Mismatched Prints

[DrDre1313]

I created an image for sublimation using a specific pattern swatch on illustrator. It required printing more than 1 component, so to save paper I added the other component to a different artboard on the same project using the same pattern swatch as the other component, but after I printed them out the second component (artboard 2) came out a noticeably darker shade than the first component (artboard 1). This has happened multiple times and I can't figure out why but is there a chance that the artbords are printing in different formats? Like one is printing in CMYK and the other is printing in RGB or vice versa, by just adding anither artboard? I'm printing using an Epson F570

[Alessandro Anselmi]

HI, are you printing directly from Illustrator or are you using a RIP?

Can you attach a sample file?

[Jacob Bugge]

DrDre,

What happens if you Save a Copy as PDF for both and print from that?

It is easier for helpers if you use the Insert Images butoob at the top of the Reply box (looks like moon over mountain), rather than the unfortunately much more conspicuous Attachment option.

[DrDre1313]

I have not tried the save a copy option yet, But I hear you about the conspicous files. Let me try posting the images this way, thanks.

[Jacob Bugge]

Thank you, DrDre, much easier to see them together.

The reason for my suggesting the PDF, I forgot to mention the important bit of printing from Acrobat, is that the F570 seems to have no PostScript (emulating) driver, so printing straight from AI can give issues.

[DrDre1313]

Ok, thank you. I will now look up what post script is, lol. So are you saying I should save the work as a pdf and then print the work not using AI? I did try this and although the colors do match the same with each other, they were off as it relates to the final result of print as compared to what they should have origionally looked like. 

[Jacob Bugge]

DrDre,

Then I believe it is another kind of issue. I will try to ask a friend who may have the answer.

[Bobby Henderson]

I'm not sure what could be causing the color shifts between artboards. CMYK or RGB color modes are typically a document wide setting that would apply to all artboards. I wonder if the issue could be something hiding in the Appearance palette.

Is this Epson printer designed to take print jobs directly from an Adobe Illustrator print dialog? What kind of print driver is being used? It looks like this model of printer has its own stand-alone printing software, Epson Edge Print Pro. The software supports Postscript 3 and has an Adobe PDF print engine. It sounds like the print software should be able to handle any features or effects that Illustrator can bake into a PDF file.

[DrDre1313]

Yes, I believe I'm am going through illustrator to print and its directly from the illustrator print dialog. When I first purchased this and was getting help from the company that I bought it from, they helped me set up the software and it is the epson print pro. I only started having these problems recently though, but ive had the printer for about 3 or 4 years. What confuses me tho is that it doesn't do it consistantly but the last two times it did do it, it printed as if one was in the origional SRGB profile in the print dialog box under color management and the other was under the 100% polyester fabric color profile but they were both set to 100% polyester. 

[Bobby Henderson]

It sounds like it might be better to print jobs via the Epson Edge Print Pro software rather than doing so from within Illustrator. The Edge Print Pro software will probably give you more controls on material profiles and other settings for print jobs.

We follow the same principal for large format printing work. I can see one of our HP Latex printers on my computer as an available printer on the network, but I would never send a job directly to it from within Illustrator. I always save PDF files to load into Onyx Thrive and let that drive the printer.