Cartierusm

LOL, thanks.

Go here and click on software on the top http://unionink.com/.

I hope that was said in a light hearted manner, because DUHH. Obviously Pink is not the only color I want to make.

Thanks for the suggestion but I'm not trying to color match. Right now I need to print pink, any pink, so I'd rather mix up a little instead of buying a whole quart of pink I'll never use. I did find a free program on Union Ink's site that tells you how much to mix of their CMYK colors to get Pantone colors.

I'm just gettting into screen printing and have bought about 7 colors so far of Plastisol Union Inks. Then I remembered my days running print shops and wondered if it's you can do the same mixing of cutom colors with CMYK? If so, which I'm sure you can, can anyone tell me if there are any programs that can give me the weights for the ink to mix my own spot colors? Thanks.

I have no idead what a "tail" is, please describe it.

Oh, I just realized you probably thought "instructional" meant about the machine...could be...from reading the other posts I got the impression this forum was for teaching how to's...such as how to crop in illustrator...anyway...

Same place you do. I found out a desktop inkjet won't work. All the vinyls use solvent, eco-solvent or UV cured inks. Desktop inkjets use waterbase inks. No good. The cheapes inkjet that will do the job is a Roland for about $10,000. So much for that idea.

I think you're in the wrong forum. Try Laserpoint Service Request down a few from here. Mine came with a manual.

Plus if you're putting together element from different files make sure all the color you are trying merge are the same color. It's best to click on all the pieces you want to merge and then click the color you want it to be, just to be safe. I opened a file from a client and it was RGB and I work in CMYK and I couldn't get it to merge, then I remembered. Plus in CS2 it's not called Union, it's Merge.

As I understand it contour cutting is cutting a shape around a pre-printed graphic? And the laser part of the cutter is just that, a laser to line up on registration marks so it knows where to start? If this is correct are the registration marks made by the program (flexi) or by the user (you)? Why can't I just print the graphic with reg marks, then line up the cutter with the center of the reg mark? I guess it would be hard in Signblazer or other programs to get it to cut at the reg mark unless it was at 0,0? I might try to give it a shot. I have CNC equpiment so I'm using to thinking outside the box in terms of lining things up, setup and resetting up parts. So I bought a laser diode off ebay for one of my CNCs and decided not to use it. So I might set it up in the front holder and keep doing distance tests until I figure out the offset from the laser to the cutter tip. Anyone for a trial and or suggestions? I'm going to try to see if the inkjet vinyls will work in a desktop inkjet so I can make decals and bumper stickers.

Please help me make some informed decisions. I have already the free SignBlazer and being a graphic designer have AI and decideing on getting X2. What would Flexi do differently than AI with X2? Since I'm very new to this I just want to be sure that the benefits of Flexi are graphic oriented instead of specialized cutting parameters? Thanks.

No problem, glad I could help, help ask the question that is....sounds like a Barry Manilow song..."I ask the questions, the sign guys answer, I ask the question about vinyl things...." Maybe it's just in my head. I made my first 4 color decal PITA. But I learned a lot. Now it's time to get some inkjet vinyl and just print and contour the suckers. Leave the vinyl cutting for signage...decal that small are a pain.

Thanks for the Tutorial. I'm cutting my first piece now. A couple of questions, I've used AI for 15 years or so in the printing and graphic design biz but this is slightly different. So after I make the outline behind the text it makes an inside path and outside path, no problem I just ungroup and delete the inside path as the other path that is left has the same area as the part just deleted. I only mention this so people who are not familiar with AI CS2 would know that if you leave it, it will automatically do a punch out if using Signblazer. My quesion is in Signblazer it cuts the outline behind the text as individual letters, which is not really all that bad, but most of the time the outline will be overlapping each other. So is there a way to make all those individual cut outs one single blob in AI? This would make weeding easier. Thanks.

I'm new so sorry for bringing up old post but I hope some questions can be answered. Fivestar, you said you'd be better off doing them in vinyl. Did you mean make a vinyl mask for the screen or use a plotter/cutter to cut the design out of heat transfer material? And what is Plastisol? BTW what do they call the material used in heat transfer material cut on a plotter? Thanks.