Photoshop CS3 for Screen Printers- P17 pdf

In the Channels palette, click on the composite channel so that the image is showing in full color.. In the Channels palette, click on the composite channel so that the image is showing

24 Click on the original file’s title bar to make it active Choose

Select>Color Range.

25 From the Color Range dialog box, use the Eyedropper to choose theyellow in the image Use the smaller image you recently created.Move the Fuzziness slider so that you pick up the yellow in the yel-low balls and some of the yellow you’ll need in the orange Sincewe’re not picking orange as a channel or indexed color, some yellow

will have to be included there (Verify that Sampled Colors is sen from the Select field, Invert is chosen, Selection is chosen, and Selection Preview is None See Figure 24-8 This holds true for the rest of this project.) Click OK.

cho-26 In the Channels palette, click the Save selection as channel icon.

27 In the Channels palette, click once to select the new channel

28 Choose Select>Deselect.

29 Double-click on the new channel icon, not the channel title From the

Channel Options dialog box, select Spot Color and change the ity to 10 percent.

Solid-30 Click on the color square in the Channel Options dialog box

31 Drag the Color Picker away from the duplicate file

32 Use the Eyedropper to click on the yellow in the duplicate image

Click Color Swatches to choose the closest Pantone color Click

OK and OK again (You might want to change the name of the

chan-nel by clicking on its name and changing the name to Yellow.)

Figure 24-8: Pull the yellow and some orange

Repeat for Each Channel and Color

You’ll need to create a channel for each color

33 In the Channels palette, click on the composite channel so that the

image is showing in full color Choose Select>Color Range.

34 In the Color Range dialog box, use the Eyedropper to choose theroyal blue in the image Move the Fuzziness slider so that you pick

up the blue in the blue balls, plus a little extra Remember, the

pur-ple is created from the blue and the red (Verify that Sampur-pled Colors is chosen from the Select field, Invert is chosen, Selection

is chosen, and Selection Preview is None This holds true for the rest of this project.) Click OK.

35 In the Channels palette, click the Save selection as channel icon.

36 In the Channels palette, click once to select the new channel

37 Choose Select>Deselect.

38 Double-click on the new channel From the Channel Options dialog

box, select Spot Color and change the Solidity to 10 percent.

39 Click on the color square in the Channel Options dialog box

40 Drag the Color Picker away from the duplicate file

41 Use the Eyedropper to click on the blue in the duplicate image Click

Color Swatches to choose the closest Pantone color Click OK and

OK again (You might want to change the name of the channel by

clicking on its name and changing the name to Blue.)

42 In the Channels palette, click on the composite channel so that the

image is showing in full color Choose Select>Color Range.

43 Repeat these steps for red, teal, black, and white Figure 24-9 showsthe result To see how the image looks with the colors that you’vecreated, use the eye icons in the Channels palette to show the chan-nels that you’ve created

There are two additional files on the companion CD—one called

PoolBallsFinal.psd and the other called PoolBallsFinalII.psd I createdboth using different colors and techniques You’ll probably get a differentresult each time you perform an indexed color separation as well

Now you’re ready to print For information on printing indexed colorseparations, read Chapter 29, “Printing Color Separations.”

Summary

Indexed color separations are great for any image but are easiest to ate for images that have less than 100 or so colors Indexed colors arecreated either automatically by Photoshop or by the user choosing cus-tom colors In this chapter, you learned to choose custom colors Withthe colors selected and the indexing complete, channels are then createdfrom the selected colors in the same way that spot colors were created inprevious chapters

cre-Figure 24-9: Finished product with all channels created

Indexed artwork is a very easy and forgiving way to screen printmulticolor images onto T-shirts The dots aren’t halftone dots like in pro-cess prints; instead, they’re randomly placed square dots Indexing is agreat way to ease your shop into more complicated printing, and

Photoshop makes it pretty easy to do

Simulated Process

Color Separations

Simulated process color separations are used when you need to print aprocess color print onto a dark-colored shirt Common images and clientsfor simulated process color prints include rock bands, fantasy groups, ani-mals, motorcycles, and photographs You’ll probably print a lot of darkshirts, so it’s important to practice this technique until you get it justright

Simulated process color differs from true process color becausethese images are not printed using CMYK inks like regular processprints These images are printed using “regular” colors like red, black,orange, yellow, blue, white, etc., and are printed with all-purpose, generalinks The inks then blend together to create the colors you want

In this chapter, we take an image created for use on a dark shirt, pare the image, and perform the separations For simulated process color,this requires creating extra plates including an underbase and highlightwhite Keep in mind that this chapter only provides an introduction;screen printers have spent years perfecting this art, and getting good at

pre-it will require lots of practice!

6 Caution!

Make sure you tell your customers that the print isn’t going to look exactlylike what they brought in Since you will be printing on dark shirts using gen-eral-purpose inks, the image might be a little muddy and will only be about

75 percent as sharp as the original

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Before performing any simulated process color separations, there are afew items that must be reviewed and checked For instance, make sureafter you perform the separations and output them that your printingdepartment can successfully and accurately mix the inks, align thescreens, have and use the correct equipment, and have enough stations

on their presses to handle the job If the printing department can’t meetthese minimal requirements, the print won’t come out right at presstime

Additionally, check these items:

n Make sure the image you are working with is at least 150 dpi thing between 150 and 200 dpi is reasonable

Any-n Make sure the image is in RGB mode If you must scan an image,follow the instructions in Chapter 14; to learn more about RGBmode, refer to Chapter 11

n Get the image as perfect as possible before separating it

n Verify that the background in the image is the same color as theshirt Black backgrounds work great on black shirts However, if thebackground of the image is not the same color as the shirt, you’llhave to extract the image, place it on a new layer, and create a back-

ground layer that is the correct color.

n Verify that someone in your shop has experience with process colorseparations; if they don’t, consider purchasing videotapes, attending

a class, or visiting another screen print shop for pointers

. Note:

Although simulated process color is generally reserved for darker shirts, itcan be used on lighter ones However, regular process color is generally eas-ier, so this process is normally not employed under those circumstances Forthis chapter, I’ll assume we are all working on a dark shirt

Chapter Project: Simulated Process

Color Separations

Creating a simulated process color separation has several steps Youhave to create an underbase plate, a white highlight plate, and, of course,the color separations for the ink colors that you’ve chosen The followingsections in this chapter take you all the way through the process Figure25-1 shows an example of the type of image that we work with when cre-ating simulated process prints and is the image I use throughout thischapter

Figure 25-1: Simulated process color example

Create an Underbase Plate

A gray underbase plate (also called a white underbase, an underlay, orsimply underbase) is always created for simulated process prints and isused to create the underbase plate I like to create this plate first

So, let’s begin!

1 Open the file The Palm - with Layers.psd from the Chapter 25

folder on the companion CD or open any file from your own library

you’d like to experiment with Select Update if prompted to update

layers

2 Select the Zoom tool from the toolbox, right-click on the image, and choose Fit On Screen.

3 Choose Layer>Flatten Image (There are multiple layers in the

file used in this example and they must be flattened prior to

separating.)

4 Using Image>Duplicate, create a duplicate of the image.

5 For the duplicate image, choose Image>Mode>Grayscale Click

OK to discard color information if prompted.

6 Choose Image>Adjustments>Invert to create the gray underbase

plate

7 Open the Info palette using Window>Info and use the Eyedropper

to verify that the white is white If there are any other colors in thewhite part of the image, you’ll need to use the Curves tool to get rid

of them Figure 25-2 shows what your image and Info palette shouldlook like

] Tip:

You can also tweak this from the Curves dialog box by creating an S curve.Doing so will bring out the highlights even more

8 Save this duplicate file as Underbase Plate Note that there’s a file

in the Chapter 25 folder on the companion CD named Underbase.psdthat you can compare with your own

So far, so good That’s the first step Leave these files open as they are,and proceed to the next section

Create a Highlight White Plate

A highlight white plate is used to bring out the highlights in the image.The image I’m using certainly needs a highlight white plate, and yourslikely does too Highlight white gives the image depth by adding a sense

of light

To create a highlight white plate:

9 Duplicate the Underbase Plate file you saved in step 8 of the last

exercise (Use Image>Duplicate.)

Figure 25-2: Create the gray plate

10 Open the Curves tool using Image>Adjustments>Curves Drag

the Curves dialog box away from the image so you can see the entirecopy of the underbase plate file

11 Verify from the Curves dialog box that the x- and y-axis show black

in the bottom-left corner and move toward white at the end If thebottom-left vertex of the grid shows white, change the Show

Amount of setting from Pigment/Ink to Light The Curves dialog boxshould look like the one shown in Figure 25-3 (Use Alt+click tochange the grid marks from large to small or vice versa.)

12 Click and drag on the handle in the top-right corner and drag it to theleft Drag it approximately one-third of the way across Use the pre-view to see how much white you’ve picked up You don’t want to losetoo much detail, but you want to pick up the white highlights

13 Click OK in the Curves dialog box.

14 Save this file as Highlight White Plate.

Minimize both of these files You need them later in this chapter

Figure 25-3: The Curves dialog box

Select the Main Colors

With the plates created for the white and underbase plates, you can nowconcentrate on the various colors in the image You’ll want to look at theimage and see what colors are the most prominent first For this section,

we pick the three most prominent colors and create spot color channelsfor them In The Palm.psd file, these colors are light green, black, andorange-brown

Choosing these colors is just like choosing spot colors; hopefully,some of this will look familiar!

To select the first three colors for channel creation:

15 From the file that you’ve been working with (or, if you haven’t been

following the previous steps, open The Palm.psd file from the

companion CD), make a decision about the three main colors in theimage For the palm file, let’s try black, light green, and orange-brown Of course, you’ll need white too—you might be able to useyour white plate, or you might have to actually pull a white spotcolor, depending on the design

16 In the Channels palette, verify that the composite channel and theRed, Green, and Blue channels have an eye icon next to them andthat they are selected

17 Choose Select>Color Range.

18 In the Color Range dialog box, verify that Sampled Colors, tion, and None are chosen Invert should be checked Use the

Selec-Eyedropper to click on the black in the image

19 Move the Fuzziness slider to select how much black you want This

is always a judgment call; you’ll have to experiment to see what

works best on various prints Click OK.

20 Click on the Save selection as channel icon in the Channels

palette

21 Hold down the Ctrl key and double-click on the new channel.

22 Rename it Black, select Spot Color, change Solidity to 5 percent,

and click on the color square Use the Eyedropper to choose black

from either the file or the Color Picker Click Color Libraries if you want to select a specific Pantone color Click OK (click OK twice if

you’ve chosen a Pantone color) Note that if you select a Pantonecolor, the name Black will be overwritten

23 Choose Select>Deselect.

24 In the Channels palette, make sure that only the composite channeland the Red, Green, and Blue channels have an eye icon next tothem and make sure that they are selected

25 Repeat steps 17 to 23 for the remaining two colors you’ve designated

as main colors in the image Configure percentages at 5 percent for

these colors You can always change the percentage later if you feelit’s necessary

Don’t look at the image with only these three channels yet You’ve got along way to go before your separations will look like the original!

Choose the Remaining Colors

Now comes the hard part You have to decide what other colors to selectand what colors you think you’ll need to print with You also have toweigh this decision with how many stations you have on your press andhow many screens you want to burn The process for doing this is thesame as detailed in the last section

So, decide how many colors you can create and work with fully Keep in mind that you’ll need an underbase and a highlight white Ifyou only have a six-station press, you’re going to have a pretty hard timemaking this image (and most likely any simulated process image) work.For The Palm.psd file, I have created a pretty good simulated processcolor separation by pulling these colors:

channels Work with the colors until you have created something thatlooks similar to the original As mentioned earlier, this is an art Creatingsimulated process color is a time-consuming task, and many of the deci-sions that you have to make are based on experience, practice, andsometimes educated guessing Although I can’t teach you all of this inonly a few pages, I can help you get started on the right track.

Once you feel like you’re close, you can create a shirt color and addthe highlight white and underbase plates From there, you can changethe order of the plates so they look more like the print does at presstime

Make a Shirt Color Channel

Making a shirt color channel was detailed in Chapter 23 Briefly, in theChannels palette, click the arrow to bring up the additional options, andchoose New Channel Name the new channel Shirt Color Change thecolor to black, set Solidity to 100 percent, and drag the shirt color to thetop of the list in the Channels palette, just below the Blue channel Addeye icons to see how the image looks so far

Drag the Underbase and White Plate to the Original File

Let’s finish up by dragging the underbase and white plates that you ated earlier to the new file Verify that they’re all open and available

cre-1 Position all three files (the underbase plate, the white plate, and theoriginal file that you’ve been working on) so you can see them on thescreen, and verify that you can see the Channels palette

2 Click the title bar in the Underbase Plate file to make it the activefile

3 Click on the Gray channel and drag it to the original file Drop it

6 Click on the Gray channel and drag it to the original file Drop it

there

7 Close the Highlight White Plate file by clicking the X in the top-right

corner

8 Working now with the original file, locate the Alpha 1 channel in the

Channels palette and rename it Underbase Plate Change the color

in the color square to the color of your underbase ink (white, gray,

etc) Set Solidity to 85 percent and choose Spot Color Click OK.

9 Locate the Alpha 2 channel in the Channels palette and rename it

White Highlight Plate Change the color in the color square to white Set Solidity to 90 percent, and choose Spot Color Click OK.

10 Add the eye icon to both of these new channels and replace the eyeicon for all of the other channels except for the composite channeland the original RGB channels listed at the top

You can continue to tweak these channels endlessly if you so desire Youcan delete channels and recreate them You can double-click on the chan-nels and create a new color for them, or choose a Pantone color You canremove the eye icon from specific channels to see if the screen is needed

or not You can switch the order of the channels so that you can see howthe actual print would look if the inks were added in a specific order Pro-fessionals can spend hours doing such work At some point, you’ll have

to know when to say enough is enough, though, and thus balance timeand compensation

View in Print Order

This book isn’t about teaching you how to screen print, so I’m not going

to go into the specifics of print order You have to read the manuals thatcome with your inks and get to know your equipment However, I can tellyou how to view the image in the print order that you choose and offersome general guidelines

In the Channels palette:

1 Remove the eye icon from the composite channel and the originalRGB channels Place an eye icon next to the other channels

2 Drag the Shirt Color channel to the top of the list, underneath thecomposite, Red, Green, and Blue default channels