GIMP Version: 2.6.11
Operating System: Windows
OS Version: Win7 SP1
GIMP Experience: Beginner Level
URL or Image link: http://i47.tinypic.com/107juaq.png

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Alright! Hey guys, I've got another issue I'd like some input on! You guys have been a great help so far, thank you!

So, I'm making a picture for a bulletin I'm going to print out, and the transparent fade effect I used is giving me hard edges when I go to print. (I want the edges to slowly fade/blur into transparent areas. I've been applying a layer mask, painting the edges, then gaussian blurring) It looks pretty alright when in Gimp, but not when I print it.
Here is the image:


Here is a link to the file, which contains the original image I'm trying to apply the effect to. Not sure if anybody wanted to play around with it:
http://www.mediafire.com/?9i44k7w1g7cohtv

I used to work making yellow page adds. The problem when printing from dark to white is that it makes a kind of visible line. A halftone image made of printed dots does not transfer into white very well. The way we would deal with that is by making the white (0%) into a shade of grey (5%). Thats what they do for newspaper photos also. White to (5%) and black to (80%).

If your starting from a layered file you would want to go to [Layer] [New from Visible] to create a newer layer on which to work from. Then use the Curves Dialog box to alter the White values to around 5% and maybe the black to 80%. This might help the printout look better.

Alan

I'm still pretty confused on how to do that.. Is there anything I can do with the image I already have? Or do I need to start over? I'm pretty fresh to this stuff

Open up your file and make sure all the visible layers are showing and then click [Layer] [New From Visible]. That will make a new layer that you can then use the [Curves] on. Curves is found under the [Colors] pull down menu.



If you pull the top right node down in the curves dialog box down it makes the dark colors lighter. If you push the bottom left node up it makes the light colors darker.

Making the white darker should make it print better. Also the professionals will also prepair the image for printing by using unsharp mask to sharpen up the image. The amount that you sharpen depends on what you are printing to. You don't have to sharpen if you don't want to.


Alan

Ok, thanks for the detailed explanation! And for the original suggestion.
I've tweaked it and now it looks like this:

Is this correct? It looks pretty gray. If so, is there any way I could slowly fade the grayish white to white? The paper is pure white, and I don't want any hard edges, particularly on the left and bottom regions.

Thats the only way to fix the problem of blending to white for printing. I usually add a line border around an image. You could print it out and trim the edges, I've done that before. Sometimes what looks nice is a white area round the image then a black line.

If you wanted to get a good printed image without the halftone edges around the white areas you would have to develope the image on film. That would be expensive depending on how many copies you need.

That image you have posted looks about right. The only way to find out if it works for you is to print it out and see. Also maybe even try the unsharp mask. But the unsharp mask should be done before the curves.

The only way to go from grey to white and not get that noticable line is by having rather dark color to white. If its a slow gradient then it is visible.

Alan

Something like this looks good with a space and then the black line border.



Thats what I usually do.

Alan

ok, ill see what i can come up with, thanks!

Here's a very easy idea.
1. Make a new image (x,y) 100px min., larger than the original.
2. New Layer.
3. In the original image, Copy Visible.
4. In the new image, use Paste Into. (Not Paste as)
5. GMIC, Arrays & frames, Frame [fuzzy]. (Settings below.)

Before you paste into the new image you may want to move the bottom text up slightly. The top text may need to move down and in a bit as well. See the results image below why.

I've noticed that with alpha, even though you've cut out a portion of the image, the information is still there and can be recovered. I'm wondering if flattening the image removes this information and maybe that's the best thing to do before printing.

Hmm. I'll try all of this. And (I'm on a laptop, so it's much easier to do, hahaha) if you tilt your screen so that it is very darkened, you can see the edges of the blur/fade in the image. I've done this sort of thing with another image, and it printed out fine!

Color images might work good because there are possibly four different halftone colors blended together making the edge (CMYK). I think you might be able to do your other image in CMYK but it might end up kind of brown in color.

It's a black and white printer, so that may be ok. How would I go about converting to CMYK..? I looked it up and it looks pretty complicated, think it's worth it?

A black and white printer will turn a CMYK image into greyscale to print it anyway. If you had a CMYK image with CMYK colors that all added up to a greyscale image. It's hard to explain. But just as an RGB image in GIMP shows equal amounts of each color (as seen in the channels pallet) to show as shades of grey. You know like 30% R + 30% G + 30% B shows as 30% grey on screen. 100% of all the RGB colors is white. But CMYK is ink colors which have a totally different mix of colors to equal different colors. Some RGB colors cannot be printed with CMYK and they are called out of gammet colors. Gotta Go.

Alan