How Rosco Manufactures The Gobos You Design

Custom gobos are used in virtually every lighting project these days: special events corporate industrials, retail store lighting, and, of course, theatre, film, and television. Rosco will manufacture your unique design in steel or glass; - black and white or full color - for ellipsoidal fixtures, automated lights, or even high temperature architectural luminaries. Rosco's customer service staff will help you select the type of custom gobo most appropriate for your project.

Choosing the manufacturer of your custom gobo is always important. But it's critical if you have a demanding client or management - and the gobo image, color or design has to be perfect.

That's why the next four paragraphs may be about Rosco...but they are crucial for people like you who specify gobos for stationary or moving lights. Here are some facts about Rosco that you should consider when ordering a custom designed gobo:

Rosco manufactures its own dichroic glass for both custom gobos and its standard gobo ranges. This is a ColorWave gobo pattern #33001

Color accuracy and consistency is often critical for gobos of company logos.

Rosco offers unequalled color flexibility in its custom gobos. Because we color coat the glass in our own facility, we can manipulate the CYMK palette to satisfy the most particular requirements.

Colors can be rendered on gobos to work better with skin tones. Rosco has created a number of gobos using metallic colors and pale "sky colors" that other manufacturers simply could not match.

Rosco manufactures its own dichroic glass in its purpose-built facility in Round Rock, Texas. Dichroic glass is the basic building block for glass gobos. Virtually all other gobo manufacturers have to buy their dichroic glass from various outside suppliers. Manufacturing its own glass assures color consistency from gobo to gobo and from batch to batch. It also assures that the gobo will be the same in quality if more copies need to be manufactured months after the original tooling. For many clients or company managements, color consistency in, for example, corporate logos are an overriding concern.

Although Rosco's standard dichroic glass thickness is 1.75 mm, our manufactured glass gobos are as thin as 1.1 mm thickness for black & white and one color gobos and 1.9mm for hi-resolution multi colors. This is particularly important because of the optics capability in today's highly advanced light fixtures. The substrates used allow a better focal plane. Such gobos will also fit the gobo slots of most instruments far more effectively, allowing for maximum usage of the light fixtures' projection capabilities. Our production process gives you a better resolution for your projected image.

Because Rosco manufactures its own dichroic glass, the company has been able to devise gobo etching and manufacturing processes unique in the industry. Wet etching remains the most precise technique for creating details and fine lines in both glass and metal gobos. Rosco's etching processes were created by to perfectly complement the in-house dichroic glass capability, stochastic screening and specialized coatings developed by the in-house engineering and technical team.

Rosco uses the stochastic screening technique for better detail. This technique uses a random dot pattern, unlike conventional screening that uses a regular pattern of dots in straight rows (see diagram below). Stochastic screening allows images to be reproduced with no moirees, rosettes or other effects - resulting in clearer resolution and truer color. Conventional screening, often cited as "dots per square inch" remains effective for many simple images. But stochastic screening is a much better choice for others. In particular, it works best for small images, such as those used on gobos for moving lights. Stochastic screening better reproduces artwork with fine angular lines, smooth reflective surfaces and graduated tones.

Stochastic Screening Stochastic Screening is a technique that uses a random dot pattern, unlike conventional screening which uses a regular pattern of dots in straight rows. With stochastic screening, images are reproduced with no moires, rosettes or other effects. In short, you get finer detail and truer color. Although conventional screening is effective for many images, stochastic screening is a much better choice for others. In particular, it works best for small images showing fine, angular lines, smooth reflective surfaces and graduated tones.