For garment printing workers, color management seems to be irrelevant to them, because when it comes to color management, they think it is for large-scale digital printing, which involves many different output devices, different printing inks and different For printing materials, the use of a color management program can help us control these variables, so that color information can be accurately transmitted between various output devices—cameras, monitors, and printed imaging. So our question is, does color management help garment printing?

Apply color management to clothing printing

Recently, I used color management in the laboratory to screen print on clothing. I always have an idea that color management is only suitable for certain special printing with specific conditions and parameters, and the measuring instrument is very suitable for color measurement on a very smooth surface (usually paper), and for measurement on fabrics, Due to the uneven surface of the fabric and the irregular reflection of light, it will affect the measurement accuracy of the measuring instrument.

Recently, we conducted an experiment on color management on a machine that directly performs inkjet printing on clothing. The results surprised us a lot, and we got a very good image.

Basics of color management

Usually, due to some internal factors, the color of the printed image through the scanner, display, printing machine and the printing material is very different. If there is no standard color management system, the color and printing reflected on the device The color effect will be different, so in order to ensure the consistency of the color, multiple calibration and error correction experiments are required.

The color management system establishes a complete workflow between drawing software, input, display, and output devices. To eliminate color differences caused by device differences. Color matching is used to correct the color of the imaging system, and then the color information can be accurately transmitted between the systems. Each system processes color information in accordance with ICC standards. Each device itself can also achieve color calibration, so that it can better and more directly match colors when scanning, displaying and printing colors. Usually graphics software such as Adobe Photoshop can accurately extract image information from the color of a device The space is transferred to the color space of another device. According to the limitations of the device itself, it will save the original color information. Due to the different manufacturing process of each device, there will be differences and limitations in color processing. As we know, the colors that can be displayed on the display are more than the colors that can be printed on the printing machine. If you use a printing machine, The color processed on the display must be the color that the printing machine can print. I believe that if you get a four-color printing sample, you will be very disappointed because the printed color is not the same as the effect you see on the display.

Color files are processed in pairs, one file is called the source file, and one file is called the target file. The color in a certain device is processed as a source file, and then the information in the source file is passed to the target processor. As an example, we view the scanned image on the monitor. The scanned image is called the source file, and the working space of the monitor is called the target file.

Only high-quality color information files can obtain good printing results, so this also means that you need to purchase good hardware and software equipment to accurately process the color. The price of such software and hardware usually ranges from $ 300 to $ 15,000. Of course, there are also services for creating files, these are paid services.

Color matching is not always accurate in color management. ICC color management standards sometimes have limitations, and it does not work for some workflows. The color management space also needs to be updated or re-created periodically. When your processing system changes, you need to update the color management space, such as the type of ink changed or another garment manufacturer.

Create a color management space

The first step in creating a color space is to print a test chart. This test chart contains thousands of color patches, and the ICC color space is created based on the information of these patches. You can download ProfileMaker5 from the website: This is a software that can create a color space, and contains many color measurement tools.

Open this file in Adobe Photoshop CS2, and use Epson4000 printer output film, cancel all color management options before printing. I choose File> Print Preview, and select the color management from the preview drop-down menu. If there is no pop-up window, you can click "More Options" on the right to enter the dialog box. Choose "Achromatic Processing" from the Color Processing menu.

I created a copy intent for the relative chroma ratio. Copy intent is the standard way to create a color space. There are four options, but there are three commonly used: perceived copy intent, relative chroma ratio, and absolute chroma ratio intent. When the printed image has a wide range of tones and a lot of colors, we can establish a perceived copying intention. The advantage of this method is that all the tone and color of the image are printed within the range of colors that can be copied by the printing equipment. If you want to make the printed image look good, this method is the best choice, of course its shortcomings The color matching is not precise enough. If the tone values ​​and colors in the source file do not exceed the gamut range of the target file, select the relative chromaticity ratio space, which can achieve the best color matching. The tone values ​​and colors in the source file that exceed the target file will be Cut off. The absolute colorimetric ratio space is for processing the white and black areas in the source file, making these areas similar to the white and black areas in the output device. Use this copying intention to make the background color in the source file the final printing color. If the image of the source file is on a piece of yellowish paper, the absolute colorimetric ratio space can be used to make the white area in the final printed image become yellow in the source file image.

The line number of the dichroic film I made is 45lpi, and the circular dots are used, the output angle is 61 degrees, the re-stretched frame is used, the number of screen wires is 120, and the tension of the stretched net is 30N / cm. Use an automatic screen coating machine to apply 1: 2 coating on the screen, that is, double-cured photosensitive adhesive, apply it once on the printing surface of the screen, and apply twice on the scraping surface of the screen, and then put it on 5KW The exposure equipment is used to perform exposure, and finally a manual printing machine is used to print four colors on a white T-shirt.

After printing, flash-cure the T-shirts, remove the printing plate and the T-shirts together, and keep the T-shirts on the printing plate to make the surface smooth, which is convenient for future measurement. [next]

measuring

The next step in creating a color management space is to use a spectrum tester to measure the color of the target image. The spectrometer is used to measure the optical density of colors, strictly speaking, the wavelength of light waves. The measuring principle of the spectrometer is to irradiate the test image with white light, and then measure the reflection density of light in different wavelength ranges for light. Use a portable spectrophotometer GretagMacbeth's Eye-One to make measurements and make a test table. ProfileMaker5 software can communicate with Eye-One photometer in real time and quickly reflect the measurement results. The spectrometer passes through each color block and records the reflection information of light of different colors. The software compares these information data with the original known target data to calculate the difference.

After measuring all the color blocks, calculate through software, create a color management space, and save the ICC file in the hardware system for image management.

The next step is to use the color management space to make new film. To apply the color management space to the image production, the steps used are to select Edit> Convert to Color Management Space, select the desired color space from the list, and finally click ok to convert the color processing in the image To our specific color management space. If you select Edit> Specified Color Space, the number of colors involved in the image remains the same, but the new color space management system will magically change the color, and you can clearly observe this change through the monitor.

After converting the image to a new color management space, we turned the original unadjusted image into a vector file, so that two images could be seen on one sheet. The new output film has the same number of dot lines and dot angles as the aforementioned data, and the production of the screen version is exactly the same as the previous one.

in conclusion

For screen printing, human skin color is the most difficult part to copy. However, with the new color management space, I did not spend a lot of energy, but it made a big difference. Just two different screens, but printed very good images, and during the printing process, we did not work on the modulation of the printing machine, such as changing the rubber squeegee, replacing the new film, adjusting the screen size, replacing In the printing color sequence, we did not adjust the curve, change the subtle levels of the dark tone area, etc. We did not use other tricks to change the printing effect. All we need to do is use the new color management space to process the image. The other requirement is that as long as the performance of each system device we use is stable, we can get a very good print.

It is very necessary to talk about the ICC color management standard here. The ICC standard plays an important role in the various variables in screen printing. If any variable in the screen printing process changes, we must update or re-create the color management space. Table 1 lists some of the main parameters, (the number of screen threads / the diameter of the wire / the thickness of the screen braid in the form of screen tension, the thickness of the stencil exposure process, the dot shape, the dot number, the ink manufacturer ’s printing speed, the printing pressure, the screen pitch) , You should update the color management space. Of course, if the screen tension drops by only 2N / cm, you do not need to update the color management space.

We conducted an experiment on the above theory. I made a new film, just changing the angle of halftone dots from 61 degrees to more common data: cyan-56 degrees, product-71 degrees, yellow-86 degrees, black -26 degrees, while other parameters remain unchanged, but only this one changes, but changed the effect of the printed image. .

Many of my colleagues also agree with the above experiments and conclusions. They believe that further research is necessary. They still hold a skeptical attitude towards the color management system. So can we really despise the color management system in the field of clothing printing? As mentioned in the article, many people in the same industry are also watching. They are very concerned about this technology and think it can be developed and utilized.

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