# Color smudge Sublimation Phone covers



## raqi1986 (Jul 11, 2011)

Hi everyone,

For some reason, each time I press the iPhone metal cases, I get a small smudges through out the design. Example, the gray chevron will have a little bit of red on the edges. The green and orange will have yellow. The colors are correct overall, its just the unwanted shades that surround the color. 

I use cobra ink sublimation. Anyone has experienced this before?


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## tippy (May 27, 2014)

Can we see a photo? It might be the paper moving.


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## skdave (Apr 11, 2008)

Time, heat?


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## raqi1986 (Jul 11, 2011)

380 degrees, 50 seconds

I posted a picture below. The dark green, if you look closely, you can see yellow around it. Maybe because too much heat for the dark color? The turquoise color is fine. The orange has the same thing.

Any input?










[media]http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx143/qualitydesignsinc/Heat/20140801_000055_zpsa99fb094.jpg[/media]


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## iainlondon (May 11, 2010)

I use Cobrainks and have done for many years with very few issues. May I suggest lighter pressure whilst pressing and press for 40 seconds and add on 2 seconds for every other piece of metal added to your press. Also I never ever remove the protective plastic coating I just press straight over it, at 380/400 I would say the plastic just evaporates I've done over 10,000 cases and never (touch wood ) had a return.....


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## mgparrish (Jul 9, 2005)

raqi1986 said:


> Hi everyone,
> 
> For some reason, each time I press the iPhone metal cases, I get a small smudges through out the design. Example, the gray chevron will have a little bit of red on the edges. The green and orange will have yellow. The colors are correct overall, its just the unwanted shades that surround the color.
> 
> I use cobra ink sublimation. Anyone has experienced this before?


 Does this do that on any other substrate?

If so, time to clean the capping station, under the printhead, and the wiper blade.


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## djque (Feb 5, 2013)

iainlondon said:


> I use Cobrainks and have done for many years with very few issues. May I suggest lighter pressure whilst pressing and press for 40 seconds and add on 2 seconds for every other piece of metal added to your press. Also I never ever remove the protective plastic coating I just press straight over it, at 380/400 I would say the plastic just evaporates I've done over 10,000 cases and never (touch wood ) had a return.....


naw the paper dont evaporate its just sticks to the paper and its should peel right off leaving a gloss. I do it all the time you can tell the protective plastic is still on there you will see its stretch and peel away.


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## raqi1986 (Jul 11, 2011)

capping station, under the printhead, and the wiper blade. Nothing. I opened my reserved printer, set that up... it is the same thing. So it cannot be the printer. It has to be the computer

The printer is Artisan 1430. I am printing from illustrator. The color setting is RGB. ICC profile is the alum plate plain paper photo quality CS6 Ink. I got that from cobraink. 

The preferences on the printer are photo, plain paper/bright white paper, color management Icm off. 

The color management is the ICC profile. I have run out of ideas. Any body has any other ideas? 

*Also, everything was printing fine, I didnt have an issues until 2 days ago. I did not make any changes. The only thing that I did was update java... Any help is appreciated.


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## mgparrish (Jul 9, 2005)

raqi1986 said:


> capping station, under the printhead, and the wiper blade. Nothing. I opened my reserved printer, set that up... it is the same thing. So it cannot be the printer. It has to be the computer
> 
> The printer is Artisan 1430. I am printing from illustrator. The color setting is RGB. ICC profile is the alum plate plain paper photo quality CS6 Ink. I got that from cobraink.
> 
> ...


 What happens when you print pure color bars?
See the 6 color file in the attached zip

http://www.inksupply.com/zip/purge.zip

Seems to me you have a graphic file issues, perhaps the "overspray/artifacts" are actually in the design but very faint to see until transferred?

Anyway, if you can print and transfer the colors bars onto something and not see artifacts t would point to the design, so you should rule that out.


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## raqi1986 (Jul 11, 2011)

I printed the 6 color file, and it came out perfect. So it must be an issue with a graphic file. 

I have no idea to where to start with that. Anyone know any steps I can take?











Thank you mgparrish for sending me the file. At least I know it is not the printer.


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## mgparrish (Jul 9, 2005)

raqi1986 said:


> I printed the 6 color file, and it came out perfect. So it must be an issue with a graphic file.
> 
> I have no idea to where to start with that. Anyone know any steps I can take?
> 
> ...


It's still possible that the graphic file is OK. The purge file is showing that you are not getting any mechanical overspray in your pure colors ... but green is made from yellow and cyan.

Although 2 printers are doing the same thing when you sublimate the printed dots "spread" when heated so alignment is critical if the yellow and cyan are off alignment somewhat you could see a yellow artifact.

I don't know how well the 1430 performs at the high speed printing setting, but make sure "high speed" is unchecked. see the attached setting, note this only illustrates where the high speed setting is, your other settings should be correct, I plucked this from the online manual, the other settings in my attached pic are not to be used for sublimation, just see if high speed is on or not.

The other way to rule out your graphic file is to create a new virgin file in AI from scratch. Use your colors from the worse green in your design that is giving you trouble. Just draw a simple rectangle in the virgin AI graphic and fill the rectangle with the darker green color, print and press.

BTW you should always have some scrap stock material on hand for testing, using up your regular substrates can be expensive. Don't throw away any dinged up or imperfect substrates, keep those handy for cases like this.



See the attached


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## raqi1986 (Jul 11, 2011)

So I printed the same file from another computer, when I pressed it, same thing... I saved the JPEG from the first computer (maybe the profile from the first computer was embedded onto the image, thus the reason to come out the same way?)

I'll just post the different things that I do, hopefully someone comes along with an idea.

Also, I re installed the printer, and that did not do it.


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## raqi1986 (Jul 11, 2011)

Hi Mike,

Thank you! I will give it a shot. All the samples I have been pressing them on the same case. I just print a strip of that green. I did a full case for that so I can see clearly if there was an issue. I will do a few test prints as you said. 

Will update.

Thank you again.


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## mgparrish (Jul 9, 2005)

raqi1986 said:


> So I printed the same file from another computer, when I pressed it, same thing... I saved the JPEG from the first computer (maybe the profile from the first computer was embedded onto the image, thus the reason to come out the same way?)
> 
> I'll just post the different things that I do, hopefully someone comes along with an idea.
> 
> Also, I re installed the printer, and that did not do it.


You should always have an embedded profile when you save files out, but this would be your document profile set by your color workspace, usually Adobe RGB1998 or for some files, sRGB, and not your sublimation profile.

The printing profile isn't seen by the application if you save a file out, only when data is sent to the printer. In all cases saving a file there it should be tagged with the profile of your working color space.

Doubt anything to do with profiles. Try making a virgin green bar and also check if the 1430 is set to high speed printing, if so turn it off.


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## raqi1986 (Jul 11, 2011)

Nothing...New illustrator file, new photoshop file... same results. Unchecked high speed, nothing. Now I am lost.


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## mgparrish (Jul 9, 2005)

raqi1986 said:


> Nothing...New illustrator file, new photoshop file... same results. Unchecked high speed, nothing. Now I am lost.


 Suggest you try and do a print head alignment.

Pure colors look good, green has a yellow artifact. The printer to make a green (composite color) bar (C+Y) has to lay the C dots along side the Y dots, if one is shifted up or down due to alignment even a small amount matters.

Also, what paper are you using?


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## mgparrish (Jul 9, 2005)

For that procedure look on page 102 - 103 of the pdf manual (online)

* Print Head Alignment​* If your printouts become grainy or blurry, you notice misalignment of vertical lines, or you see dark or
light horizontal bands, you may need to align the print head.​*Note: *Banding may also occur if your print head nozzles need cleaning.

https://files.support.epson.com/pdf/art1430/art1430ug.pdf


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## raqi1986 (Jul 11, 2011)

Text print XPHR. I will do a print head alignment, see if anything changes. What are the chances that two printers would do the same thing. That is my problem.

Everything was printing just fine, until the other day. I do not think its the paper


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## mgparrish (Jul 9, 2005)

raqi1986 said:


> Text print XPHR. I will do a print head alignment, see if anything changes. What are the chances that two printers would do the same thing. That is my problem.
> 
> Everything was printing just fine, until the other day. I do not think its the paper


It's not likely both printers are out of alignment but you should rule that out. The paper you mention is very high release and really made for fabrics that need a boost. Read that papers description on the cobra website. I'm on my cellphone now and hard to read back in this thread, but check your profile and paper combination, see the readme file in the profile zip download. I mentioned I didn't think it was anything to do with the profile but I could stand corrected, 

I didnt think you would use that paper with a cell phone cover. If You used the HR paper with the wrong profile you could be laying down too much ink. Might explain why both printers are doing that. If you dont have regular paper like dyetrans brand then you can substitute Epson premium matte paper for troubleshooting,.


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## raqi1986 (Jul 11, 2011)

I tried the alignment, same. I can order some of that paper and see. I have always used this for the past year and I have never had any problems (profile and paper)... Its just weird this is happening now. 

I will play around with some of the other profiles and see what happens.

Thank you for going back and fourth with this with me. I will see if I can find anything else. 

Ill will update if any changes happen


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## mgparrish (Jul 9, 2005)

raqi1986 said:


> I tried the alignment, same. I can order some of that paper and see. I have always used this for the past year and I have never had any problems (profile and paper)... Its just weird this is happening now.
> 
> I will play around with some of the other profiles and see what happens.
> 
> ...


You may have had that all along just if you didnt use a fully saturated green you may not have noticed. Have you printed that same exact design before and it was OK?

Once you hit full saturation then having more ink layed down would make the transfer paper more wet and nothing else.

Just for grins back down the gamma or saturation in adobe maybe and see what effects, it might give a clue if too much ink is the problem.


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## raqi1986 (Jul 11, 2011)

It is not just the green, the gray as well. The gray, I have pressed over 100. Now I see a light red around the gray. I think I'll sleep on it and see if I can figure something out tomorrow. lol my mental capacity is low at the moment. But thank you for your input, the whole day. I'll try and keep this updated and see if I can figure out the reason behind it.


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## raqi1986 (Jul 11, 2011)

Got the new dye trans paper... Nothing, still the same. The light spray is still there around the image. I attached a few images of the options I use. Cobra ink sublimation. 380 temp, 50 seconds. ( I know it is not the heat because I can see the spray on the sheet. Any advice, anything. I have tried everything I know. 

If anybody sees something with how it is set up, maybe I am doing something wrong? 

Thank you


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## mgparrish (Jul 9, 2005)

raqi1986 said:


> Got the new dye trans paper... Nothing, still the same. The light spray is still there around the image. I attached a few images of the options I use. Cobra ink sublimation. 380 temp, 50 seconds. ( I know it is not the heat because I can see the spray on the sheet. Any advice, anything. I have tried everything I know.
> 
> If anybody sees something with how it is set up, maybe I am doing something wrong?
> 
> Thank you


The purge file I linked for you printed OK in AI ... but files you created in AI were NG. You mentioned that you printed your green color bar in Photoshop as I understand and it was NG, but that file came from AI?

What happens if you create the green color bar in PS, not export from AI but create in PS and print there?

Just a recap of what is known so far.

1. Purge file color bars print and transfers good.
2. 2 different printers do the same with the 1 file causing you the problem.
3. You printed 1 file causing you the problem on another computer and still same bad results.
4. Creating a new file from scratch in AI also caused the same problem.

Let me know if my items above are correct, or do we add to it. Sure looks like an issue with a setting somewhere in AI but I can't see anything wrong based on your screen.

I think creating the green bar file in PS and printing from there would rule AI out as the source of the problem if your green bar prints and transfers there OK.


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## raqi1986 (Jul 11, 2011)

I believe I found where the issue is at. When going to properties and then color management, I had the ICC profile right, but it was not set as "default"... So it seems that worked. Lesson learned.

Thank you Mike again for all your info. 

lol now the nozzle check (yellow and the light cyan are not printing properly) is an issue. I did a few head cleaning, nothing. 

On to the next issue.


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## raqi1986 (Jul 11, 2011)

False alarm. The gray still comes out a little redish. I printed a full design...That was not it.


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## raqi1986 (Jul 11, 2011)

Also, I did print with photoshop and same problem. No changes.


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## mgparrish (Jul 9, 2005)

raqi1986 said:


> Also, I did print with photoshop and same problem. No changes.


But was the green bar test design also created inside PS and printed in PS? Not created in AI then exported out to PS and printed from there.

We need to completely rule out AI.


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## raqi1986 (Jul 11, 2011)

mgparrish said:


> But was the green bar test design also created inside PS and printed in PS? Not created in AI then exported out to PS and printed from there.
> 
> We need to completely rule out AI.


I dragged the image to photoshop so I can copy the color, deleted the image, created 5 thick lines in photoshop, then printed. Same result...


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## raqi1986 (Jul 11, 2011)

So far, other images are coming out fine... The gray and the green is where the problem is... Maybe its an ICC profile issue?


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## Techprint (Dec 20, 2012)

click on bestphoto buddy, when I do best or even text and image, I always run into color issues.


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## mgparrish (Jul 9, 2005)

raqi1986 said:


> So far, other images are coming out fine... The gray and the green is where the problem is... Maybe its an ICC profile issue?


When you tried a second printer did you have a second set of refillable carts or CIS installed on your second printer that you tried?

If you only swapped/switched CIS or carts and those were the issue, then you really haven't isolated the printer as being as the fault. The carts/CIS would still be a "common denominator". 

The trouble would follow into any other 1430 you had if you only had a single set of carts or CIS and swapped.


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## iainlondon (May 11, 2010)

djque said:


> naw the paper dont evaporate its just sticks to the paper and its should peel right off leaving a gloss. I do it all the time you can tell the protective plastic is still on there you will see its stretch and peel away.




That's what I meant. thanks for clearing that up (always one isn't there?)


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