Printing changes colour on mug

[John G]

Have you got coreldraw - it may be an idea to mirror it using a different software to rule out PS.

[Matt Quinn]

Hi Matt
Thanks for reply, I am taking the readings from the Tru-Pix paper and then this is used to create the printer profile.

It may be physically impossible to get a reading off a mug - But you do need to take your reading off the final substrate for accuracy. - In fine art Gicleé printing for instance the same printer, same ink but two different papers would mean two different profiles as the final substrate has different chracteristics.

Some white sublimetal or coaster material is probably about as good as you'll get. At a pinch you could try transferring (pressing) the image onto white card or paper.

I've absolutely no explanation as to why mirror printing would alter the colour and can only make guesses - Is it possible that when you tick whatever box is used for mirror printing it re-sets your other print parameters? Perhaps by-passing your profile?

Or perhaps (the other way round) normal printing actually by-passes your profile - showing up an issue with the profile.

How ARE you 'flipping' the image? At the print driver or in the image editor?

[JSR]

Matt is absolutely right. Sublimation inks don't reach their full colour until they've undergone the heat process. If you profile to the paper print, then the final print after heat will be wrong.

I use old mousemats or t-shirts when creating profiles. BMS recently did some "clearance mousemats" for 40p each which I'm using at the moment. They're not totally ideal (they're not totally white, and there are some imperfections), but they make for a good starting point. I used metal sheets at first (figuring they were like a sheet of paper). The profile was okay, but it resulted in a much darker print than I was expecting. At some stage I intend to profile to a ceramic tile to see if that offers better results for a mug profile.

Also it's worth bearing in mind that, for best results, you need to profile each of your substrates. I noticed recently that there was a big difference between regular items (like mugs, mousemats, etc) and unisub items (like coasters).

[clive]

It may be physically impossible to get a reading off a mug - But you do need to take your reading off the final substrate for accuracy. - In fine art Gicleé printing for instance the same printer, same ink but two different papers would mean two different profiles as the final substrate has different chracteristics.

Some white sublimetal or coaster material is probably about as good as you'll get. At a pinch you could try transferring (pressing) the image onto white card or paper.

I've absolutely no explanation as to why mirror printing would alter the colour and can only make guesses - Is it possible that when you tick whatever box is used for mirror printing it re-sets your other print parameters? Perhaps by-passing your profile?

Or perhaps (the other way round) normal printing actually by-passes your profile - showing up an issue with the profile.

How ARE you 'flipping' the image? At the print driver or in the image editor?

Hi Matt

Thank you and everyone else for their help.

I have now created a new profile after producing another test patten and then pressing onto a mouse mat.
Using this to produce a new profile, I have now got it correct!

You were right, I didn't think about the colour change after heating, so if anyone else needs to create a new profile, make sure you use a text patten AFTER heating.

Problem resolved!

Clive

[Paul]

:rolleyes: