Hello! Are there any colours shapeways does not print? For instance, when you use a normal printer to print on A4 paper, 99% of printers will not print the colour white, instead they just interpret any white areas as something they don't lay ink down on as the paper is already white. Is there any similarities with FCS where it doesn't actually print white (or any other colour) as the material is naturally white or for any other reason? Hope that makes some sense, I just read it back to myself and I'm not 100% it does!
The material is naturally white, and the printer does not have a white ink. Check this video at the 1:10 mark http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHxp9Ail6MY You can see the print cartridges. The printer seems to have a problem with dark colors. Check this model: http://shpws.me/lUx1 The far outside edge is supposed to be black, but that first step of colors in from here isn't supposed to be completely black.
When did you order *that* sample? Quality should be much better than that with white being crisp and bright. Gonna have a look into it.
Quoting stonysmith from another thread in this forum (Jan 10) so this is probably from the "old" process. Compare kaetemi's posting from November 2011here with images from the "old" and "new" process. (And no, I would not have dug up this old stuff myself if it had not been brought up by kaetemi last week in response to a similar question in the Post-Production forum. How about adding such images to the materials page for FCS ??)
I managed to get a really nice and subtle glow effect here on the black http://twitpic.com/bwkyzg - the trick is not to use pure black when doing that. Pure black doesn't exist anyways.
That sample was ordered in May of 2011 You need to know that the whole sample is only lke 1/2 inch across, so the pads are very small and a good bit of the bleeding between pads is due to the small size.
As for colors that you can't print... Colors that require a delicate ink mix are risky. Light brown may go purple/green, slightly blueish white and slightly blueish grays may go slightly greenish.
I've actually had quite a good run so far with colour printing. Everything I've printed has come out pretty exact to my models. It even handles gradients quite well. In my latest prototype though, I did discover that it made a rather bright yellow a little bit green. Otherwise, the updated process is a lot better, just take a look in my shop if you want to see examples.