Wht voids on canvas .. Bill t?

[shybuck]

Hello everyone.
Perhaps I'm being too problematic, but I'm getting a few wht voids on my canvases which drives me into frustration. They are the small pin hole size ones. I was wondering what others do with this problem if they do indeed have this problem.. or is this just inherent with printing on canvas? I'm printing on Fredrix 777 vivid with Canon ipf6100. 
I've been mixing  paint to match the missing color and using a needle to fill in the void before spraying.....Bill, maybe you could chime in?

[Ken Doo]

"White voids?"

Do you mean flaking ----tiny little flecks missing in the printed canvas image?  If so, that is an issue with your canvas or possibly the coating. Try dusting with a soft static brush before feeding into the printer. Sometimes dust or flecks can cause spotting.  I haven't see this with canvas, but moreso fine art papers on occasion.

ken

[Mark Lindquist]

777, I have found, can be fraught with problems, depending on batch run, etc.  Having run into this problem myself, I have mostly stopped using it.

One technique I have used to remedy the problem in the distant past, (the best would be to reprint), is to create patches (copy/paste) of the areas where the offending area is, make several of them on an image, then print on the back side of a piece of gloss or semi-gloss paper.  The swatches won't dry soon, giving you a lot of work time.  There is also the end chewed toothpick which does quite well filling the void.

As discussed,  I no longer would fill any void - it can come back to bite you, but if you must-there is one way above.  It will provide the most faithful colors.

It is quite possible there is some kind of crud that lifts off after printing.  You could attempt to roll the canvas out and brush it first, before printing.  In lieu of that, use a fine brush head on a vacuum cleaner and go lightly over the surface.

EDIT: Ken beat me to it while typing

[shybuck]

Thanks for your responses, as I appreciate the advice.  Very creative the copy paste method! Yes, the voids being missed spots on the printed canvas. I think it might be time to move away from 777...certainly since this pastime is printing and not painting.

[Landscapes]

One technique I have used to remedy the problem in the distant past, (the best would be to reprint), is to create patches (copy/paste) of the areas where the offending area is, make several of them on an image, then print on the back side of a piece of gloss or semi-gloss paper.  The swatches won't dry soon, giving you a lot of work time.  There is also the end chewed toothpick which does quite well filling the void.

I tried this and find it didn't work that well for me.  I printed on a sheet of acetate, so the ink didn't stick at all which gave me lots of time to work with.  But here is what I found.  The color that we see is created from the dither pattern of how those little drops of ink mix before they hit out eye.  When I picked up the ink and deposited it the canvas, it completely changed how these drops of ink were laid down.  So for me, I saw that the color totally changed! 

Perhaps some colors are mostly made up from one of the ink carts so don't require the fine mixing pattern to get the color right, but for me, light colors like a gradient sky were impossible to transfer from the acetate to the canvas.  Once deposited, they were always much darker than they should have been, more than likely because the printer laid each of the drops down quite far apart to create the illusion of a light color, and when I tried to move this over, those drops were all mixed close together and hence now looked much darker.

This makes sense when you think about it because even a BW print can use Yellow to get the fine gradations.  So if you were to mix all these inks together in a bowl, you would no longer have a gray ink as the presence of the yellow would absolutely tint the other shades of black/gray ink.

[Mark Lindquist]

When using this method, one can reprint a small piece of canvas with the area in question and practice first.

I never just swabbed on ink, particularly in an area of sky.  One can print out several test patches on a narrow strip to work with.

Again, I advocate reprinting, above all.

[Justan]

I use touch up pens and a 6x magnifying glass with great success to fix areas that the inkjet missed. Sometimes. Start with the tiniest dots you can make and then examine the results. Repeat as needed. do tests until you have it down flawlessly. Use your flawed works to practice.

That put in text, in this case, were it me, i would toss the problematic canvas and start with something a little more reliable.

[Peter McLennan]

... i would toss the problematic canvas and start with something a little more reliable.

Interesting.  I use one of most inexpensive canvas materials available, namely Lexjet Sunset Production Matte.  I see exactly zero defects in the material over several years of use on my 9800.  No "seeds", voids or other imperfections whatsoever.  Ever.

Image quality is far more dependent on me than the the media, and as far as I can see, it's pretty darn good.

[Justan]

^There are a number of inexpensive canvas media which are reliable. People here comment about different types they like with some regularity.