If you only want to print on dark "goods" : ), you got to merge all the channels, paint the whites "solid", blur a bit and shrink a little (with a curve) for the White Underprint; than make a Highlight White plate (about the same way but paint the black and invert).
The rest of the colors would be the same as printing on white (UV Process CMYK).
If you want to print opaque inks, you better define a set of colors you want to use and start learning how to mask them out of an RGB picture.
Your experience with Index colors may help.
So would some plug-ins, but they’re expensive.
hmmmm due to the transparant nature of Textile process inks, Printing CMYK on a white underbase makes the image look pastel.
The Simulated Process would involve replacing the CMYK colours with Opaque inks (Reds, blues, Skin tones etc.)
What I’m looking for is a how to on this subject, I know there are plugins wich do this, but these are merely PS actions in a wrapper, and use predefiened colours.
So iff anybody has more info….?
Hmm… : ) Textile inks are not more transparent than offset inks, but, yes, I knew that you want to print opaque.
Read my post again : )
OK after reading yer post again…..
Where can I learn how to mask them outta an rgb Image?
I’d say something like Select color range> save selection as channel and repeat for all colours.
But then there’ the fuzziness slider settings etc…
A little more info on the subject would be appreciated
Any Screenprinters with experience in this field here?
TIA
Immo
I’ll give you a couple of hints.
If you combine the negatives of the blue and green channels with the positive of the red channel, you get a negative for the Red color.
You may have to contrast the red positive.
A combo of the green channel with the negs of red and blue will give you a negative for Green.
ok now we’re getting somewhere!
But that only gives u Green Red & Blue right?
How bout skintones and other colours?
Are u a screenprinter?
Have u done seps like this?
Do u have examples?
I know…. I’m asking alot, But that’s the only way to learn right?
You can make as many seps as your carousel can take (don’t ignore drying time), but it’s hard to explain and even harder to do.
"but it’s hard to explain and even harder to do."
So you’re saying itssomething that has to be learnt thru trial & error?
Thanks for the hint, I’ll play around with your suggestions for a while to see if I get some results.
I always thought this was done thru using the color range thingy…
Maybe I have to get me a demo of Fastfilms, analize their routines. Shame the install all this Junk along with the plug-in tho…
Color range wouldn’t give you smooth enough overlapping of the edges of plates. You have to think filters and negative and have a black positive ready to restrict the range of separations in the direction of the shadow.
Make a bright orange color swatch in Photoshop!
Now, invert! (command + i)
Fun?!?
I found a tut somewhere..;)
thanks for the help anyway….
I’d like to see that!
(… is it like pulling… tuts? : )
I use channel calculations myself.
heya Stevie,
Maybe u can expand a little as to how u do that?
How do u take the guessing out of it?
I mean how do u know what channels to extract from wich to get a separation for a certain (specific) colour?
immo… I haven’t done this in years, and when I did I had a lot of experience with process.
There are some exercises you can do to commit experience to reflex : )
Convert an RGB picture (I recommend a close-up of a skier on a slope) to CMYK [noK]), duplicate the Yellow channel and make it Orange; duplicate the the Cyan channel and make it Reflex Blue; hide the other channels and look at the Orange and Reflex Blue combination on the screen.
That’s a simple simulation that can be printed on white.
For printing on black, you should subtract the Black channel from all the other plates, including White, and let the ground show through.
(I used to subtract the Yellow from the White as well; it can be quite opaque)
Eventually though Tim, you’ll find that Scott Fresner at Screenprinters.net is going to want to sell you a copy of his separation setup/actions for Photoshop, so he isn’t going to explain how they are all channel calculations and the step by step procedure to do them.
You’re right, Steve.
On further examination of the two screen printer sites, immoreel’s Screenweb site seems more informative with their tutorials.
I wish I knew how to do computerized seps when I used to work as a graphic artist for screen printers. That info would have come in handy.
I figured it out, with the help of some very experienced photoshop/screen print artists back in the nineties.
Here’s a few basics, the file should be RGB, open calculations, set the blending to add, (the image should be flattened or use the merged layer option in the calculations dialogue box) now select the top channel red with invert and the bottom channel blue without, you now have your red. Changing the blue to green on the bottom channel gives yellow.
Blues are taken from top blue channel inveted and green or red on the bottom channel , you can’t do a straight single calculation for orange, grey, brown or specific colours like royal, navy etc, it’a little more involved, but what I’ve made in my separator, with it’s variations, will give red, yellow, blue, light flesh, dark flesh, grey, black, cyan, green and magenta/purple.
Aplly image is what you use to modify a channel your working on, and calculations is for creating a new channel.
This is only scratching the surface but it should get you rolling.
I went from a brief period of channel calculations to layers. I split or copy the channels I need and place them in a new (grayscale) document as layers, so I can use the blending modes, masking and painting on them, individually. After flattening I copy and paste each image on it’s intended channel of the final DCS2 file.
An advanced exercise would be to take an RGB image, invert it, make a top layer and fill it with the color you want to extract, invert that color, paste a long black on top and flatten. Convert to Lab mode, command+1, change mode to grayscale, invert : )
Let the body follow! (or the neck will give : )
I believe I’ve tried every permeation know, I used to live it for years.
CMYK + RGB calcs, converting CMYK to spots colours, colour range, apply image, various selection and saved curves, lab knockouts with CMYK and RGB. I found calculations give the broadest tonal range, so I’ll stick with it.
It’s still a pain to make a good dark blue or orange (I can do it of course, I just wish I could make it better).
