New Ricoh Printer problem

[proprints]

I've just printed on to slate, and am not too happy with the result, the picture is a little dull with a hint of "green" (the picture is black and white) I preheated the slate for about a minute and pressed for 6 minutes. Any ideas?

I am printing using the Power Driver, i havent made any modifications to the driver settings. I will attempt to upload 2 pictures, one of the slate and one of the sub paper (after printing)

Ta all
Steve

[Ian Mc]

At a glance, I'd say it looks like it's undercooked. The suggestion of a green tint to your image also points to this (although, in my experience, PowerDriver does print with a slight green tint anyway). Also, the printed slate seem to have white 'blooming' in the printed areas - again, suggesting undercooking. Maybe pre-heat for a bit longer?

EDIT: I'd just add that especially dense products do require more pre-heating to ensure a good transfer - I find that when pressing acrylic blocks, a good 4-5 minutes pre-heating is necessary, so perhaps try the same with the slate?

[Paul]

hint of green? i say undercooked too
try bit longer.
regards preheating for 4-5 minutes i would not do that with slates. as sublimation process will start before you line your image right. for large slates 2minutes is normaly fine. but dont forget to worm up well your sillicon sheet.

[proprints]

Thanks for the info. I'll try and get the printing right on some 22p coasters before I re try the slates lol

[JSR]

Thanks for the info. I'll try and get the printing right on some 22p coasters before I re try the slates lol

Just be aware that not all substrates are the same.

I create my own profiles to get the colours right, but what prints on a coaster (those 90mm ones) and what prints on a mug are two entirely different things. I need to increase the red when printing coasters to get the same neutral colours that don't need tweaking on other items.

I spent ages doing test prints on a placemat - which looked okay on one placemat, but wrong on another - before I realised it was the coasters that were causing the problem, not my printing.

I'd suggest printing multiple smaller areas onto a slate until you get the result you want. Sure, you'll waste one - but you'll be able to print the smaller areas several times to get it just right.