Things you should know about a digital printer:

Digital printers have some things that are important to know to ensure the best possible results. Here are some useful tips that I have picked up over the years. If you have something handy to add, please pass it on to me and I'll add it to this page.

Water based (Aqueous) Inkjet:

• When you load the paper into the machine, you should form feed & cut off the front edge of the media is the roll has been left exposed to the open air or handled to eliminate incorrect print from this area.

• Media for these printers has a special coating and you should try to avoid touching the coated side of the media with your bare hands. Your skin has oils that will be absorbed by this coating and leave flawed print results or even fingerprints. The best thing is to have some white cotton gloves handy to the machine and use them to handle the media (In Australia these can be purchased from the cleaning section of shops such as Coles).

• Each media needs a custom profile for each resolution on the machine, and should be re-calibrated regularly to remain accurate. Even if a media sounds the same as the profile you have, if it comes from a different vendor or manufacturer the coating is often patented and will require a new profile to be generated for accuracy.

• These printers rely on their water based inks being absorbed by the coating on the media, and this is affected by environmental conditions such as climate & humidity. If this varies then the printed results will vary sometimes causing bleeding or incorrect results. You should take every chance you have to keep the conditions the same all of the time to help eliminate this problem. To overcome this change you should re-calibrate the printer.

Solvent Based:

• ALL solvent printers are very toxic and have been proven to be harmful after prolonged exposure to the vapours time and time again. To quote one common solvent ink "Proven to cause permanent brain damage". You should always take safety precautions around these machines by wearing the correct breathing apparatus and using air filtration devices.

• These printers are very prone to nozzle clogging, so always leave your printer turned on (so it can cycle through it's clean as it needs to) and if you are going to leave the printer unused for any period of time, have a technician flush clean the ink lines & printheads (if these dry it can be incredibly expensive to get the printer going again.

• Some solvent printer manufacturers refer to their ink as "Eco", but you should be aware that this has nothing to do with the environment or toxicity to people breathing it's fumes. This often refers to "Economy Inks" and you should always refer to the MSDS for the ink for handling requirements. Never make assumptions when it comes to your workers or your own health.

• These printers rely on firing a very small drop of ink at the media, and the direction accuracy of this is affected by environmental conditions such as climate & humidity. If this varies then the printed results will vary sometimes causing banding or poor alignment. You should take every chance you have to keep the conditions the same all of the time to help eliminate this problem. To overcome this change you should re-calibrate the printer or do an alignment and monitor the humidity.

• More tips coming soon