#pre-press
12 posts tagged pre-press.
Common Gang Sheet Mistakes: Overlaps, Rotation, Edge Bleed, and Invisible Pixels
Diagnose eight gang-sheet failures by what appears on film: wrong scale, dirty alpha, oversized bounds, overlaps, unsafe rotation, bad clearances, copy errors, and a missed RIP handoff.
UV DTF White and Varnish Layers Explained
Learn how UV DTF white and varnish layers work, how current masks are generated, how RIP mapping affects them, and which failures masks cannot fix.
DTF Halftone LPI and Screen Angle: How to Choose, Preview, and Test
Use NestSheet’s alpha-screening controls with declared density, method, cell size, and angle, then verify the full-resolution raster and a controlled physical print.
PSD/PSB vs TIFF for DTF Spot Channels: Editable Handoff or Direct-to-RIP File?
Choose between a Photoshop-readable flattened composite with production spot channels and a direct-to-RIP multi-channel TIFF without confusing editability, container limits, or compatibility.
Why Long Gang Sheets Crash RIP Software: Pixels, Channels, Memory, and File Limits
A reproducible way to estimate decoded raster memory, separate compression from working set, identify TIFF and Photoshop container boundaries, and test a long DTF sheet safely.
Transparent PNG for DTF from Canva: export and alpha cleanup
How to export a transparent PNG from Canva without inventing controls, inspect low-alpha residue and hidden RGB, and preflight the artwork before building a DTF gang sheet.
DTF spot channels explained: white, varnish, names, and RIP handoff
A technical guide to colour, alpha, white and varnish planes; TIFF and PSD/PSB representation; channel naming; polarity; and what to verify in the target RIP.
DTF file requirements: resolution, transparency, colour, and export
A practical artwork-intake specification for DTF shops: containers, effective PPI, clean alpha, colour-space handling, spot-channel boundaries, and a repeatable preflight checklist.
Reading your RIP's white channel preview — grey map
Every DTF RIP shows a preview of the white under-base as a greyscale thumbnail before you send the job. Most operators glance at it and click Print. Here is how to read that preview like a pre-press engineer — and what a bad white preview looks like before it becomes a bad print.
TIFF vs PNG for DTF gang sheets — when to use what
Send TIFF when the file has to carry a separate white or spot channel and an embedded CMYK-side ICC profile; PNG with clean alpha is fine when your RIP generates its own white from transparency. That is the whole rule — the rest of this post is the reasoning and the edge cases.
White halo on DTF prints: diagnose alpha, choke, or registration first
A white outline is not one defect. Use its shape to separate low-alpha debris, underbase geometry, intentional soft artwork, and directional colour-to-white registration before changing choke.
ICC profiles for DTF — RIP default vs yours
Stay on your RIP's default ICC profile if you print mostly logos and text on the vendor's recommended film — it is genuinely fine. Calibrate your own the day you switch film brands, chase a customer's brand colour, or charge a premium for colour fidelity. Here is how to tell which shop you are.