To print white as a spot colour on a wide-format printer (Super Mini DTF), you'll need to define a spot colour in your design software and then configure the printer to use that spot colour for white ink printing. This involves creating a selection of the desired area in Photoshop that you need to print white and adding it to a channel. The printer's software or RIP (Raster Image Processor) will need to be set up to recognise and print this spot colour as white.
Here's a more detailed breakdown:
1. Define a Spot colour:
In your design software (Photoshop), create a new spot colour swatch. Name it something like "Spot colour" or "Spot White" for easy identification.
2. HOW:
Identify areas of your design that you want to print in white. This can be done by making a selection on your artwork using the various selection tools within Photoshop. When done, select the Channels menu next to the Layer menu, then navigate to the far right, where you will see an icon with 4 lines, click on it and scroll down to “New Spot Channel”. Set your Solidity to 100%. Click okay, then save your artwork as a TIFF file.
3. Rip Your Artwork:
Open RIIN, import your artwork and click on the “Spotcolour” tab and make sure the data source is set to Spot. This helps your printing software (Better Print) recognise and use the spot colour you defined.
4. White Ink Options:
RIIN offers different white ink printing modes, such as:
Spot colour: Prints a specific spot colour defined as white.
Image Density: Prints white ink based on CMYK values, creating a white ink dot for all pixels except CMYK 0,0,0,0 (media white).
Substrate: Prints white ink on the entire bounding box of the job, independent of individual pixel colours.
By following these steps, you can effectively print white ink as a spot colour on your wide-format printer and create visually striking and impactful designs.
The video attached demonstrates how to create spot layers for white ink printing with Photoshop, how to Rip the file in RIIN and how to print your file in Better Print.