Hi from England Scott, Thanks lots for letting me know about your experience, its very helpful. I did do a test with a Mutoh (flatbed adapted) printer and Topaz RIP which prints onto glass with special inks [it’s a weird fish, that RIP, lots of the manual is about how the manufacturer's "by eye" method is better than using ICC profiles]. In this case, the regular process is to print direct onto the back of the glass then paint over the ink with white. The final piece is viewed through the glass - so as a reflective object, not a trans. Plainly, it can't be read through the glass but your thin plexiglass idea is a real good one. Thanks for that. We did try a test of painting the glass white first then printing onto that white surface, with the idea to read the inks direct (not through the glass). Unfortunately, in this case, the appearance of ink on paint is quite significantly different to ink printed direct onto glass. Another thought was to have inks on the front surface (to be read direct with the spectro) and white paint on the back but that looks weird so I'm pretty sure it’s a fail. I am planning to try opaque white glass, just for the profile making - in the hope that the inks will take to that glass well and we can "see" the same as we’d see in the "normal backpainted white process". i.e. inks printed straight onto glass - with white backing. I'll let you know ';~} That "Oreo" printing idea sounds like a fabulous, I'm not surprised it succeeded in gaining clients. Thinking out the box, yep, that’s what we love isn't it. again many thanks Regards, Neil Barstow :: Apple Solutions Expert :: Colour Management Specialist www.colourmanagement.net On Wed, Dec 7, 2016 at 3:27 PM, Scott Martin <scott@on-sight.com> wrote:
I agree with that idea for a possible approach, may I please ask, have you tried it and had success?
Yes, I’ve been doing it that way for many years with perfect success.
I imagine there may be a little compensation of brightness needed (as with printing images to go in frames under glass) as the glass inevitable absorbs some luminance.
Exactly. I hate making manual curves but this is a perfect example where it makes sense. If the RIP you’re using let’s you do it, I’d recommend it.
I guess there is also a possibility of the inks behaving differently when going down onto white paint rather than straight onto glass.
No, not really - not with UV Curable.
Years ago, one of my clients claimed to invent ‘oreo’ printing where he would print UV colors on plexi, then white and then the colors again. This would make not only a double-sided reflective print but also a transmissive print with incredible DMax and saturation. He carved a nice niche and has done a whole bunch of special installations around the US with this, working closely with the designers and with me tweaking the calibration for different kinds of situations. These are the fun jobs, where people are thinking outside the box, care about making a high quality product and enthusiastically want to involve the color guy.
Scott Martin *www.on-sight.com <http://www.on-sight.com>*