4 color seps for screen printing

[mikkanani]

Hi,

I am not a wiz at Adobe, but my teacher wants an all photo process for screen print. I have the color comp finished, but dont know how to do the rest in Illustrator or Photoshop. Which is best and how?

[jdanek]

"The original art was an Ai color gradient combined with a Black/15 pt dot photo, saved as a PSD.  In Ps, the conversion to grayscale discards all color info, and the BMP flattens(for what?)"

You are converting to Grayscale?  Remember what I wrote.  Go back to Illustrator and "Export" the full color artwork as a .tiff > Open the .tiff in Photoshop > Channels > Split Channels.

You have a full color gradient in Illustrator with a .psd file that has been "Placed" into the Illustrator File.  You're done!  I think you may be over complicating the entire op.  I see no reason to convert to grayscale.  Unfortunately, graphic arts is very technical.  There are a few steps that you must do in order to get what you want, which is a color separated file.  I wonder how much of this has been covered in class?

[mikkanani]

there in lies the problem from the start. the assistant in school computer center helped me with the original comp, saving it as a PSD rather than "exporting it as a tiff. now I have re-saved and exported BOTH the Ai color gradient art AND the Ps photo as TIF. the next step, I believe, is to reconstruct the thing to match the previous design. Is that correct?

mikka

[jdanek]

"helped me with the original comp, saving it as a PSD rather than "exporting it as a tiff"

Then, open the saved .psd file in Photoshop.  If it is not CMYK, go to Mode > CMYK > Save.

"I have re-saved and exported BOTH the Ai color gradient art AND the Ps photo as TIF. the next step, I believe, is to reconstruct the thing to match the previous design. Is that correct?"

You can, but it seems like a lot of extra work.  Insert a screen shot of your Illustrator Comp file...

...by clicking on the "Insert Image" icon in the dialog shown above highlighted in blue...

...ask your professor how to do a screen grab.  Are you on Mac?

Whichever way you decide to proceed, you will probably have a layered Photoshop File if you decide to sandwich the two files back together.  Save a copy in CMYK color mode.  You should not have to flatten anything.  Just do the Channels > Split Channels op. follow the other instructions in my previous posts.

[jdanek]

I am curious.  You say you have a "15pt dot photo" and a gradient.  Is that "15pt dot photo" transparent?

[mikkanani]

I gave up and hired a print shop to do it for me.  All advice from others was only partially helpful, not complete, and with no knowledge of what lousy version I am using, there is no way to explain why a "channel" tab doesn't show up, or why a flatten makes all the channels go away. The pro took my PSD as is, flattened it, split the channels, entered mostly default specs, then said it would be ready for pick up tomorrow. He dropped out the black from the gradient art because it was very minimal. The photo is solid black, 15 pt dot and will now be the last screen to print, so 4 colors, 4 pulls, and it will be done in one afternoon!

tx, mikka

[Monika Gause]

Thanks for the follow up.

Can you please in this thread mark jdanek's post #25 as the correct one?

That way people can find help here.

Thank you.

[rickwtexas]

I do seps almost everyday, directly from Illustrator - straight to a pdf (which my client uses to burn screens). And my illustrator files have ONE layer. I got tired head just reading some of this thread. True its not as easy it was in versions before 9, but it's not rocket science.

Here is a message to the newest generation of ai users... just because a feature is there does not mean you need to use it.

[jdanek]

No. You are doing it all wrong. I will assist later.

Sent from my iPhone

[Nancy OShea]

I don't think it's helpful or polite to say "No, you're doing it all wrong." And then run away without giving any follow-up.  If you're really pressed for time, then don't reply until you have some free time to give a more complete answer.

Just saying....

Nancy

[Monika Gause]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Nancy+OShea  schrieb

I don't think it's helpful or polite to say "No, you're doing it all wrong."

On occasion this helps a lot more than just being silent. I would very much appreciate this message if this were my problem.

And I can fully undertand that on a Saturday evening people might have something more important to do than writing in an online forum.

[mikkanani]

Well Monika, I don't blame the guy. He has sent me several pieces of the puzzle already, but as you know there is always a missing link somewhere for a novice like me. I am a great artist and designer with very little of this tech stuff. I have tried all other avenues for today, school, private printers and online tutorials...most don't have a full grasp of the screen print process other than for t-shirts. The biggest disappointment is not in the volunteerism, but in the fact that there is no "automatic" way to do this no thanks to programmers.

mikka

[warrenh37225820]

what were your setting for the halftone screen? Freq Angle and shape

[jdanek]

That depends on the mesh of the silkscreen. You also have to consider garment thread count. Those will affect screen angles, frequency. Shape should be elliptical.

Sent from my iPhone

[warrenh37225820]

Awesome! Thank you for replying.

[jdanek]

Frequency would be in the 35 lines per inch area, you might push it to 55lpi, but that would be a very high mesh aluminum screen.

Sent from my iPhone