Judy Posted November 20, 2020 Share Posted November 20, 2020 Can anyone help with the ink settings for DTF printing on an Epson SC P600. The colors are not coming out vibrant at all. Please Help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wind Studio Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 Having the same issue. I am using Kothari and trying Andys shared environment which I believe is 65% white underbase and 80% color strength. Havbeen tweaking those 2 numbers from there and have not been able to get a single good print yet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judy Posted November 21, 2020 Author Share Posted November 21, 2020 Same here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnson4 Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 (edited) 15 hours ago, Judy said: Can anyone help with the ink settings for DTF printing on an Epson SC P600. The colors are not coming out vibrant at all. Please Help! What do you mean by vibrant? It’s not going to make colors “ pop”, just how much ink gets put down to make those colors, too much ink makes it darker, and vise versa. I personally always started low on the ink settings and worked my may up. I’ve noticed with dtf it’s requires very little ink. I had a good print on my 2nd print, and tweaked from there moving forward and it’s been fine since. The first print was terrible, ink everywhere. Lol. Edited November 21, 2020 by johnson4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judy Posted November 21, 2020 Author Share Posted November 21, 2020 You can see on the image on the screen how bright everything is and how white the lettering is but when we do the print on the black shirt the white looks gray and the colors are just dull. I am new with Kothari so can you explain where you make the changes on how much ink is put down. Currently, Choke is set at 98, Underbase at 60, and highlight at 20. Output color strength is at 80. Thank you for your help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy - Admin Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 Neon colors can be tough to hit with out alot of adjustment in photoshop. CMYK range of colors don't really cover neons. I'd suggest while learning to stay away from Neon colors or test print some color swatches to find a color that works for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy - Admin Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 This graphic shows the range of CMYK in the middle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judy Posted November 21, 2020 Author Share Posted November 21, 2020 The image below is not done with neon colors and you can see when the transfer was pressed on the shirt the colors are very dull. The hat should be yellow and the aliens should be more green. All the colors are dull. I have seen other people doing DTF with regular colors and the colors are very vibrant and we are not getting those results at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skwakk Posted November 22, 2020 Share Posted November 22, 2020 (edited) I don't believe you can truly print vibrant neon colors with dtg/dtf. When I did screenprinting i used to buy special neon inks for that purpose. I found this color chart online (attached). Just print it and press on a shirt and pick the closest one in photoshop with the color picker to use with your artwork that closely matches your preference. This way you don't waste film and minimize trial and error sample runs too. Edited November 22, 2020 by skwakk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnson4 Posted November 22, 2020 Share Posted November 22, 2020 (edited) Here are the first few test prints I did, black and white, showing the difference you get from the exact same print settings, before and after peel comparing a white and black “ base” shirt color. I see banding in your photo, what resolution are you printing? and the colors look off. My blacks come out very black, so it looks like your white “ underbase” is also blending with your color base muddling the colors, are you curing them correctly before heat pressing? The powder needs to “ crystallize”. Simple test, cure 3 times as long, and see if it makes any difference. This is with Andy’s old film, the new film works even better. Edited November 22, 2020 by johnson4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnson4 Posted November 22, 2020 Share Posted November 22, 2020 (edited) As others have stated, your screen is in RGB and your printer is a limited CMYK version for direct color reference. If your file is RGB, convert it to cmyk and find acceptable colors before printing. This isn’t your only issue in your photo, but to maintain your expectations on “ color matching”. your screen won’t match your printer without buying a device to calibrate it. I spent 8 months trying to print “pink” on a dtg machine. Come to find out, it was actually printing correctly, my screen was off on a high end Alienware. $200 later and I was in business, even then though, it’s not “exact” on garment. all in all, it boils down to experience, trial and error, and gritting your teeth through the testing until you find what works for you in that aspect. I’m sure you didn’t expect to buy a printer and get a perfect screen to print reproduction, even well seasoned photographers can’t do it. With photo printers, the slightest variation in the gloss rating, even from sheet to sheet can change a print significantly. Changing the background color of the shirt, is definitely going to alter not only the perspective due to the surrounding “ tone” but also due to the base color. I know Andy supports kothari, and I’m not knocking it at all, But it is very difficult to fully understand and use especially for a beginner. It works well if you know what you are doing, but if you don’t it’s easy to get lost in all of the settings/variations and steps, I know I did. #1 thing from me, your not curing your prints correctly/fully before heat pressing. #2, understand why banding exists and fix it, it matters not only for the quality, but also the color reproduction. Just my opinion, good luck! Edited November 22, 2020 by johnson4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anum11 Posted November 22, 2020 Share Posted November 22, 2020 (edited) On 11/21/2020 at 8:12 PM, Judy said: You can see on the image on the screen how bright everything is and how white the lettering is but when we do the print on the black shirt the white looks gray and the colors are just dull. I am new with Kothari so can you explain where you make the changes on how much ink is put down. Currently, Choke is set at 98, Underbase at 60, and highlight at 20. Output color strength is at 80. Thank you for your help. These colors aren't good at all you are right. I haven't tried DTF just yet, but i tried kothari and acrorip both on DTG. On kothari results were similar to yours, on Acrorip it was so good i questioned why did i buy kothari. However i seen good prints with kothari and i think hue saturation adjustment is being made before printing on kothari. Just not able to try it yet. I contacted kothari to make correct color adjustments, i suggest you to do same. I don't have any time to work about it so kothari is on hold for me for now. Acrorip is much easier to use and get good results as a novice. Kothari is just too complicated and not very well documented. Edited November 22, 2020 by anum11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judy Posted November 22, 2020 Author Share Posted November 22, 2020 14 hours ago, johnson4 said: As others have stated, your screen is in RGB and your printer is a limited CMYK version for direct color reference. If your file is RGB, convert it to cmyk and find acceptable colors before printing. This isn’t your only issue in your photo, but to maintain your expectations on “ color matching”. your screen won’t match your printer without buying a device to calibrate it. I spent 8 months trying to print “pink” on a dtg machine. Come to find out, it was actually printing correctly, my screen was off on a high end Alienware. $200 later and I was in business, even then though, it’s not “exact” on garment. all in all, it boils down to experience, trial and error, and gritting your teeth through the testing until you find what works for you in that aspect. I’m sure you didn’t expect to buy a printer and get a perfect screen to print reproduction, even well seasoned photographers can’t do it. With photo printers, the slightest variation in the gloss rating, even from sheet to sheet can change a print significantly. Changing the background color of the shirt, is definitely going to alter not only the perspective due to the surrounding “ tone” but also due to the base color. I know Andy supports kothari, and I’m not knocking it at all, But it is very difficult to fully understand and use especially for a beginner. It works well if you know what you are doing, but if you don’t it’s easy to get lost in all of the settings/variations and steps, I know I did. #1 thing from me, your not curing your prints correctly/fully before heat pressing. #2, understand why banding exists and fix it, it matters not only for the quality, but also the color reproduction. Just my opinion, good luck! What causes banding and how do we fix that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnson4 Posted November 22, 2020 Share Posted November 22, 2020 7 minutes ago, Judy said: What causes banding and how do we fix that? What resolution are you printing, and have you performed a nozzle check? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy - Admin Posted November 22, 2020 Share Posted November 22, 2020 As Johnson4 said... the first step is always a nozzle check when you have printing issues. You can't troubleshoot any issues until you know that you're getting a 100% good nozzle check. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judy Posted November 23, 2020 Author Share Posted November 23, 2020 17 hours ago, Andy - Admin said: As Johnson4 said... the first step is always a nozzle check when you have printing issues. You can't troubleshoot any issues until you know that you're getting a 100% good nozzle check. Yes we did a nozzle check. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnson4 Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 (edited) 13 minutes ago, Judy said: Yes we did a nozzle check. IF you have done a nozzle check and it's fine, I have no idea why it would be doing that at 1440 resolution. I have never seen a perfect nozzle check and banding before unless at a lower resolution( Like 720x720) the film i worked with last night had a similar thing happen to me with the banding after not printing for several days, did a head clean and It's fine. I'm not familiar with Kothari, If you end up trying an EKprint Demo, try at these settings: 1440x1440 for both 80% CMYK ink density 50% white ink density ( transparency mode in the drop down box) check-mark one pass print. You can contact EKprint for a demo. I get perfect results with that every-time, sometimes I'll need to make minor adjustments. I recently tried a demo of Kothari, But I don't know next to anything about it. That's all I can help with. Good luck! Edited November 23, 2020 by johnson4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnson4 Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 Well, I could help in one other way, PM me the file you are printing and I can print it on my side to see how it does for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judy Posted November 23, 2020 Author Share Posted November 23, 2020 OK I will be back home later and we will send the file and see how it goes. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sevan.montreal Posted January 5, 2021 Share Posted January 5, 2021 On 11/23/2020 at 12:24 PM, johnson4 said: Well, I could help in one other way, PM me the file you are printing and I can print it on my side to see how it does for me. hey man want to compare setting on kothari? i got something that works for now... ive been using kothari for a while on my dtg orinters and one pass printing was a first for me as for dtg its not good in my opinion... anyways im printing right now let me know Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judy Posted January 6, 2021 Author Share Posted January 6, 2021 thank you but I actually switched to EK Print and I am very happy with that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnson4 Posted January 6, 2021 Share Posted January 6, 2021 15 hours ago, Sevan.montreal said: hey man want to compare setting on kothari? i got something that works for now... ive been using kothari for a while on my dtg orinters and one pass printing was a first for me as for dtg its not good in my opinion... anyways im printing right now let me know One pass can work fantastic, if your ink/pretreatment settings are good. Two pass hardly takes any longer though, and is easier to spot white ink issues ( too much or too little). With Andy’s ultimate board, out of a few hundred prints with 2 pass not one has had any alignment issues. The others, like the AIO or adruino version, it happens sometimes. i also only use EKprint. I found kothari too complicated/time consuming for my intended purpose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lasse Posted January 6, 2021 Share Posted January 6, 2021 Judy, I´m glad you got better results with EK print. But the thing is that you never will get concitent good prints if you don´t know how to control and adjust the image before you send it to the printer. Andy touched the subject sligtly in his second post November 21. Gammut control. Here´s a youtubeclip explaining it -> And here´s another clip showing different technics on how to make colors "pop" in Photoshop -> I suggest you start with making your colors pop and then use the gammut control/correction to make shure the popped colors not way out of gammut. But before all that, make shure you´r computor screen don´t lie. A well calibrated screen don´t lie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sevan.montreal Posted January 27, 2021 Share Posted January 27, 2021 On 1/6/2021 at 9:36 AM, johnson4 said: One pass can work fantastic, if your ink/pretreatment settings are good. Two pass hardly takes any longer though, and is easier to spot white ink issues ( too much or too little). With Andy’s ultimate board, out of a few hundred prints with 2 pass not one has had any alignment issues. The others, like the AIO or adruino version, it happens sometimes. i also only use EKprint. I found kothari too complicated/time consuming for my intended purpose. im talking about dtf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnson4 Posted January 27, 2021 Share Posted January 27, 2021 (edited) 3 hours ago, Sevan.montreal said: im talking about dtf Right, and you said it wasn’t good for you with DTG. It does work well for DTG following everything is correct, though two pass doesn’t really take any longer. If you had Andy’s encoder board it won’t handle single pass anyway. “ I also only use EKprint. I found kothari too complicated/time consuming for my intended purpose. “ that statement was meant for the DTF answer. I only use EKprint, so I have no idea what kothari settings would be. I found it too complicated and time consuming, especially for DTF, so I only have EKprint settings. Andy did post his DTF settings for kothari in one of these threads somewhere. Anyway, sorry for being confusing. Edited January 27, 2021 by johnson4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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