UV File preparation

Before you can print on the UV-printer you need to prepare you file correctly. For this machine we work in Illustrator, because in this program we can create the right swatches that the machine can read. In Illustrator you are free to open any type of file you want. However, it is advisable to work with vector files with a format type like eps. and/or svg. The benefit of working with vector files is that you can easily give a different color to a specific area

   < 1/3 >

When to use primer

The surface tension of the UV ink should be at least 10 dynes less than the surface energy of your material for proper adhesion of the ink to the material. If this is not the case, you should use primer. Primer is an adhesion promoter. If you don't use primer, adjacent ink drops deposited on the material may not flow freely and join the other ink drops to form one bigger drop. This will cause an image to have a streaky appearance or worse: to be too easily removable.

Dyne is a way to express the amount of surface tension. It is also used to express the amount of surface energy of a material.

Watch this Youtube video to get an idea of what can happen: https://youtu.be/Cr88aUrzVOc

When to use white

Use this when you want a white layer on your object, you might not want this if you object already contains white or if its opaque and you want to keep it that way.

When to use CMYK

You almost always use CMYK, unless you might have forgotten a layer and just want to use that layer, for example: you forgot a gloss finish so you are just printing a gloss finish.

When to use Gloss or Matt

Using a gloss or matt finish is strongly recommended, because it will give the print a protective coating. The choice between gloss or matt is personal, they both have the same functionality, with the only difference being is that gloss is more shiny than matt.

How to use these layers

1. First up open the image you want to print in Illustrator
2. Create a layer for each effect that you want to use, the UV-printer contains different types of ink:
   1. Primer ink (so that it stays on the object)
   2. White ink (the cmyk layer contantaining the picture doesn't include white)
   3. CMYK ink (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key(=Black)
   4. Gloss ink or Matt ink (optional but this will give a protective finish)
3. Now make sure to give the shapes of the layers the right swatch (this swatch can also be found on the FABLAB PC in the library section)
4. Save for each of the layers a new pdf on a usb drive, do this by only making one layer visible and give them the correct name. So u will get the following:
   1. Primer.eps
   2. White.eps
   3. Cmyk.eps
   4. Gloss.eps or Matt.eps

Creating swatch layers from a picture

1. 1. Open Adobe Illustrator (available on the FabLab desktop computers)
2. Create a new file via File -> New…
3. Type in the width and height you want your print to be and press OK
4. If you have a transparent background in your picture, just save it to the computer first before copying it into illustrator
5. Select the image and click on the arrow right next to Image Trace
6. Select "Low Fidelity Photo", this will take a minute
7. Click on "Expand"
8. Right click on the image and click on ungroup
9. Now you can double click on the image and delete all the things that you don't want, like the back ground for example (keep in mind the background can be white)
10. In the layer section use "alt+drag" to copy the existing layer
11. Lock and hide the cmyk layer that you want to print
12. Go to the layer where u want to create the cutting line and select "Window -> Pathfinder"
13. Select everything that you want to combine and click on "Unite" (Displayed as two boxes)
14. Go to "Object -> Compound Path -> Release"
15. If you zoom in u can see there will be small islands to delete this double click on the image
16. Select the outer line
17. Go to "Select -> Inverse" to select the islands
18. Press delete to remove these
19. Now you got a coloured layer of your image
20. To give it a swatch you should add a swatch in the topleft corner with the right properties or select a swatch out of the library
21. Copy this for each swatch layer that you want to use