Hi there,

I'm new, I just registered, but I've been around and read many posts for a long time.

I have a product that I use decals for graphics. I have for a few years now had a local sign shop print graphics I create in Inkscape on clear vinyl, each one different than the last. For a long time I had no issues, but I've moved and the local guy who has the equipment I use is having issues. He's blaming the fact that Inkscape is a free program as the issue.

So the problem seems to be that some of my graphics are causing issues when he prints them out from his program, Flexi Pro. He's a sign printing shop, so it makes sense that he uses Flexi, but I don't know much about the program except that it looks like the cheapest version is $1000, which I definitely don't have.

I don't know too much about the problems, I'm having trouble trying to understand the issues he's having, and it's certainly causing him lots of frustration. At this point, it's not making fiscal sense for him, so unless I can solve this problem...

Are there known issues with going from Inkscape to Flexi? Is there something that I'm doing wrong that I can stop doing?

Jacob

Which version of Flexi pro ?
What do you provide to him ? PDF, EPS ?
What kind of problem does it have ?
...

There are problem with proprietary software too (google flexisign import problem)

I'm not sure which version.

I usually provide him with PDFs. We tried a couple other formats, but he wanted pdfs.

Essentially, these are graphics in three colours - Black, White, and Purple. The way he describes it, the Black prints fine, then the white makes his machine quit working. I'm not sure precisely what he means by that. He has told me that when he's preping the file to print, the white text graphics I send screw up on him. As far as I can tell, I'm vectorizing all graphics, and all my text is vectored.

It's frustrating, because I ask him what I should do to fix the problem to make it easier, and his only response is that Inkscape is garbage, and I need to buy a $1000 program and redo all my graphics. I'm not a graphics guy, but that seems a little bit ridiculous to me.

Any help is very appreciated.

Jacob

Welcome Jacob!

That seems more that a bit ridiculous to me too. My first suggestion is to find someone else to do your printing. Inkscape is a first rate program, and being free doesn't mean it's cheap, or a faulty program, just because he hasn't heard of it.

We could search Lauchpad for known/reported bugs, although bugs in relation to other programs, are neither well reported, or a priority for fixing (except maybe for graphics tablets). Actually I have seen some bugs reported for certain hp printer machines, so it won't hurt to search: https://launchpad.net/inkscape

How can a white color make a machine stop working? Well, I guess there are some technical things about color that I don't clearly understand. Like CMYK color is something that's often required by printshops. And CMYK is different from RGB. Maybe that's what he means. Have you tried this extension? viewtopic.php?f=11&t=5943 It's the only way I know of to make Inkscape produce the CMYK color print model. Maybe Scribus could, but I'm not sure. But since this extension can output PDFs, maybe it would work.

We'd be glad to look at your file, and make sure it's all vector. But I doubt that's the problem. My first impression is that this guy is not invested in helping you. When someone blames other people or programs for his problems, it's a clear indication to me, that he's not motivated to help you.....which is baffling, considering that's apparently how he makes his living. Perhaps I'm being unfair. I've heard that printers are often very particular about their software, and tend to be somewhat inflexible about it. But if I were having your experience there, I would definitely be looking around.

Well anyway, if you're not already submitting CMYK colors, maybe that extension will work. I will keep fingers crossed!

Good luck!

That was a great post, makes me feel much better.

I've talked with my printer again, and basically, he's willing to bear with me as I learn to export it so that his program can pick it up easily and print it.

So, if you, or anyone else is willing to take a look at my file and let me know if there's something I should be doing that I'm not doing, let me know what to post/send and where and I'd gladly take the help.

Jacob

Hi Jacob,
You can attach your SVG file to a message (viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11753) or upload anywhere you choose, and give us the link. I'm sure there are members here who can help you. But before we can help you, we need to know what we're helping you to do. "Prepare the file for printing" may be too vague. You may need to find out the technical details about what the printer requires -- beyond just print a PDF file. I mentioned CMYK color model, because often professional printers require it. But at this point, we have no idea why your color makes his machine stop working. So once you can tell us what you need, we can tell you how to do it.