DIY decal question--weird color "ring"

[jgoldader]

Hi all,

I'm printing some decals on MicroMark white inkjet decal film, using my HP OfficeJet 6500 printer. The decals shade from bright white, to dark blue, to dark black.

While the images look fine on the computer screen, when they print out on my printer, as the color is transitioning from dark blue to black, instead of a smooth transition, I see a brighter purplish-gray "ring" surrounding the colored region just where the color should be becoming pure black. It's as if there is some sort of color quantization problem, or the printer isn't using the proper combination of inks.

For software, I'm just editing the decals in Paint or Photoshop Elements, then pasting the images into Word, where I resize them and print out many decals on a single sheet.

Any ideas?

Thanks
Jeff

[photoguy]

It could be a couple of things, all of which revolve around how the printer is building the dark blue/black blend. It is using Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black ink to create the fade, and that is not simple. Also, transferring the color info from Photoshop into Word MAY be changing the working color space of the file (which is where I believe the problem really lies). I would maintain all of the artwork in Photoshop (legendary color handling) and deal with the scaling within that software. In Elements, I believe it is under "Edit" > "Image Size". You can change the measurement units from inches or centimeters to pixels, pica, or Percent.

You should have no problem importing your Paint files into Elements either. Save them as .jpgs, and then open them from inside Photoshop, Copy and Paste them onto your decal sheet layout. Remember, Photoshop is resolution dependent (raster images, not vector) so keep your files around 300dpi at the final print size for the best results.

[Rogviler]

EDIT: That, mostly. ^

For a start, I would forget Word. I find it much easier to create an 8.5x11" document in Photoshop and arrange things how I want. Be sure to print "actual size" and ignore the clipping warning (just leave yourself a little border, knowing it'll get cut off). Working within one program keeps the same image quality and parameters. That may or may not fix your problem, but Word always seems to muck with images for me.

If it still does it then it could just be the printer having a hard time transitioning from a color to black without a smooth overlap. I've never had a printer that does gradients perfectly for some reason.

-Rog

[jgoldader]

It could be a couple of things, all of which revolve around how the printer is building the dark blue/black blend. It is using Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black ink to create the fade, and that is not simple. Also, transferring the color info from Photoshop into Word MAY be changing the working color space of the file (which is where I believe the problem really lies). I would maintain all of the artwork in Photoshop (legendary color handling) and deal with the scaling within that software. In Elements, I believe it is under "Edit" > "Image Size". You can change the measurement units from inches or centimeters to pixels, pica, or Percent.

Bleh...

I was afraid it was something like that. The advantage of Word is that it's very easy to stuff many graphics on one page, and I'll have to learn how to do that in Photoshop. Do I do each decal as a separate layer?

I do appreciate your advice, though.

Jeff

[jgoldader]

Photoguy--

I followed your advice, and have perfect decals! Thanks!

The solution was to just start making lots of layers in Photoshop, pasting and resizing as I went. Need many copies of one decal? Push ALT while using the "Move" tool and you get a copy you can move. No weird gradient issues, and the overall colors are much improved as well.

Thanks again,
Jeff

[photoguy]

You're welcome. Glad to help.

I knew all that time at art school was good for something!