Tayda UV Printing

[Preverb]

@SYLV9ST9R, I changed my order around to match what you posted above.

I have attached the first attempt combining Affinity and AI. I started with one of Mike's templates and used Affinity, saved only the colour layer in a PDF, imported to AI and duplicated the layer 2x and applied the gloss and white layers from the roland swatch. Hopefully I did it right.

I believe it was mentioned earlier in this thread that the roland swatches are only critical if your design uses white or gloss?

If I created a design using only 1 layer in black, would Tayda accept that?

 

[cooder]

@SYLV9ST9R, I changed my order around to match what you posted above.

I have attached the first attempt combining Affinity and AI. I started with one of Mike's templates and used Affinity, saved only the colour layer in a PDF, imported to AI and duplicated the layer 2x and applied the gloss and white layers from the roland swatch. Hopefully I did it right.

I believe it was mentioned earlier in this thread that the roland swatches are only critical if your design uses white or gloss?

If I created a design using only 1 layer in black, would Tayda accept that?

I just had a look at that pdf and when I open it shows only data on what you called 'layer 1'. There is nothing visible on gloss or white layers.
You might have a problem there.
Also, a bit nit picking, Tayda says to name the layers white/color/gloss.

 

[SYLV9ST9R]

Sorry for the late reply, didn't see your post this morning.

@SYLV9ST9R, I changed my order around to match what you posted above.

I have attached the first attempt combining Affinity and AI. I started with one of Mike's templates and used Affinity, saved only the colour layer in a PDF, imported to AI and duplicated the layer 2x and applied the gloss and white layers from the roland swatch. Hopefully I did it right.

I believe it was mentioned earlier in this thread that the roland swatches are only critical if your design uses white or gloss?

Yes, for the rest use CMYK colors

If I created a design using only 1 layer in black, would Tayda accept that?

Yes, you would then put all the artwork in the "COLOR" layer

Like Cooder, when I opened the pdf, all is in one layer (though I'm on an older version of AI and it does this back-converting...) and with all the vector bits and pieces, it's a bit hard for me to rearrange .

Some notes:
Your Label text was still in white and not in "RDG_WHITE"
Also, you have to create outlines for the fonts before submitting. (to avoid the font not being found like it did when I opened you pdf).

 

[Preverb]

Like Cooder, when I opened the pdf, all is in one layer (though I'm on an older version of AI and it does this back-converting...) and with all the vector bits and pieces, it's a bit hard for me to rearrange .

Some notes:
Your Label text was still in white and not in "RDG_WHITE"
Also, you have to create outlines for the fonts before submitting. (to avoid the font not being found like it did when I opened you pdf).

When I look at the settings it shows: Adobe PDF Settings 1.07. Is that an older version?

When you say the label text was not in RDG_WHITE do you mean the text in the colour layer? I just took the original text from Affinity and duplicated it and applied the swatch in white and gloss but the colour layer would still have the white from the other swatch. Does that mean I should delete the white text in the colour layer?

I am not sure how to create the outline of the text. I hit CTRL + Enter in Affinity and thought that vectorized the text (created groups).

 

[Preverb]

I just realized that I saved the pdf in the older version 1.7 instead of 1.8. Not sure if that effects the layers?

I tried to use the contour tool in Affinity to outline the text as suggested but Affinity crashes when I do that. I will have to figure out how to do it in AI. I should probably just learn how to use AI only it seems...

 

[tapatioLORD]

Hi All! First time here, I have to say that I've learnt heaps from reading the forums here. I was hoping for a favour. Can someone look over my final exported PDF and AI file to make sure there's no problems? It will be my first enclosure UV printed from Tayda. Thanks

Edit: I've followed all the instruction I could find on the Tayda and Pachyderm Tutorial. Design in Inkspace, then final CMYK colour conversion, Roland Swatch and pdf export in AI.

 

[AubreySound]

Hi All! First time here, I have to say that I've learnt heaps from reading the forums here. I was hoping for a favour. Can someone look over my final exported PDF and AI file to make sure there's no problems? It will be my first enclosure UV printed from Tayda. Thanks

Edit: I've followed all the instruction I could find on the Tayda and Pachyderm Tutorial. Design in Inkspace, then final CMYK colour conversion, Roland Swatch and pdf export in AI.

File in Affinity looked all good to me!!

 

[tapatioLORD]

File in Affinity looked all good to me!!

Thanks for checking it @AubreySound!

 

[jeffwhitfield]

Hi All! First time here, I have to say that I've learnt heaps from reading the forums here. I was hoping for a favour. Can someone look over my final exported PDF and AI file to make sure there's no problems? It will be my first enclosure UV printed from Tayda. Thanks

Edit: I've followed all the instruction I could find on the Tayda and Pachyderm Tutorial. Design in Inkspace, then final CMYK colour conversion, Roland Swatch and pdf export in AI.

Here's the problem I see with Affinity generated PDF's. My understanding is that Tayda is opening up the resulting PDF in Illustrator. If the goal is to maintain the layers (ie. COLOR, GLOSS, WHITE) then Affinity is likely to disappoint. I opened up your PDF in Illustrator and this is what I get:


Technically, this should still work...but if Tayda needs to analyze your layers then they're gonna have trouble doing that. This is especially true if you plan on printing on darker enclosures. Without a way to verify the white layers easily, Tayda is more likely to throw it back at you. They're getting rather fussy lately with files created with Affinity. They just throw them back without wasting much time on them. Can't really blame them. I had a bunch of Affinity generated PDF's that I had to fix in Illustrator. Waste of time really.

 

[finebyfine]

@jeffwhitfield's view is what my view of @tapatioLORD's file was in illustrator as well. In addition the artboard size was wrong - it was like 15mm wide although it had the correct proportions. Not sure if that was something you missed when setting up your document or part of Affinity's PDF export. Spot colors came through accurately.

I took a second to organize your file into layers because I'm working on writing a script for Illustrator that would make the process fast enough to the point I'd offer to do it more often. Please double and triple check everything, I'm doing this after a 12 hour day and easily could have made a dumb mistake! In addition here are some things unrelated to the Affinity PDF issue I fixed that would be red flags for Tayda:

On the gloss layer you should have used the unite tool to merge these paths into one shape - I think in affinity this is done with the Add tool. This can rarely impact print quality on any media and it's best to avoid in general. An easy way to fix this is to use the Select same tool and then merge them. In Illustrator this will produce a group of the finished shapes of the same color which I'll then ungroup.



Also on the gloss layer - but in a few places - you have unexpanded strokes. Tayda says to avoid this with their UV printing. I have personally never seen this impact print quality on paper but it's standard practice to avoid this even outside UV printing for a final document as well.



Last thing. It might be hard to see but Tayda also wants us to not have overlapping paths. I've selected the black and pink fills on the bottom donut here - there's a black shape behind the pink one. You can use the divide tool to separate these out. Again, I'll usually just do this all at once near the end of getting a file ready.



And then a few opinionated suggestions:

You'll get a crisper and darker black (assuming that's what you're going for with the darkest color in your design) using what's called a rich black. My default go to is CMYK %s: 60, 40, 40, 100. The Pantone color bridge has some other builds as well depending if you want one slightly tinted.

The UV printing doesn't reach to the absolute edges of an enclosure so where the donut cuts off on the artboard will have a sharp edge. I try to plan ahead for this by considering maybe 1-2mm inside the artboard the "edge". I did a shitty and quick job but I'd do something like this to avoid the edge:



Whether a result of a similar limitation, a stylistic choice, or both, EQD's enclosures show an especially sharp way of avoiding enclosure edges.

One last general thing, Adobe Preflight - in addition to making sure spot colors are embedded - can tell if the document uses layers. Not exactly sure why Layer 1 and gloss show up in addition to the others, which are the only ones I see in Illustrator but might be a handy tool.

 

[jeffwhitfield]

@jeffwhitfield's view is what my view of @tapatioLORD's file was in illustrator as well. In addition the artboard size was wrong - it was like 15mm wide although it had the correct proportions. Not sure if that was something you missed when setting up your document or part of Affinity's PDF export. Spot colors came through accurately.

I took a second to organize your file into layers because I'm working on writing a script for Illustrator that would make the process fast enough to the point I'd offer to do it more often. Please double and triple check everything, I'm doing this after a 12 hour day and easily could have made a dumb mistake! In addition here are some things unrelated to the Affinity PDF issue I fixed that would be red flags for Tayda:

On the gloss layer you should have used the unite tool to merge these paths into one shape - I think in affinity this is done with the Add tool. This can rarely impact print quality on any media and it's best to avoid in general. An easy way to fix this is to use the Select same tool and then merge them. In Illustrator this will produce a group of the finished shapes of the same color which I'll then ungroup.

View attachment 17230

Also on the gloss layer - but in a few places - you have unexpanded strokes. Tayda says to avoid this with their UV printing. I have personally never seen this impact print quality on paper but it's standard practice to avoid this even outside UV printing for a final document as well.

View attachment 17229

Last thing. It might be hard to see but Tayda also wants us to not have overlapping paths. I've selected the black and pink fills on the bottom donut here - there's a black shape behind the pink one. You can use the divide tool to separate these out. Again, I'll usually just do this all at once near the end of getting a file ready.

View attachment 17232

And then a few opinionated suggestions:

You'll get a crisper and darker black (assuming that's what you're going for with the darkest color in your design) using what's called a rich black. My default go to is CMYK %s: 60, 40, 40, 100. The Pantone color bridge has some other builds as well depending if you want one slightly tinted.

The UV printing doesn't reach to the absolute edges of an enclosure so where the donut cuts off on the artboard will have a sharp edge. I try to plan ahead for this by considering maybe 1-2mm inside the artboard the "edge". I did a shitty and quick job but I'd do something like this to avoid the edge:

View attachment 17234

Whether a result of a similar limitation, a stylistic choice, or both, EQD's enclosures show an especially sharp way of avoiding enclosure edges.

One last general thing, Adobe Preflight - in addition to making sure spot colors are embedded - can tell if the document uses layers. Not exactly sure why Layer 1 and gloss show up in addition to the others, which are the only ones I see in Illustrator but might be a handy tool.

View attachment 17236

Good stuff man! Even learned a few things myself!

 

[Preverb]

On the gloss layer you should have used the unite tool to merge these paths into one shape - I think in affinity this is done with the Add tool. This can rarely impact print quality on any media and it's best to avoid in general. An easy way to fix this is to use the Select same tool and then merge them. In Illustrator this will produce a group of the finished shapes of the same color which I'll then ungroup.

This is what I found for instructions in AI for uniting the objects in the gloss layer:

To combine or merge objects in Illustrator, follow these simple steps:

Open up the interface and switch to the Selection Tool.
Select objects. ...
Now select the Shape Builder Tool (or use the shortcut Shift + M).
Drag your mouse between the objects you want to merge.
Release the mouse to merge the objects.

Does anyone know if this the best way to do this?

From my understanding, every colour object should ideally have an underlying white layer. I read somewhere that an underlying white layer isn't needed for black (Is that right?) If so, it would mean that if your design only had black, you could just have 2 layers?? Or would Tayda expect the white layer, even if it was completely empty of objects?

 

[finebyfine]

To combine or merge objects in Illustrator, follow these simple steps:

I do not personally have experience with the shape builder tool. I looked at it once when it was added years ago. It sounds like it's describing the same thing as using the Unite tool from the pathfinder

From my understanding, every colour object should ideally have an underlying white layer.

This is somewhat a matter of preference but I prefer to. You're probably fine on lighter enclosures if you don't but your colors will always be truer if you do.

If so, it would mean that if your design only had black, you could just have 2 layers?

Yep

Or would Tayda expect the white layer, even if it was completely empty of objects?

Nah they don't. Same thing as if your design doesn't have a gloss layer.

 

[Preverb]

I do not personally have experience with the shape builder tool. I looked at it once when it was added years ago. It sounds like it's describing the same thing as using the Unite tool from the pathfinder

Is it necessary to combine the elements into one shape for the gloss layer? I am trying to learn how to use AI only but trying to keep it as simple as possible. If this step is skipped, will there be consequences?

 

[tapatioLORD]

@jeffwhitfield @finebyfine Thanks so much for that! I did notice the incorrect canvas size not long after posting this. All the extra info is so good, I really appreciate it. Will definitely come in handy for the next design!

Edit: When I checked my pdf in Affinity it come up weird the same way as you described with AI. But when I opened it in both Abode Acrobat and Bluebeam the layers showed up fine. Weird?

 

[finebyfine]

Is it necessary to combine the elements into one shape for the gloss layer? I am trying to learn how to use AI only but trying to keep it as simple as possible. If this step is skipped, will there be consequences?

It’ll be fine.

I’ve submitted my share of print jobs that have had things that I actively recommend against, noticing them only after opening a file back up, without noticeable issue. I don’t remember well enough to itemize them (even then I wouldn’t, they’re good practices anyway) but I know I’ve had split shape paths before.

 

[SYLV9ST9R]

Can someone open my Muffin art i did this morning and see if it comes out well in AI?

Muffin.ai

drive.google.com

You need to "vectorize" your text before sending it, as fonts might be missing in the receiving computer (like mine!). In illustrator, you would us the [Type]->[Create Outlines] command. If you can do that, I'll take another look. The stroke/line around the design should also be turned into a path.
Apart from that, as there is only info in the COLOR layer, it should be fine.
A note, you might want some additional clearance around some of the holes (mainly the footswitch and toggle), to account for washers.

 

[Bricksnbeatles]

A note, you might want some additional clearance around some of the holes (mainly the footswitch and toggle), to account for washers.

What I do, which I think is probably a good practice for anyone to adopt, is to create an SVG file of all of the potential hardware I may be using across all of my builds, and then import that as its own (topmost) layer in any of my designs labeled “hardware”. Then I just copy over whichever parts I’ll be using to the canvas section and align them with the drill marks. Then you can just deselect the hardware layer from exporting when it’s time to export, and you’ll be golden.

 

[Preverb]

Here is where I landed:

Muffin (Vectorized).ai

drive.google.com

I ended up supplementing the Tayda template with an outer rectangle I could use to check the Pedal PCB drill templates against to make sure I had my positioning right.

The outline was slightly off centre when I opened it in AI. Otherwise looked good. So you can save files in AI format with Corel?

I guess the next step will be to duplicate those layers and apply the Roland white/gloss swatches. Then save as a PDF and maybe someone can check if the layers are preserved in AI.

 

[Preverb]

I have questions about graphics. I took a photograph and turned it into a vector image but it has so many components, I would think the printer wouldn't be able to work with printing them on such a small format. (The vector image was huge and I had to resize it to fit on the template). Is there a general limit on the amount of objects /resolution of a vector image? Should I take the original image and decrease its size/resolution to be roughly the size of the pedal before converting to a vector graphic?

My second question is, if I want to overlay a graphic covering the entire top of the pedal, can I somehow delete the parts of the image where the text + text outline is? I am using illustrator and basically want to punch an outlined hole in the image part of the design.

Also, if I printing on a pre drilled enclosure, do I need to delete the holes from any image / text that might overly the hole? Just wondering if it would create problems if you have text or graphics overlying a hole on a design or if the printer just automatically deals with it.