Topic: Doh Moment with STB's

[ChrisCarlson]

For the longest time we had this problem where background mask would plot funky (almost hatched) with MTEXT

(excuse our scanner, I'm pretty sure it hasn't been cleaned since it was made in the 1400's  :ugly:)

For instance plotting to PDF and subsequently printing the PDF through Adobe would result in this



The PDF issue wasn't a huge issue because PDF's were mainly used in house, however we typically plot and send plots to our customers from directly from laser plotter.



Turns out the "Grayscale" setting on our Notes plot style was turned to on causing this massive headache. Selecting no to grayscale fixes this problem.



 :pissed:

[danallen]

Why is screening set to 85?

[ChrisCarlson]

The boss man doesn't like 100% screening on anything as he thinks it's too "dark". I gave up that battle a long time ago after numerous  :realmad: sessions.

[Matt__W]

Have you tried it without the 85% screening?  Just to see if it makes a difference?

[ChrisCarlson]

Setting the plot style to 100% screening with grayscale on, results in the same "hatchy" pattern behind the text

[rkmcswain]

We get something similar here, but the shading does not cover the whole block of text, only portions.
Sometimes it's very faint and other times it's solid black.
I've also seen a rainbow effect when printing in color.
I'll see if I can dig up some screenshots of the PDF/DWF/PLT files....

[danallen]

sounds like you were sharing your lesson learned, or are you still having problems? or just curious?

I noticed our CTB has dither turned On, while yours is off, not sure what that would do. We also don't use screening, but instead set the object color to the 250 to 254 range for gray screens. you might get the same effect setting object color to RGB of gray, such as 217,217,217 which is 85 luminance

Setting the plot style to 100% screening with grayscale on, results in the same "hatchy" pattern behind the text

[ChrisCarlson]

Sharing a lesson learned

[Krushert]

This is from the left field but have you tried printing to a totally different plotter/printer.  Like in other office.  I seen masks and wipeouts do weird stuff when plotted to one printer but prints okay in different printer.   Update the plotters drivers?