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im just an artist trying to make my 1st print go as smooth as possible. So I am separating my design into colors and putting the colors into their own separate layers. The question is, for example, lets say you have a white background with an black 'A' on top. does the screen printer want the white that is behind the 'A' removed?
I am asking this because this is a high res pixel based image, and the color edges are anti-aliased. When preparing my artwork I would like to have the white underneath the 'A' and not have to cut out the white for this reason.
I think what I am asking is, do screen printers layer colors? and if they dont how do they handle what happens at the border of 2 anti-aliased colors?
Screenprinters layer colors when an underbase is needed for light colored prints on dark colored garments. But it's not really normal practice when printed the main part of the artwork. Having multiple layers of ink would be pretty heavy and uncomfortable to wear. Typically, you would "knock through" or remove the white that is behind the A in your scenario. But to make sure, you can always ask the printer you are using, to make sure you set up the art exactly as they need it.
"Having multiple layers of ink would be pretty heavy and uncomfortable to wear."
this is what i was looking for thank you!!
oh second question then, ok im the good artist and will separate all the colors, however, I mess up a bit and there is some small overlap in parts, what happens in this scenario? I mean im assuming the inks are 100 opaque so is this an issue? will there be a little bump where 2 inks are on top of each other?
yup, but your comments helped me out immensely. I have kept the images 12 inches across at 500 dpi. Im hoping the anti aliasing wont be an issue on the print because of the high-res.
ok last question. what happens when you have a gradient? I mean you have 2 semi-transparent colors that fade into each other. does the screen printer put down one of the colors as a solid then gradient 1 color over it? because if they didnt, its almost impossible to meet 2 semi transparent colors in the middle so to speak and make it 100 opaque. it seems the only common sense way to do it is to have some overlap.
If separated correctly there is not an issue. There are a lot of ways to pull out a gradient and along with the curves adjustment you can adjust how much ink gets laid down underneath the gradients two colors.
ok just worked it out in photoshop where 2 colors meet in 2 semi transparent gradients and it makes 100 percent opaque in the middle, so I think this is going to work, thanks for the advice!
First off, ALWAYS turn off the anti alaising when creating and separating art in photoshop. You can have more control over things if you use spot channels.
My suggestion for any artist that is going to be doing a lot of work for screenprinting, is to learn how to screenprint. I can't tell you how much art and seps from ad agencies and graphic designers that we get that has to be redone somehow because they are not familiar with the printing process. Actually, I can- all of it!
To keep the gradients smooth, oppose the screen angles by 30 degrees on output or just print a solid fill as the first color and the gradient as the second. As far as opacity, no inks will achieve 100% opacity on a dark shirt-on white shirts it's not an issue, but the actual "opacity" (which is controlled by the solidity in the spot channel options) is usually about 5% to 18%, depending on the ink & color.
ok thanks for this, I suspected that having a base color and a gradient on top would give the best results. I cant really learn to screenprint, but hopefully just enough to make my printer's life easy enough to give the best possible print
Thanks!!
photoshop color seperation 
