I have a 50-plaque order to tackle by the end of this week that involves a company logo consisting of maroon, black and gray spot colors. I have really been struggling to achieve a comparable gray to the logo. I've run a color chart of grays, but still seem to be getting a gray with a slight tone of purple in it.

I am using an HP 4550 printer, Alpha Sub toners, 24 lb. laser paper, pressing at 375 degrees for 18 seconds through the paper onto brushed silver aluminum from Main Trophy.

Does anyone have any tips on how to achieve varying shades of gray without the other tints of color making their evil presence?

My other question is to those who have been using OEM toners and transfer paper. How good does this system do with gray tones?

You may have to edit the grey and add a little extra yellow if CMYK or green if RGB.

You may notice no change at all then a sudden change as you pass a threshold.

Depending on the black that you have you may be able to set the printer to 'Use black only' or something like that.

Sublimation black is usually made of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and brown.

Also see if you can set the program to 'Spot Colors'. If it is a bitmap the software probably uses perceptual, great for photos because it tricks the eye into not seeing the limits of color by altering what is there. It is terrible for spot colors because it alters the colors.

Philadelphia, PA (Really Bensalem)

When you finally understand it completely... it changes.

David,
I just printed 10% thru 100% balck with OEM toners on silver. I will send it to you.
Mick

Mick,

I appreciate you doing that.

With this one job alone I can easily justify investing in a complete OEM/Transfer set-up. The clock is unfortunately ticking fast on this job and I may not be able to pull off the OEM/Transfer option for this order, but I know I will have at least another couple orders like this from this company over the next few months. It would be nice to find an option that produces a closer match on the gray.

Mick,

I think the scenario David is talking about is Full Color, not just printing Black and shades.................

If you print a full color design and within that design you print the greyscale, that would be a more accurate comparision. David can print his design in "Greyscale" mode and it would give him a more accurate grey that he is looking for, but he can't because the rest of the image is in color.

BTW, I love your process on the acrylics, I think I like the transparent look better than the white background. I haven't got "a round tuit" to look further into the system as I need to buy a badge machine first.

David,
can you e-mail me the logo to print for you to see how the grey compares to the grey scale only.
MIck

I was successful in getting my plaque order completed with my current equipment, although I'm still anxious to see what OEM toners will produce.

I ended up printing the areas in colors first, then running the transfers through a second time to print the gray areas as 40% black. The color registration was perfect on every transfer and had no problems running the transfers through the second time. It had no effect on the colors at all and allowed me to achieve the gray I needed.