# Printing Halftones with VERSAWORKS??



## ftnclothing (Dec 16, 2007)

Is there anyway possible to print halftones using Versaworks for roland spv printers?

Or what rip software should I use. I NEED TO PRINT HALFTONES!!!


Thanks


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## scuba_steve2699 (Nov 15, 2006)

Versaworks and the roland printers can and will print halftones. It pretty much prints just like a regular inkjet printer in that it will print whatever you have sent to it. i.e.; if you have a pdf graphic that has halftones in it, it will print exactly like you see it on your screen. Please give a little more info on what you are looking for an maybe I can help more.


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## ftnclothing (Dec 16, 2007)

Well I made an image that I shaded in photoshop then I printed it on the roland but I don't know if it did it in halftones or what?

Cause when I went to make the screen there wasn't any halftones in it


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

Does versaworks have a postscript rip in it? That's what your gonna need to print halftones. You'll know if it did print halftones, it'll be obvious.


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## edua (Oct 14, 2007)

has anyone find out about this yet. Can i print halftones using VERSAWORKS. ?? How?


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## edua (Oct 14, 2007)

??? nobody


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## loloxa (Sep 5, 2007)

no to seem like an inquisitor, but... WHY? why do you need halftones in a versa solution? is not like you are going to layer those halftones over anything, are you? 
I mean in silkscreen it makes sense to use halftones, so does in offset but vinyl? I mean, a printer is exactly what makes halftones obsolete, they are used to simulate wider color ranges from simple spot colors, in simple color printing techniques.

Please do correct me if I'm wrong.

If it is only for aesthetic purposes ( as in you want a fake halftone process for the look of it) you can always create a fake halftone image in photoshop using for example this technique: halftone, and then print as a regular image.

edit:

Although may be you are trying to use your versacamm to print to film so you can use in an exposure unit later on. In that case find a rip that supports the versacamm and halftone ripping, but I would use a an inkjet printer for which there are very cheap inks and tested films, and hardly ever do you need film 24" wide.


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## edua (Oct 14, 2007)

Thanks for your reply loloxa. Yes im tying to print print to film with my Versacamm. The advantage of having a 24 film is that I can print 2 screen of 12 inches wide at once. I actually do a lot of BIG prints on shirts and that is why I'd like to stick to my versacamm instead of buying a new printer. I actauly found a RIP software that does halftones compatible with versacamm, The name of is is Wasatch. I will probbaly get it because Versaworks doesn't support halftones. ither that or then I will do the haftone conversion in photoshop so that http://www.google.ca/aclk?sa=l&ai=C...tp://www.wasatch.com/roland_rip_software.html


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

Ghostscript will convert to halftones and output to ANY printer. The only problem is what film will work in the Roland.


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## edua (Oct 14, 2007)

Im Using ULANO PIGMENT Inkjet Film / 24 inches roll,
I used on of the profiles used to print Solven clear film and its produces a very very Dark print
I will be exposing some Images tomorrow will see how it goes


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

Do you keep the heat on or off? What is the exact profile you use?


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## BeenThereBefore (Apr 15, 2008)

You can absolutely make film positives from your VersaCamm. I have a VP540 and make beautiful positives from it...nice, clean, dense black positives....up to 52.5" wide! You do NOT need any other software what so ever.

Just create a NEW MEDIA and use "Generic Vinyl" as the preset. Then deselect the check box that says something about "hide non recommended settings." You can only print halftones on the 720 X 720 and 1440 X 1440 resolution settings. deselect the "eyes" next to ALL other options. Then select the CMYK setting under the 1440 X 1440 resolution and click the little "rainbow" colored icon just to the right of that (or right click and choose settings) and then go in there and make your halftone adjustment...you can change frequency and angle and dot type (no elliptical though). Change the profile to whatever media you are printing on...(see below about media). Do this for the CMYK W- PASS resolution as well. Do this for the 720 X 720 resolutions as well. Save this profile (you might want to re-name it). Then change one of your Queue settings to this new profile. Change the color management to: density control only. make sure you are printing in a mode that you adjusted earlier (1440 X 1440 or 720 X 720).

Artwork: you will have to make sure you manually separate your artwork into separate channels/plates/screens. Make sure they are BLACK only (no C-M-Y) in your graphics program. They can be tints of black if you have halftones...just no C-M-Y data in your separated plates. Export each plate as an EPS file into VersaWorks.

Media: Intellicoat (www.magicinkjet.com) makes the best film for this...SCF-7. It was made specifically for this. It took me FOREVER to find a company that sells solvent based film for film positives...maybe there are others but this works awesome!

Want to make all this a lot easier.... just buy CadLink's FilmMaker LFP+...it's about $1200 but then you can just print directly from Corel, Adobe, whatever and not have to go into Media Manager everytime. www.cadlink.com

Again...you don't need to buy any extra software to print film positives from VersaWorks this but it can be time consuming if you don't.

Hope this helps...Andy Boyea of Lil' Dogs www.lildogs.com


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## BeenThereBefore (Apr 15, 2008)

You can absolutely make film positives from your VersaCamm. I have a VP540 and make beautiful positives from it...nice, clean, dense black positives....up to 52.5" wide! You do NOT need any other software what so ever.

Just create a NEW MEDIA and use "Generic Vinyl" as the preset. Then deselect the check box that says something about "hide non recommended settings." You can only print halftones on the 720 X 720 and 1440 X 1440 resolution settings. deselect the "eyes" next to ALL other options. Then select the CMYK setting under the 1440 X 1440 resolution and click the little "rainbow" colored icon just to the right of that (or right click and choose settings) and then go in there and make your halftone adjustment...you can change frequency and angle and dot type (no elliptical though). Change the profile to whatever media you are printing on...(see below about media). Do this for the CMYK W- PASS resolution as well. Do this for the 720 X 720 resolutions as well. Save this profile (you might want to re-name it). Then change one of your Queue settings to this new profile. Change the color management to: density control only. make sure you are printing in a mode that you adjusted earlier (1440 X 1440 or 720 X 720).

Artwork: you will have to make sure you manually separate your artwork into separate channels/plates/screens. Make sure they are BLACK only (no C-M-Y) in your graphics program. They can be tints of black if you have halftones...just no C-M-Y data in your separated plates. Export each plate as an EPS file into VersaWorks.

Media: Intellicoat (www.magicinkjet.com) makes the best film for this...SCF-7. It was made specifically for this. It took me FOREVER to find a company that sells solvent based film for film positives...maybe there are others but this works awesome!

Want to make all this a lot easier.... just buy CadLink's FilmMaker LFP+...it's about $1200 but then you can just print directly from Corel, Adobe, whatever and not have to go into Media Manager everytime. www.cadlink.com

Again...you don't need to buy any extra software to print film positives from VersaWorks this but it can be time consuming if you don't.

Hope this helps...Andy Boyea of Lil' Dogs www.lildogs.com


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