FAQ: Digital Factory RIP Software

This tutorial guide put out by GIMP is an excellent resource to walk you through using the features of GIMP within Digital Factory.

https://www.gimp.org/tutorials/

For the latest versions of SignLab, there is support for printing directly to Digital Factory:

• File menu > Print and Cut– Print to Digital Factory without generating an underbase. This is suitable for printing to white garment material.
• File menu > Print with Underbase– Automatically generate underbase information for printing to either black or color garment material.

For older versions of SignLab, use the following procedure to add the queue as a print destination within the Windows Control Panel. Printing from SignLab will use the common Windows File menu > Print command.

Note: Using the Windows Control Panel does not permit alpha (transparency) channel data, which prevents you from defining a white underbase for printing to black or color garment material. As such, the File > Print command should only be used when printing to white garment material (which does not require a white underbase)

In Digital Factory:

1. From the toolbar, click the Stop Queue button.
2. Choose Queue menu > Manage Queues.
3. In the Control Panel column, click the Install button, such that the queue is available as a print destination for other Windows applications.
4. Click the Close button.

In Sign Lab:

1. Prepare the print design on the SignLab workspace.
2. Save the design file, such that the design is not “untitled.”
3. Choose File menu>> Print to open the print dialog.
4. From the Printer tab, choose the queue that had be designated in step (3)
5. Click OK to accept the Print dialog settings, and the job will be received in Digital Factory.

In Digital Factory:

1. If your queue is set to hold received jobs, then select the job and choose to print from the Jobs menu.

When Digital Factory was installed, additional Send to Digital Factory plug-ins were installed for your PhotoShop. These plug-ins provide a quick means of transferring your PhotoShop design to Digital Factory in a manner that prepares the design for garment printing.

• File menu > Automate > Send to Digital Factory-Print to Digital Factory without generating an underbase. This is suitable for printing to white garment material.
• File menu > Automate > Send to Digital Factory with Underbase– Automatically generate underbase information for printing to either black or color garment material.

In Digital Factory:

1. From the toolbar, click the Stop Queue button.

In PhotoShop:

1. Prepare the print design in PhotoShop.
2. Save the PSD file, such that the design is not “untitled.”
3. Choose File menu > Automate > Send to Digital Factory. Alternatively, choose Send to Digital Factory with Underbase when printing to black or color garment.
4.  In the Send to Digital Factory dialog, choose the queue name and click OK. To send jobs to Digital Factory that is installed on a remote computer, click Browse and choose the network location.
5. The job will be received in Digital Factory.

In Digital Factory:

1. If  your queue is set to hold received jobs, then select the job and choose to print from the Jobs menu.

When Digital Factory was installed, additional Send to Digital Factory plug-ins were installed for your Illustrator. These plug-ins provide a quick means of transferring your Illustrator design to Digital Factory in a manner that prepares the design for garment printing.

• File menu > Digital Factory > Send to… -Print to Digital Factory without generating an underbase. This is suitable for printing to white garment material.
• File menu > Digital Factory > Send with Underbase… – Automatically generate underbase information for printing to either black or color garment material.

In Digital Factory:

1. From the toolbar, click the Stop Queue button.

In Illustrator:

1. Prepare the print design in Illustrator.
2. Save the design file, such that the design is not “untitled.”
3. Choose File menu > Automate > Send to Digital Factory. If the design is being prepared for a black or color garment material, choose Send to Digital Factory with Underbase.
4.  In the Send to Digital Factory dialog, choose the queue name and click OK. To send jobs to Digital Factory that is installed on a remote computer, click Browse and choose the network location.
5. The job will be received in Digital Factory.

In Digital Factory:

1. If  your queue is set to hold received jobs, then select the job and choose to print from the Jobs menu.

When Digital Factory was installed, additional Send to Digital Factory plug-ins were installed for your CorelDraw. These plug-ins provide a quick means of transferring your CorelDraw design to Digital Factory in a manner that prepares the design for garment printing.

• Standard toolbar > Send to Digital Factory-Print to Digital Factory without generating an underbase. This is suitable for printing to white garment material.
• Standard toolbar> Send to Digital Factory with Underbase– Automatically generate underbase information for printing to either black or color garment material.

In Digital Factory:

1. From the toolbar, click the Stop Queue button.

In CorelDraw:

1. Prepare the print design in CorelDraw.
2. Save the design file, such that the design is not “untitled.”
3. From Standard toolbar click the Send to Digital Factory button. Alternatively, choose Send to Digital Factory with Underbase when printing to black or color garment.
4. In the Send to Digital Factory dialog, choose the queue name and click OK. To send jobs to Digital Factory that is installed on a remote computer, click Browse and choose the network location.
5. The job will be received in Digital Factory.

In Digital Factory:

If  your queue is set to hold received jobs, then select the job and choose to print from the Jobs menu.

Design files can be imported directly into Digital Factory, without the need to open the files in their original design applications. Use this workflow when you need to print a design file without having access to the original application. For example, the customer has sent you a design file and you need to print it “as is” without importing it into a design application.

Note: The supported image formats are subject to change, though common image formats are supported (EPS, AI, PDF, BMP, JPEG, TIFF, etc.) For designs that contain an alpha (transparency) channel, the image formation should be either PSD, PNG, or TIFF.

In Digital Factory:

1. From the toolbar, click the Stop Queue button.

In the Design Application: 

1. Prepare the print design.
2. Save the design file.

In Digital Factory: 

1. 1. Load the design file using one of the following methods:
      1. Choose File menu > Import File.
      2. From the toolbar, click the Open button.
      3. Drag-and-drop the file into the Digital Factory window.
      4. Choose File menu > Get from gmail to configure Digital Factory to receive designs via a Google email account.
   2. If your queue is set to hold received jobs, then select the job and choose to print from the Jobs menu.

This workflow uses a specially designated Hot Folder (i.e. a directory on the hard drive). When design files are copied in the Hot Folder, they will automatically be detected by Digital Factory and processed. Not that the copied file will be subsequently deleted by Digital Factory.

Create an Empty Hot Folder:

1. Create an empty directory on your Digital Factory computer or elsewhere on your network. This will be your Hot Folder, which must satisfy the following two conditions:
   1. The Digital Factory computer must have login permission to read and write to the Hot Folder.
   2. Your graphic designers must have file access permissions to write/copy files into the Hot Folder.

In Digital Factory:

1. From the toolbar, click the Stop Queue button.
2. Choose Queue menu >  Properties.
3. Click the Hot Folders tab.
4. Check the Enable Queue Hot Folder checkbox, which opens a browse dialog.
5. Browse to the Hot Folder that has been designated in Step 1. Please note that the Hot Folder must be empty when it is initially chosen.
6. Click OK to accept the Hot Folder path.
7. Click OK to close the Queue Properties dialog.

In the Design Application: 

1. In the design application, prepare the print design.
2. Save the design file in a commonly accepted format (EPS, AI, PDF, BMP, JPEG, TIFF, etc.) and copy the design file into the Hot Folder. For designs that contain an alpha (transparency) channel, the image format should be either PSD, PNG, or TIFF.

In Digital Factory: 

1. If your queue is set to hold received jobs, then select the job and choose to print from the Jobs menu.