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Old 15th Jul 2017, 9:53 pm   #13
David G4EBT
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Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Cottingham, East Yorkshire, UK.
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Default Re: UV Dry Film PCB technique - experiences to date.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Oldcodger View Post
I notice that you also use an inkjet for printing the mask. Haven't tried yet, but have you found any optimum settings for the printer wrt paper settings. I'm tempted to try the glossy photo setting.
I mentioned in another post (which I'm blowed if I can find), the settings that I use for my Epson Stylus SX535 ink-jet printer. I tried all the paper selection and print quality options, none of which enabled a satisfactory print onto OHP acetate. I also tried several brands of acetates and that too made no difference. This printer was a replacement for an HP 'Photosmart' which had a 'transparency' setting and for years until that printer died on me to print fine onto OHP sheet. The acetate film I used back then was this, and it was excellent with my HP printer:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/INKJET-CLEA.../dp/B000KJO7BO

You'll see that a 50 sheet pack is just over £13.00 - 27p a sheet so excellent value for money. You'll also see that the film attracts mostly five star reviews. However, all of the critical reviews relate to the film producing poor results on Epson printers, but the criticism should be directed at Epson - not the acetates.

As to creating a mask, everyone has their own ideas and all makes and models of printers are different in how they behave. Some use lasers, which I've had no success with, including commercial laser printers. After much experimentation, the only way I've been able to get the Epson Stylus SX535 inkjet that I use to print totally opaque black is to create a specific setting in the 'printer options' which I've saved and named 'PCB'. If anyone else has an Epson printer, I learnt how to adjust the settings from a 'Big Clive' video which Joe 'The Pillenwerfer' on the forum, kindly pointed me to.

Here are the steps I used to creating the settings, but won't be of help to those who don't use an Epson inkjet, in which case this might as well be filed under 'burn before reading'.

Open 'Printer Management'.
'Adjust Print Option'
Colour/B&W?' Select 'colour'. Even though you want to print black, to get full density black you need to make the following adjustments to the printer colour settings:
Paper: Select Epson Matte
Colour Correction: Select 'Custom'.
Click on Advanced' tab.
Colour Management: Select Colour Controls'
Colour Mode: Select Epson Vivid.

Colour Adjustment method - circle/slide bar? Select 'Slide Bar'.

There are six sliders:
Brightness.
Contrast.
Saturation.
Cyan.
Magenta.
Yellow.

Set all sliders to maximum.

When all the above settings have been selected, click OK save the settings and exit 'Print Options'.

Quite a rigmarole, but it only needs to be once, and saved as say 'PCB' and I use that setting in 'Print Options' whenever I print PCB artwork.

To print onto the film, I remove all plain paper from the tray and put in one sheet of film in the tray with the correct side down. I open the artwork in Photoshop, but don't yet press ''PRINT' as it won't print top quality, for reasons that elude me. Under the 'File' menu, I select 'Print Multiple Pictures' which the printer seems to need to print photographs onto acetate. Though I select 'Print Multiple Pictures' it will only print the one that you have open.

Then I print onto microporous acetate film (not OHP acetate), the printer makes many passes to create the image(s), which are excellent.

As I say, much depends on each printer and what settings are or aren't built into the software as to acetates, but it seems to me that ever since Powerpoint and digital projectors took over from OHP projectors, that most modern printers don't have 'transparency' settings as they were once called. Certainly no Epson printers do and Epson so called 'Technical Support' have confirmed this to me.

Obviously the best thing to do is to experiment with your own printer - what works with one make or model may not work with another. Same thing with acetated. As I said above, those standard OHP acetates produced excellent totally opaque artwork on my HP printer, albeit I had to be careful not to smudge the ink while it was drying, but if I try those OHP acetates in any normal built-in paper and quality settings on my standard printer options, the results are just dire.

First thing I'd suggest with any printer is to search the settings to see if it has one for acetates, and if not, just try different photo and paper settings and be resigned to wasting a few acetates in the process.

Hope that helps a bit, but probably not!
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