Is it possible to add some "memory" to a function to fix this? Or is that even the problem?

[dlac]

I don't have an accurip and I don't print other than transfers anymore but.. I know when I send art to my mfg and there are lines smaller than 2 or 3 pts I have to agree that I will not reject the transfers if those lines don't print.. I gamble based on what I want the art to look like and if I feel I don't want wide lines and dark ink int he design I just go for it and normally come out ok.. don't know if that is related but seemed reasonable
dlac

[Frog]

Where does the loss occur, besides "making the art less detailed" (which is hard to so with someone else's work) - where can I look to make this not happen?

What happens when you output directly from Corel with no RIP? Let's try to isolate the problem.
Also, has this always been the case?

[Mr Tees!!]

...I have run into this before....Corel is a fickle mistress sometimes.

...Do what you can to make sure that ALL the colors represented in the design are from the same color pallet. I made a custom pallet representing our in-house ink colors using the PMS-C chart, but I think any pallet will work.

...In an extremely detailed image it can be hard to search out hidden elements that may be causing the problem. I use the Color Styles box for this.
 ...Pull out the color styles box, grab the whole design, and "drag" it into the box....all the colors in the design should appear. For us, If a CMYK or RGB color is in there (lets say a red), then I pick a close equivalent from my PMS-C pallet (again lets say PMS 186), and drag it over the offending color chip in the color styles box...that should change all the elements to that PMS color.

...If your artwork has fountain-fill or gradient element imported from Illy, you may have to go in and fix those individually. Sometimes this Color Styles trick doesn't work properly here.

...ONE MORE THING: when printing from the Corel Print dialog box, go under the postscript tab and make sure the "maximimum points per curve" is set to the maximum, which is 20,000 points per curve.

....hope this helps!

[Stinkhorn Press]

Thanks for the replies.
dlac - it's not small details I'm losing - in this instance it's the T in heart (outlines, not font) and the splatter in the background.

Frog - Printing from Corel, using the Epson1400 driver rather than AccuRip. YES the missing piece prints this way.

Mr Tees - I think you are correct, it is a Corel issue. More to the point. When I take an AI file and convert it to an EPS to open it in Corel, it may look fine - but certain things are coming through with extra or buggy information. Squeeze that file through AccuRip and issues appear. As far as I can tell, I was wrong, it's not a detail complexity thing it's an AI to Corel thing - but it shows it's head on detailed prints BECAUSE there are just that many more opportunities for the conversion to flake out.

I try to stick with PMS-C as well, except I use K as black usually.
I had my maximum points per curve at 10K, upped it to 20K just to be safer.
The color styles bit I've never used, but that sounds pretty useful - will experiment.

I've got this job (literally) scotch-taped together.
The real solution is moving my fonts and Corel and Accurip to my computer that has Adobe on it and learning how to output from Illy anyway. In the meantime I'll just drop in here and ask questions!

[Frog]

Sounds like what we need here is advice on Illy to CorelDRAW conversions that minimize if not eliminate these problems.

I often get Illy files in which seeming "objects" are actually hundreds of objects (well, maybe usually dozens)

[mk162]

the easiest thing to do is convert it to a black/white bitmap.  or grayscale, or monochrome.

i rarely have a bitmap go through the rip that gets jacked up.

[inkman996]

Exactly what Brad said. I run into this a lot with Corel, If I cannot fix it with a quick tweak in the vector I then just convert to a high res raster and print it.

[Doug B]

  I too have run into this from time to time with Corel. If it's on the screen
but doesn't print and you want to keep it a vector, try this... In Corel, export
it to an .eps then open a new graphic and import the .eps. Save as a .cdr
and try to print now. It usually works but there have been times that an Illy
to Corel file is so screwed up that you have to convert it to a bitmap.

[Stinkhorn Press]

Thanks Doug!

Ok, now for my complete and utter ignorance - can someone offer me a totally bare bones converting to a printable bitmap within Corel instructions? I don't even know where I would start ...
Bitmaps are scary for me, I really need to learn some basics at a minimum so I'm not so useless around them.

(the most I ever do is open a file in Corel PhotoPaint or whatever it's called to mess with the contrast/reverse monotone images in order to print super basic halftone prints - and that taxes my abilities)

[Homer]

Thanks Doug!

Ok, now for my complete and utter ignorance - can someone offer me a totally bare bones converting to a printable bitmap within Corel instructions? I don't even know where I would start ...
Bitmaps are scary for me, I really need to learn some basics at a minimum so I'm not so useless around them.

(the most I ever do is open a file in Corel PhotoPaint or whatever it's called to mess with the contrast/reverse monotone images in order to print super basic halftone prints - and that taxes my abilities)

monochromes are the jam....watch all toms vids and you will NOT be scared of bitmaps anymore -they are a piece of cake, can't tell you the last time I printed a vector style design....

http://www.advancedtshirts.com/

[rmonks]

This may not fix the problem, but convert your entire design to a curve, I have found that this fixes it sometimes.

[mooseman]

Make sure EVERYTING that is text or function based, circle , square etc is converted to curves...it will then print.
We see this from time to time on complex art the print will leave off an outline, one letter in a text line or even half a letter in a text line.
Convert to curves solves all for us .
mooseman

[Lizard]

If you print it to ghost script it usually works fine. Or convert to a bitmap.