Plotting white on black? Please help..

We have a project that needs to be printed/plotted white on black for a
client who is 90% blind and can at least see the plans if they are printed
with a black background... it needs to be to scale, so the ideas of making a
print screen
of the dwg then printing isn't good, neither is taking it into photoshop as
the scale or resolution will be lost there...

Any ideas would be tremendously appreciated!

Thank you,

Shelley

 

If you're using any kind of inkjet printer, you won't like the results; that
much ink will saturate the paper and make the plots essentially worthless,
not to mention it'll probably take a full ink cartridge or more to do one or
two sheets. Your best bet would be to take a conventinal plot to your
friendly reprographics house and have them make reversals.

I'm also a little surprised that white on black would be more visible than
black on white, but then I'm not any kind of expert in visual limitations.
___

 

I agree with Paul here, but if possible I would send a digital file to be
reversed, either a PDF, or an EPS if you don't have PDF creating
capabilities. The problem with sending actual output is that the scan
process will degrade the image, and with large areas of black, the result is
pretty ugly. Not to mention the waste of plotting an intermediary that has a
useful life of however long it takes to get to the print shop.

Best,
Gordon

 

That depends on the capabilities of the shop. Many still use a photocopy
process rather than scanning, and the results are generally as crisp as the
original.
___

 

Black paper w/ white ink?

| We have a project that needs to be printed/plotted white on black for a
| client who is 90% blind and can at least see the plans if they are printed
| with a black background... it needs to be to scale, so the ideas of making
a
| print screen
| of the dwg then printing isn't good, neither is taking it into photoshop
as
| the scale or resolution will be lost there...
|
| Any ideas would be tremendously appreciated!
|
| Thank you,
|
| Shelley
|
|
|

 

What the other post have said about using up the black ink and having the
paper soak it up are true.

However if you can't do it by the means mentioned in the other post I'd
suggest this. First get the best quality coated paper you can. This will
help a little in not having too much ink soaking into the paper. Then create
a CTB where all the colors are set to 0% screening except one. Set that one
to black at 100% screening. Make sure that it is a color that none of your
linework uses.

Then make a solid hatch as a background for you plot. Make the hatch the
color set to black. Use Draworder to send it behind all your linework. If
your plotter has a line merge/overwrite option make sure it is set to
overwrite. You'll have to have fairly heavy lineweights on the "White" pens
to overcome bleeding. Do a couple of test plots of small areas first to
minimize ink usage. Buy a couple of ink cartridges in case you do run out.

I've only used this method for small areas of a drawing. Mainly Logos and
such. So I can't guarantee what a whole sheet will look like.

Of course if you are doing this on a laser printer it will probably look
better. Then you'll be using toner instead of ink.

Hope all goes well for you.

Allen

 

I think many copiers can invert prints (at least, ours can, and it's old) --
if you have a print shop nearby, you might be able to send them originals
and let them invert it.

 

The reverse print did the trick! Very sharp image! Not to mention
inexpensive!
Thanks to all of you for your terrific suggestions!
Shelley