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Elliott5FD6
Participant
April 12, 2023
Question

Halftone patterns on separations for Screenprinting

  • April 12, 2023
  • 1 reply
  • 896 views

I'm hoping this is simple user error...

 

I'm printing out some separations to film, for a screenprinting job. The film printer is at the lab I'm using, I've never printed there, and I wanted to confirm that my seps will halftone correctly. I would usually just send the PDF, and let them print the seps, but again, I'd like to see what's getting printed, before sending it over.

 

So, I was on my home office mac, printing to an Adobe PS file, via the Adobe PDF 9.0 PPD. I chose "Separations (Host-Based)", a resolution of "60 lpi / 300 dpi", selected my 3 spot colors, set the frequency of each to 60 lpi, gave them 3 different angles (15, 45, 75), , set my shapes to "dot", and sent it. Opened with Adobe Distiller, and there are no halftones, just the grayscale colors, that should have been converted to dot patterns.

 

The design was created in a CMYK PSD, on my 3 spot color channels. I then Placed the PSD into Illustrator, and added my text using the same 3 spot colors. Using "Separations Preview" the 3 spot colors separate perfectly, so no issues there. The issue is simply that I'm not seeing halftone dot patterns in the Distilled .ps PDF file. 

 

Am I missing something? Am I correct in thinking that the halftones should be showing up on that final outputted .ps/PDF?

 

I've attached 2 files. One is a screenshot of the color composite in Illustrator, the second is a screenshot of the same section from the outputted separation for one of the spot colors. The color is properly separating, but no halftone dots were produced.

 

Thanks for your help

   

 

 

 

 

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

Ton Frederiks
Community Expert
Ton FrederiksCommunity Expert
Community Expert
April 12, 2023

This is what you can expect.

The process you described, printing to separations using PostScript, does just that, it creates greyscale separations.

The halftoning gets done by the rip of the printer.

    E
    Elliott5FD6Author
    Participant
    April 12, 2023

    Thanks for your help. To confirm, would all of the following 3 situations result in the same output films:

     

    1) sending over the .ps file I saved, after choosing my print settings

    2) sending over the PDF I distilled from that same .ps file

    3) sending over a PDF exported from AI, and have them output from that

     

    In my head, 1 & 2 are the best, as I've already set my print angles and frequency. In scenario 3, the person sending to the printer would need to set the separation preferences... correct? Is there a way for me to export a PDF with appropriate preferences set, directly from AI?

     

    thanks, again!

    Ton Frederiks
    Community Expert
    Ton FrederiksCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    April 12, 2023

    Best to contact the printer, they can tell you their preference.

    PDF rips are common nowadays, so I guess they would prefer that.

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