# epson surecolor sc-f2000 printing issues



## Smoki1911 (Mar 1, 2016)

hey guys i got a big problem with the epson surecolor sc-f2000. i need to print a black shirt and i always get these dot sprinkled prints...
here are some pics for you to see whats the problem.
i hope you can help me ^^ greets dani

this is what it should look like:
https://picload.org/view/wwgpigc/img_0813.jpg.html

and this is what it looks =( 
https://picload.org/view/wwgpigo/img_0807.jpg.html

one more:
https://picload.org/view/wwgpigd/img_0803.jpg.html


----------



## FullSpectrumSeps (Aug 2, 2012)

This is called printing.

The colors of your original graphic are "Continuous Tone".

They are made of specific colors and can be millions of colors.

Your graphic has smooth "spot colors" - or tones of a specific color that cover a large area. 

In printing when you use color-processes like digital CMYK and other "HALFTONE" blending techniques -- that is when you get lots of little "dots" or sprinkled/spotted effect, as the PRINTER is not capable of producing "continuous tone"... but it has to use lots of little dots of primary "blending" or overprinting tones of specific inks like --- You see the inks in your Epson? Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black, White, etc... It only has these ink colors in there. 

The printer must use little spots of those inks mixed together to produce the shades of your design.... so that when you view it from "Normal viewing distance" -- like a couple feet away on the shirt -- it should blend-together by your eyes so it is no longer spots but a smooth shade of color.

The only way to avoid that with printing is to use that exact color ink when printing that area - and it won't be lots of spots, then it will be a smooth solid color... this is what screenprinting does very well -- making custom stencils so you can print any ink you want through that area.... Sometimes screenprints will have those little spots also because if your image has millions of colors in all the little pixels, then you can't print a specific color for each of those, then you have to blend together some primary color like you see the Epson is doing.

You may be surprised, but print your design out on a piece of paper from an inkjet or laser printer in color. If you look at it you will see those little sprinkled dots also, they might be smaller than the example you showed, the epson is printing on tshirts so it needs to put more ink and larger dots down. 

But you are zooming in and showing the "microscopic" view of the printing process, when the whole purpose is to view the printed piece from the right distance so that you don't see those spots, your eyes will blend together the spots into a smooth average tone --- the "halftone" are dots of a single ink or multiple inks but only a few - and they blend together and blur from a distance into just a smooth tone.... this is really just the process of printing that you are showing.

So the printer looks like it is working perfectly to me. Are you sure this is a printing issue?... or was it that you are unfamiliar with the process of printing where we use inks to make colors or dots of ink to simulate blends of colors, some inks can print on top of each other and make new colors (your epson can use yellow and magenta to make red appear)... so this is really just how the Epson surecolor is reproducing your tones of your graphic. If you need each tone to be its own specific ink-color, then you may need to go with screenprinting each color as its own screen and ink-tone that is matched to your design. 

Did this help clarify the difference between what you see on the monitor and how those colors get "printed" with ink?

Or... if you were aware of all that and how it works... is this a resolution problem, where it appears the image might be processing to the dots a at a lower resolution than it is capable... usually the point is in process printing halftones all the little dots blur from where you view it normally... but screenprints for example on shirts might be done with larger dots than those on a paper printing press, or a digital inkjet printer on paper and one on shirts may have different resolutions for their dots of ink. You can't tell from the image what the actual-size of the area you are showing is... but is this how "ALL" your prints appear? It could be on black-shirts or dark-shirts the epson needs to put more ink down and also the white ink layer, so maybe it has settings to put the dots at lower -resolution and they are bigger dots or sprinkles of color mixing, and you notice them... you would have to test or see what the full-area print looks like from a normal viewing distance. Even if you zoom in on the pixels on your monitor you will see they are just little dots or lines with shades of Red, Green, and Blue LIGHT.... not those smooth colors you showed in the first picture. So I didn't mean to assume at first that you didn't understand the process dot-mixing of printing, it could also be an issue if this is showing up very large so you see it from a distance - that could be the resolution or "RIP" type, which this is done with a diffusion style, and so you would have to test other methods or resolutions and sizes of the graphic on the shirt maybe? What size did you print the graphic on the shirt compared to the graphic on your computer screen from those pictures?


----------



## Smoki1911 (Mar 1, 2016)

hey. first i really need to thank you for your tipps. 
will try it tomorrow when i'm back at work ^^ but im pretty sure that you are wrigt with you point that the ymck is the problem. i got some other pics for example. (sry, i'm pretty good in reading english but not in writing it but i hope you understand me  ) 
im not sure but i think i only got this problem on black shirts oO 

thanks for you work to help me ^^ 

greets dani


here is the original pic of a printed shirt with the manga pic:
https://picload.org/view/wwrgclp/img_0814.jpg.html

this is on digi-flex (it should look like this with the same colours and not "washed out"
https://picload.org/view/wwrgclc/img_0821.jpg.html

here is another pic with the same problem (black shirt and no zoom):
https://picload.org/view/wwrgcig/img_0820.jpg.html

with zoom:
https://picload.org/view/wwrgccp/img_0819.jpg.html

skull pic on a white shirt:
https://picload.org/view/wwrgccd/img_0816.jpg.html

skull on a white shirt zoomed in: 
https://picload.org/view/wwrgccg/img_0815.jpg.html

aaaand another example on a hite shirt (no zoom):
https://picload.org/view/wwrgcco/img_0817.jpg.html

with zoom:
https://picload.org/view/wwrgccc/img_0818.jpg.html


----------



## EricDeem (May 7, 2011)

The droplets that the F2000 produces is more noticeable than other printers but they all inherently show this effect with enough magnification.


----------



## utero (Jun 9, 2007)

Printing with uni-directional instead of bi directional can improve things but it does take longer


----------



## Smoki1911 (Mar 1, 2016)

k now im at work and i will try all of your tipps. i realy hope to find the problem. thank you all for your fast and good help ^^ i write back when im done with all tests and hopefully with good news


----------



## Smoki1911 (Mar 1, 2016)

ok i tried it with unidirectional printing. now i get stripes in the print....but the nozzles are working good ( no empty spaces between. but the printing looks better and now the big dots are gone ^^ so i need to try a little bit with digital factory -.- if i find it out i let you know  thank you guys so far


----------



## danslave (Jun 26, 2013)

What kind of shirt are you printing on? To me it looks like you might have a little too much white underneath, maybe trying to make the colors pop, and the fibers or texture of the shirt is making it look rough on close examination.

Are you using a ring-spun shirt?


----------

