Corel X5 Fresh install settings issue

[Ryan Czaplewski]

Hello, I just upgraded from Corel x4 to x5 and have had a couple issues with how the new install of x5 is working with my Laser Engraver (Epilog Legend 36EXT 120w)

1) Some jobs I run at 300dpi out of either necessity or as a time saver. When I used to run jobs at 300dpi the quality was fine (with some pixilation near the edges of the engraving) now when I engrave at 300 dpi I notice that the image is dithered and looks "polka dotted", Is there a way to fix this?

2) When I send over an image with a C:0 M:0 Y:0 K:0 white background, whereas it used to see this as "Do not laser this" space, now it will laser the actual background as a percentage of black (which is not much, but it still does engrave and ruins the product as the box ends up being visible) I know that I can change the 0 0 0 0 white to a transparent and that will fix the issue, it's just that my jobs are all saved with the 0 0 0 0 background and if I forget to change to transparent, I end up ruining items. Is there a way I can define to Corel not to print white?

Any help with this would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks,
Ryan

[Dan Hintz]

Jobs should be run in RGB, not CMYK, to avoid the automatic translation (in which white will come out as some shade of gray, and hence will engrave random spots).

[Bruce Volden]

+1 on what Dan says.

Bruce

[Tim Jasper]

As stated, Corel X4 defaulted in RGB and in X5 switched to CMYK. Please see the article to change these at: http://www.epiloglaser.com/tl_colormgmt_corelx5.htm
That should clear up the problem.

Tim

[Ryan Czaplewski]

Thanks for the quick response guys! This was driving me nuts! Do you think this will also address the dithering in lower resolution issue I was having as well?

[Dan Hintz]

Do you think this will also address the dithering in lower resolution issue I was having as well?

Likely... I'd have to see the issue to make a definite yay / nay decision. If you're working at a low resolution and then have the machine translate from CMYK to RGB (which adds in its own dithering), then yes, it could easily screw up an image.

[Martin Boekers]

I have always had a dithering when the laser is set a 300. Am I missing something here?

Is there a way to get engraving without dithering set at 300?

[Ryan Czaplewski]

Thanks for the help guys! Changing over the color profile solved all of my issues, (including an issue I started having with requiring more power on the laser to achieve the same depth pre install that I didn't realize was related).