How To Color Separate Blends And Halftones For Screen Printing Using Adobe Illustrator

Рет қаралды 21,675

3 жыл бұрын

In this deep dive, Colin demonstrates how to color separate blends and halftones so they are optimized for screen printing. He shows the tricks and tools you need to know in Adobe Illustrator to get your designed dialed in, ready for screen printing and achieve great blends and halftones.
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Пікірлер: 39

@Tim.McElheny 3 жыл бұрын

I would like to see how to print a two color gradient on a dark hoodie with an underbase.

@faizsales9018 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you so much:) Very helpful and amazing video!

@Ryonet 2 жыл бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it!

@dot-tone-dancampbell9726 3 жыл бұрын

Excellent vid! I just did one for the same reasons today using Photoshop. After I did it, later this evening, I searched in youtube just to see where mine would come up and found this one. LOL. I've never understood why some people promote using the interlocking method. That's old school out of necessity and lack of understanding of whats needed in the blends. Interlocking and miss registration takes away from what you are trying to do in the blend. Simulated process and "blending and overlapping blends are the reason why people say Sim process is more forgiving than spot color and trapping. easier to see a miss registered print with spot colors. Great advice!

@colinhuggins6164 3 жыл бұрын

DAN! Thank you for the kind words, its appreciated. For those reading this, Dan has a very long industry pedigree and the man has SERIOUS art and separation skills. Dan, I am going to need to find your video now.

@joshmadrid5253 3 жыл бұрын

thank you

@colinhuggins6164 3 жыл бұрын

No, thank you!

@teddyblankenship782 3 жыл бұрын

im new to screen printing. Ive been doing it where i print out a film transfer and expose it on a screen and then just do a color that way. I recently bought a 4 color press and now im wanting to do more colors and halftones but watching this video shows me i have a lot to learn. Can you, or anyone, tell me where i can find videos on how to do the separations and the computer AND press parts of this process for a beginner to halftones and multi colors and using software like this? Tutorial vids would be great.

@Ryonet 3 жыл бұрын

Hi Teddy! Have you watched these videos yet? kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ZrVnp5Z9utzKfXU.html. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/d7qZaJWTt6_TY4U.html. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/sJmleq18m66tl6s.html

@Dillyo82 3 жыл бұрын

Doing a blended Rainbow print on a Hoodie tomorrow. Hand painted in Photoshop using Channels for each color. 300dpi and 50LPI with a 230 mesh. Saved to Photoshop DCS2. Placed it into Illustration and printed 7 films including Base through AccuRIP Ruby. Any pointers? Printing tomorrow! #fingerscrossed

@Ryonet 3 жыл бұрын

Use sharp squeegees and make sure your off contact is set properly for the softer hoodie material. You may also end up printing a little slower. Hoodies/Fleece are definitely difficult material to print on with sim process, keep plugging away!

@uproarink 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for sharing, Colin. Are there reference designs available that one can use to calibrate the various parameters?

@colinhuggins6164 3 жыл бұрын

Hi William! Been a while since we last saw each other. What are you wanting to dial in specifically?

@uproarink 3 жыл бұрын

I was thinking of some standardized print with different midpoints in the blend to calibrate the right amount based on the LPI as you mentioned in your video. I suppose something similar can be developed to determine dot gain and other variables.

@colinhuggins6164 3 жыл бұрын

@@uproarink If you want to know your dot gain - create 100 squares, each with a descending tonal fill from 100% to 1%. Now - we would end up wanting to calibrate the film output to make sure our dots are printing correctly. For that we need a transmission densitometer. After we have the film dialed in - now we go to our screen making process and dial in our exposures so we get as accurate a reproduction with our stencil, matching our film. After that, now we get on press and print. We then need to measure our dot gain on the fabric - emisive densitometer..... OR - for a poor mans version - we can take that film - shoot it - print it and compare dots on the shirt to our film and get a poor mans understanding of dot gain example: 45% dots look like 70% on the shirt and document that. Every shop will be different based on their film and dot gain there, their screens and dot loss there, then on press with dot gain there based on stencil thickness/mesh count/thread diameter, squeegee selection, ink type printed, slow print Vs fast print.... The process is not short...

@mariosalcedoaguirre 3 жыл бұрын

Hi, Colin. Is there a way to just let some rip do the right job to avoid so many guess and adjustments work? I mean, just designing using 100% direct color to 0% direct color shades or 100% color 1 to 100% color 2 blends, whitout adjusting the blending point to overlap.

@colinhuggins6164 3 жыл бұрын

Within RIP software you have a "dot gain" setting. You have a bunch of boxes 100%, 95%, 90%, 80%, 70%,.... down to 10%, 5%, and 0%. What this means is you can control how the rip interprets the grey scale info and you can change how it will print dots. Example, you can set the 50% dot to print as a 70% dot. BUT! you have to go back and change EVERY box to an appropriate %. It will not auto fill for you. So you have to carefully plan and test to make sure your settings are correct. Then, when you are not printing overlapping blends, you will need to change your settings again. So, it is doable, but a LOT of work unless you have a way to save "presets" and swap easily between them.

@mariosalcedoaguirre 3 жыл бұрын

@@colinhuggins6164 thanks for the reply

@MarioSalcedoPCAndalservice 3 жыл бұрын

@@colinhuggins6164 Hi, Colin. I found this on manual and in RIP process: www.t-shirtforums.com/threads/interlocking-halftone-gradients-for-separation.584162/#post-3187970

@Tim.McElheny 3 жыл бұрын

I would like to see how to design and print a two color gradient on a dark hoodie with an underbase.

@colinhuggins6164 3 жыл бұрын

HI Tim - The art prep for t-shirts is essentially the same for hoodies. Your mesh selection might be different (it would be design dependent). Dot gain can easily be greater with hoodies Vs t-shirts (you want higher mesh counts for doing halftones vs spot colors). What have you experienced? What are the issues you have seen that you would like addressed in a video?

@Tim.McElheny 3 жыл бұрын

colin huggins I would like to see how to underbase a gradient the right way on the hoodies. I would like to learn How to choke the small halftone dots of the underbase so that the over print will pop, but the underbase won’t poke out. Also, how to get a good lay down of ink with a 230 mesh on the hoodies so there isn’t much fibrillation on the small halftone dots so the over prints are smooth. Also, I am interested in making my own plastisol transfers. Is it possible to make plastisol transfers with a base white of halftones and an over print with halftones for hoodies?

@colinhuggins6164 3 жыл бұрын

@@Tim.McElheny Properly choking the base white on halftones is an easy enough walkthrough. How to print white through a 230 onto hoodies.... oof! That's not always simple ;) Are you on a manual or auto?

@Tim.McElheny 3 жыл бұрын

colin huggins manual

@colinhuggins6164 3 жыл бұрын

@@Tim.McElheny That is a very good suggestion. It is something we want to do in the future. I will bring it up when we next discuss video content!

@user-bc6of8cz1x 7 ай бұрын

How are you outputting the halftones for print after creating the gradients in Illustrator? Just bringing into Photoshop and bitmapping or do you have a trick to output directly from Illustrator?

@Ryonet 5 ай бұрын

RIP software! We use ImagePrint Red, check this out scrnprntl.ink/imageprintred

@wetrags8082 3 жыл бұрын

I have never done a print like this but I want to learn more about halftones and this process. Where should I start?

@colinhuggins6164 3 жыл бұрын

Hi! I would simply start by creating a blend in your vector program and print it! Start at something simple like 35 lpi and see what happens. PLAY! You learn so much by just finding time to play with inks, screens, halftones. Don't ever be afraid to just print something! So - technical question: Do you have RIP software?

@wetrags8082 3 жыл бұрын

colin huggins thanks Colin! I have Accurip.

@colinhuggins6164 3 жыл бұрын

@@wetrags8082Fantastic! Now go play :) Find time after hours or when its slow to see how well you hold halftones on your screens and how do they look when you print!

@wetrags8082 3 жыл бұрын

colin huggins will do. Thanks again. Your videos are very helpful and informative! Much appreciated 💪🏾

@colinhuggins6164 3 жыл бұрын

@@wetrags8082 Thank You!

@onewitharts 5 ай бұрын

Do you copy your gradients over to photoshop to bitmap into halftone, then copy that back into illustrator to line up with the other colors before you print the films?

@Ryonet 5 ай бұрын

Hi! No, converting to halftones in Photoshop was only done in this video as a visual demonstration of what was being talked about. Otherwise please let your rip software do the halftone conversions.