# brown on turq



## think happy (Feb 15, 2008)

would anyone have a trick to printing dark brown onto a dark shirt. the PS actions read the dark brown as a black and give it zero white underbase so that the brown looks completely different on the turquoise shirt (kinda dead grey) so i have to get a white under the brown but this causes havoc with teh print result (white showing thru more often than not) what we've tried is to block the platten from going back in after the white down and then flattened the white with a piece of wax-paper and let it dry a bit... but it's hit and miss.. anyone have similar issues?/

thanks in anticipation of solutions from some genius out there


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## loloxa (Sep 5, 2007)

Naming the printer brand is helpful when asking for solutions.
regards


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## think happy (Feb 15, 2008)

thanks loloxa, it's a texjet (epson 4880)


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## spiderx1 (Oct 12, 2009)

Whats the rip??


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## think happy (Feb 15, 2008)

polyprint ergoRIP


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## spiderx1 (Oct 12, 2009)

Ok not familar with that one. But most rips have a setting that tells it what to do with black ink. And another that tells it to ignore black. More than likely one of these is set. In that case no underbase would be printed.


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## think happy (Feb 15, 2008)

thanks for that info, i imagine that setting must be somewhere in the photoshop actions that automatically choose the 'bianco sopra' (the name of the white down channel in polyprint rip) i looked thru them and there are a LOT of different actions that are performed, any idea what i should be looking for that i could possibly adjust in these cases (dark browns and black)?


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## Printzilla (Mar 22, 2007)

It sounds like your RIP functions differently than most other DTG RIP's. Most of them actually create the white under base in the RIP, by looking at the pixel data in the file. Sounds like yours is just printing the info from an alpha channel created in PS by an action. You can tweak that alpha channel in PS to make it darker, put down more white ink, or lighter, less white ink, before sending the file to the RIP. You can use the curves function in PS as one way to accomplish this, if that is how your action works. 

Can you confirm that it creates a black and white under base channel? You should find it in the channels tab.


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## think happy (Feb 15, 2008)

so most RIPs operate independantly of PS? so you could run a vector design thru a RIP and still keep the vector quality? our system needs the art to be converted to a CMYK .TIFF and run thru PS to get the actions to determine the white down. it does get graduated whites tho, but no white under dark brown


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## Printzilla (Mar 22, 2007)

I don't even need PS. I can take a transparent tiff, open it directly in the rip, it will make the under base, then send the info to the printer.


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## spiderx1 (Oct 12, 2009)

think happy said:


> thanks for that info, i imagine that setting must be somewhere in the photoshop actions that automatically choose the 'bianco sopra' (the name of the white down channel in polyprint rip) i looked thru them and there are a LOT of different actions that are performed, any idea what i should be looking for that i could possibly adjust in these cases (dark browns and black)?


When u send file to printer the printer control panel comes up. A botton on there says advanced. Select that and see what options are there. Nothing in the manual about this?


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## think happy (Feb 15, 2008)

Printzilla said:


> I don't even need PS. I can take a transparent tiff, open it directly in the rip, it will make the under base, then send the info to the printer.


i don't think my RIP does that, but that would give me even less control of the white down. i do adjust the curves on the white sometimes to give less deposit. can you get yr RIP to put a white under Dk brown? and if it did do that how MUCH white would it put down? the white needs to be enough to make the brown look correct (without the base colour coming thru0 but not too much (because a dark ink colour on a solid white is not easy to get total coverage without white fibres peeking thru)


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## Printzilla (Mar 22, 2007)

I can print browns with no issue. I have total control over my underbase. I can let the RIP do it automatically, or I can create it from scratch myself. What does your RIP supplier suggest?


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## Printzilla (Mar 22, 2007)

Why don't you email me the design, and I will try and print one out. I print an American Bald Eagle on a maroon shirt for a repeat customer, and have no issue getting the brown of the eagle to print properly.

My email is my forum user name @ gmail.com


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## think happy (Feb 15, 2008)

Printzilla said:


> Why don't you email me the design, and I will try and print one out. I print an American Bald Eagle on a maroon shirt for a repeat customer, and have no issue getting the brown of the eagle to print properly.
> 
> My email is my forum user name @ gmail.com


geez bud, i REALLY appreciate that kind offer of help.. i am in South Africa, in Jeffreys bay actually, and it's not that easy to get access to high-tech brain storming and quality products.i am an airbrush artist in my arty world and a DTG operator in my 'gotta-have-a-job-that-i'm-very-thankful-for' world and i need to get all my airbrush supplies from the US. the texjet machine comes from Greece and the SA agents are 700 k's away, so it's a bit of a mission getting info on these kind of snags. as it happens i did get the turq shirts done eventually (after rejecting 5 of them) but that was only by (1) fooling the PS action into believing itwas printing bright orange to get the white down (2) blocking the platten after it had printed the white and flattening it with my hand wiping over a piece of wax-proof paper to flatten the fibres, and letting the white dry a bit. if i hadn't done this, the dark brown would have allowed the fibres to show thru as a bright white mess of little hairs. (i do the whole bit of sprayed pre=coat and roller and heat press, but NEVER seem to get it flat enough, ESPECIALLY not when a dark colour goes down onto the white. one factor of this design was that it was a section of flat colour that should definitely have been screenprinted, while i imagine yr eagle was a series of graduated browns and feathers etc.thanks for yr kind offer of printing the art, but i'm pretty sure you would have got it perfect and i woulda been gutted... are you printing on a texjet with the polyprint system from Greece??? unlikely


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## Printzilla (Mar 22, 2007)

LOL - I started out airbrushing before moving to screen and then DTG. I am not on a Texjet, but I am on Epson based machines, like the Texjet, so if mine can do it, yours can do it.

Glad you got the job done.


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## think happy (Feb 15, 2008)

Printzilla said:


> LOL - I started out airbrushing before moving to screen and then DTG. I am not on a Texjet, but I am on Epson based machines, like the Texjet, so if mine can do it, yours can do it.
> 
> Glad you got the job done.


do you print yr own art? i paint on canvas and digitally with corelpainter i have (bit outdated) website of some of my stuff.. am i allowed to put it on here? thanks for yr help


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