Ghost images on our print job

[PrintingInLincs]

The pdf shows no issue, nor does the preview in fiery but we've noticed the actual print has a ghost image of a "roadmap in the sky" visible.

Images attached. Initially we thought these looked great but once you notice this "sky roadmap" you can't unsee it really.

In the design the dark roadmap is below the sky area.

We've changed the drums in the past week as well all of the inks so we don't understand the issue.

Any advice on this please?

Thanks.

 

[maas]

Open the PDF in Acrobat Professional and select wire frame, look to see if the road map artifacts are present in the sky due to a layer, not an uncommon scenario in my experience

 

[hojoclan]

Hi PrintingInLincs

Are you running this on a laser?. I get this once and a while on my Ricoh. The tech explained it was because as the fuser melts the toner heat is taken away from the fuser roller but if you have a largish area of white out of a colour the fuser stays warmer in that area so when it rotates round it put some extra heat into the toner so and males it glossier so it can stand out. The solution was to increase the gap between each sheet of paper this give the fuser time to even the temp out on it.

 

[bill kahny]

I lean towards the layering issue that maas is pointing to. Don't just zoom in on the pdf, select the items tool and click around in the sky. I'll bet and old outline or image is still back there.

 

[PrintingInLincs]

We've replaced the fuser which made no difference, but we've printed other artwork succesfully so we think it's in the design somewhere too now.

We have an engineer coming out tomorrow about another issue anyway so will run this all past him.

What's the best alternative to adobe products for looking into matters like this? We don't use adobe due to the subscription model & prefer serif. I realise that will be frowned upon to an extent.

We ended up getting this print job done by our trade printer just due to deadlines & so we shall see if that comes back with the same issue. If so it must be the artwork.

Will update this when i know more but thanks for your suggestions on this.

 

[hojoclan]

I didn't suggest the fuser is faulty, its just a side effect of running white out text from a heavy solid. What ever machine you are running there should be a paper setting to increase the gap between sheets its normally used to stop judder marks but it sorts this out on my machine as well.

 

[scotts]

Have you tried running the job 90 degrees to what you were running to see if the ghosting goes away. That might help you determine if it is a press or file issue. Just a thought.

 

[PrintingInLincs]

Hi Hojo,

A xerox tech suggested it was a fuser issue but replacing this didn't solve the issue.

The print we got from our trade printer turned out perfectly with no ghosting which makes this even more baffling. We are using a xerox 550.

Scotts that's a great idea which never crossed my mind as a newbie so i'll try that.

Though we have a print issue i'm enjoying the learning process.

Thanks for all suggestions.

 

[DYP]

That looks like a drum issue. Does it start right away or after a number of sheets into the run? Is it always in the same spot on the sheet?

 

[PrintingInLincs]

It's always present & on every sheet we do with this design. Always the same spot though sometimes it's more noticeable on some sheets than others so not consistent.

We replaced all the drums recently. Showed it to a xerox engineer who didn't seem interested though he was out to fix "trapezoidal" print really.

It happens whatever tray we run the job from.

I'm going to see if changing the way we impose it onto the sheet changes anything. I think that may fix it personally.

 

[maas]

Try this, download and install the free 30 day trail for Photoshop (http://www.adobe.com/nz/downloads.html) or get a free copy of a historic distribution (http://www.adobe.com/nz/downloads/other-downloads.html) open the PDF in Photoshop as CMYK, this effective rasterises the file and removes all layers, print the file on your 550 and see if the elements are still present

 

[pippip]

Simplest test is turn it 90 degrees. Then you can see if its machine or artwork and go from there.