saturnstroll

HOW TO LINK YOUR PHOTOSHOP CHANNELS TO A VECTOR FILE FOR OUTPUT

Okay, first open your photoshop file that's been seperated to channels.
Delete one rgb/cmyk channel. doesn't matter which one.
Now delete the rest. (you have to start with one, because it won't let you dump the whole thing at first)

Make sure your background tee color channel is a spot color (just don't print it later)
You need this in order to see a white channel later in illustrator, as the artboard itself is white.
Delete any unnecessary channels you may have created.
Rename and 'save as' Photoshop DCS 2.0 (*.EPS).
NOTE: Make sure 'spot colors' selected

You'll get another popup selection before completely saving, called "DCS 2.0 Format"
Choose: Tiff (8bits/pixel)
Choose: Single file with Color Composite (72 pixel/inch)
Choose: encoding: ACSII85 (or just ACSII if you don't have 85)
do not select: include halftone screen
do not select: include transfer function
do not select: include vector data
do not select: image interpolation

There. Now you've saved your brand new eps file.

Now open Illustrator, create a new file of the desired size.
Open the swatch palette.
In the actual swatch palette, open the dropdown menu in the upper right corner.
Select: select all unused.
Drag everything to the trashcan.
If any color swatch wasn't selected, now trash whatever's left over, leaving only 2:
1) the non-color
2) the registration swatch
This is not totally necessary, but is done so only your spots will show in the swatch palette and output selections.

Now select /file/place.
Select your eps file and make sure 'link' is selected before clicking "place".
Click place.
From now on, your eps file is linked to this ai file. (cool!)
Add your Text to your artwork at this stage. This will keep your text sharp and clean upon output. (that's a big deal!)
Any change made to the eps file in photoshop will now be reflected here.
THIS IS THE WAY TO GO, TO ENSURE CLEAN CRISP OUTPUT.
THIS IS THE WAY ADOBE WANTS YOU TO DO IT.

Ready to print? Okay, select /file/print. You'll see the print popup.
At the top, select:
print preset: custom
printer: Accurip to epson (or Accurip to whatever printer you're using)
ppd: default

Media: defined by driver (your Accurip setting should be at the desired size, angle, frequency)

In the upper/mid left, you'll see a list of options.
select: output
now to the right,
select: Mode: Seperations (Host-based)

You'll see your channels below. Just select the printer icon next to whichever channels you want to print.

Printing options directly from Photoshop are not as robust and controlable for a reason.
Adobe doesn't want to provide you a single kickass output engine, they want you to buy the whole suite of programs.
Additionally, if you're printing text, you gotta do it this way so your text output stays Vector, not rastorized.

AND THERE YOU GO!

 

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jsf

Heavy stuff, I hope i can follow...LOL

I will try this eventually.

Thanks.

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red514

tip for reducing DCS.EPS file size for archiving or sending over the net:
Once you've finished your setup and linking the file into Illustrator ect.. and have saved the .ai file we can re save the DCS.EPS file as a .PSD. Just open the DCS.EPS file in photoshop, save as .PSD without changing anything.
This reduces the files size dramatically (a dcs.eps file of 206mb is only 15mb as a .PSD).
To output the files simply re save that file again as a DCS before opening the illustrator file.

 

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red514

a quick note for anyone starting to use DCS.EPS linked file seps in illustrator.

- channels print as is, if you want something under a color to be knocked out, you need to do that manually in the separation channels.

- Within illustrator, vector art placed on top of the DCS.EPS file will knockout the areas underneath(unless you turn on over printing for those vector images)

- You cannot use the dcs.eps file to overprint on top of vector files, within the ai file.

-DCS.EPS files can't be embedded, they can only be linked.

 

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saturnstroll

Quote: Originally Posted by red514 a quick note for anyone starting to use DCS.EPS linked file seps in illustrator. - channels print as is, if you want something under a color to be knocked out, you need to do that manually in the separation channels. - vector art placed on top will knockout the bitmap image areas underneath of the linked DCS (unless you turn on over printing for those vector images) - you cannot use overprinting on the linked DCS.EPS file, do not place vector elements behind the DCS.EPS file as those vectors will not print.

I'm a little confused here. First it says "vector art placed on top will knockout the the linked DCS raster areas underneath, unless you turn on overprinting for those vector images.

Then it says, "you cannot use overprinting on the linked DCS.EPS file"

Does this latter part specifically mean that, while inside the ai file, don't put vector under the actual eps file (which appears to be "x"ed out), right?

Perhaps rephrase to, "You cannot use the dcs.eps file to overprint on top of vector files, within the ai file." ?

 

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red514

Ya, that is correct. my wording is a bit off and i will fix it using your wording.
Thanks

 

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ulap

saturnstroll,
i followed ur instruction but the result in illustrator became rasterized after i linked it. what do you think is wrong?

 

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red514

It's possible you didn't do anything wrong. When you link a DCS file into illustrator it previews as a poor resolution raster image.

 

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ProSeparatorNJ

Import an ordinary photoshop (.psd) CMYK file with spot channels into Illustrator and that's it. You get your spot channels, you get spot colors into the color pallete, and transparency. Everything. A company I worked for many moons ago used DCS files, but we replaced them with the files that we were already making, the regular psd! Maybe the psd file should be flattened, no layers. It's been a long time.

 

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