Trapping file for digital press

Started by mwc, April 22, 2015, 12:04:52 PM

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mwc

Just curious if folks with digital printers ever see the need to TRAP a file for printing (spreads, chokes).
I recently had a digital print job with RED TEXT (100m100y) printing over a greyscale image, and I had leaks a the bottom edge of type. I turned on auto-trapping in my Fiery properties, but did not see improvement.

Very familiar with trapping for offset jobs, but for digital print I have only ever needed to adjust black overprint settings...till this job.
Maybe this is a sign that my digital press needs some service/adjustment? or in certain situations you will just have this? 


DCurry

Usually no, but sometimes we'll trap if we have fine knockout type on a rich black background just to give it a slight keepaway trap (we feed Prinergy-refined PDFs to an Indigo).

Whenever we do this, the trap is applied through Prinergy, not the Indigo's RIP.
Prinect • Signa Station • XMPie

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a night. But set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life!

David

short answer, no.
It's a digital file and there are no moving parts between colors (like a big press).
If there is any mis-register, it's coming from somewhere else.
Prepress guy - Retired - Working from home
Livin' la Vida Loca

gig0

Never trapped files unless theres a problem with the registration adjustment on the device. Thats when you call in a service tech.

Have you done a registration adjustment? What printer?
Prinergy Evo <option 8> Colorproof XF <option 8> Epson 7800's (shut up) <option 8> Screen Platerite 4200 & Lotem 400  <option 8> Various Konica & OCE digital printers

Made in Taiwan

Working in Prepress is very difficult. God chose only the best to do this job.

StudioMonkey

You should not need to trap jobs on a digital press.  If you are getting any edge effects of any kind, it is time to call the engineer in.  Any automatic trapping will not improve things but you could try manual trapping.  It's the way we always used to do it . . .  :old:  in fact I remember one job where I did the trapping on the film with red lith tape (only on shapes, not text).  Now THAT'S manual trapping.
Time flies like an arrow - fruit flies like a banana

mwc

The attached image shows my issue (shot with a camera through a loupe).
This is a Ricoh 901+ (aka-Linoprint)
I can only recall ONE other time that we had a 'mis-registration' like this.
I will talk to the service tech to see what his recommendation is if it's something in the machine that needs 'tweaking' or 'twerking'.
Thanks for your replies.

Fontaholic

#7
Quote from: mwc on April 23, 2015, 07:16:46 AMI will talk to the service tech to see what his recommendation is if it's something in the machine that needs 'tweaking' or 'twerking'.

In my experience, many machines need -- or at the very least, DESERVE -- percussive maintenance...

Cheers,
John the Fontaholic :drunk3:

wonderings

Not sure how the Ricoh works, but on our old Xerox 260 we would get that now and then. A quick fix to try was to open the color drum housing and close it again. This forced the machine to recalibrate again. This worked most times for us. We never ever trap for digital.

Made in Taiwan

Some problems on electronic devices can be solved by switching it off, keep it off for a bunch of minutes and switch on again.

Misregistration on a digital press seems to be one of the problems that will just stay even after switch off and on.

Looking forward to your update about what your service tech said!
Working in Prepress is very difficult. God chose only the best to do this job.

mwc

UPDATE:
Had Ricoh tech in today for various service tasks. Showed him samples of the registration issue I was experiencing. Short story is that he was able to resolve this for us.
I'm sorry I don't know exactly what was done as I was too busy elsewhere in the shop...but something about a dirty sensor(s) was mentioned...

Tracy

problem solved! 
definitely registration of the copier issue.