Need to Register?

MBrhythm · May 8th, 2007

If you don't have rip or seperation software is there other ways to create good art work and film for pressing?

JeridHill · May 8th, 2007

I assume you know this, but a RIP and separation software are 2 separate things.

A RIP is software that controls the printer you are using and tells it to increase ink printing levels, control certain cartridges and pretty much gives an inkjet printer postcript capabilities (or at least emulates them). Photoshop has a halftone filter that will apply a halftone dot to your image. It doesn't work in the same manner as applying a halftone via a RIP, but some people have had success with it. I've tried it and it seems to apply a halftone in areas that I didn't want. Of course, I have a RIP so I wasn't really determined to get it work anyway, so I'm sure there are ways to do it.

Some inkjet printers will allow you to lay heavier deposits of ink and others won't. The RIP gives control to all the printers to be able to lay down heavier ink deposits.

Most separation software are scripts that create layers with preselected colors, etc. Since they are scripts, they originally were done manually and converted to automation. So, creating separations manually is not only possible, but many people do it all the time. It is an artform in itself and requires a good understanding of how to do separations to begin with.

A RIP and separation software both make it extremely simple to do the processes needed for good films and good printing. You can emulate them but it will take some degree of learning to get it right. Your printer may not have the feature of laying down more ink, if that's the case, then a RIP would be needed if you can't get dense enough prints. Of course some people will print 2 films and tape them together as well for more dense films.

MBrhythm · May 11th, 2007

Is their a way to print halftone dots with an inkjet on clear film without having to buy or use a rip software?

JeridHill · May 11th, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by MBrhythm


	Is their a way to print halftone dots with an inkjet on clear film without having to buy or use a rip software?

In Photoshop there is a halftone filter that you can apply. I don't understand the settings, but if you play with it, you might be able to figure it out. They don't work like your normal halftone settings, at least in Photoshop 7.0

silverstone · May 21st, 2007

Yes you can do what your wanting to do. I will go through it myself and try to write a tutorial and post it here. Using the inkjet won't give you the image resolution that an image setter or laser jet will. But you can create half tone seps in photoshop that will print on your inkjet printer.

MBrhythm · May 21st, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by silverstone


	Yes you can do what your wanting to do. I will go through it myself and try to write a tutorial and post it here. Using the inkjet won't give you the image resolution that an image setter or laser jet will. But you can create half tone seps in photoshop that will print on your inkjet printer.

I hope you do. I will and all the new printers in the crazy biz will be happy to read the info.
I like forward to your tutorial.

MB

silverstone · May 21st, 2007

This is rather brief as I am short of time but hope this helps. In this tutorial I am only going to use 3 spot colors to define the image.

1. open your image in photoshop

2. go to "select" select color range click sampled colors and scroll down to shadows, midtone, highlight. Select shadow and click ok. This will create a selection around the dark portion of your image.click ctrl-J to send this selection to its own layer name it appropriately (repeat this for each range) .

3. select the layer you want and hide the others. Go to "image" mode grayscale. ..Select the image and set black as your foreground color and hit alt-backspace keys to fill the selection with black.Convert to bitmap mode when you convert to bitmap set the following options 300 pixels per inch output and Method use half tone screen. You will then be prompted with another options screen and you should set them to the following .
Frequency 55 lpi
angle: 45 degrees
shape: elipse

print on vellum or film and whaaa laaa you have a halftone seperation. Just repeat for each seperation file.

Hope this steers you where your trying to get to!!

MBrhythm · May 22nd, 2007

So... When working with halftones and an ink jet printer can I still follow these intructions?
Will the ink output on the film be thick enough to burn a good screen?

JeridHill · May 22nd, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by MBrhythm


	So... When working with halftones and an ink jet printer can I still follow these intructions? Will the ink output on the film be thick enough to burn a good screen?

In Photoshop, yes you would follow these instructions. As for the ink output being thick enough, I believe it will depend on which printer you have. Some have better controls than others.

Fluid · May 22nd, 2007

get ghostrip and ghostview. Free rip which should help with halftones and darker deposits of ink.

Great info Brian.

silverstone · May 23rd, 2007

MB this will get you want you want. NO inkjet is going to give you the density in black that an image setter will give you (not that I know of anyway). Yes you will be able to do half tones exactly as I described. Photo Shop will interprete the degrees of darkness and place the halftone where it should be percentage wise. I typically use a 1280 Epson which is a good ink jet with pigment ink. Just remember when you doing seperations you can't think in color especially since you only have 6 print heads on your press. Remember that your art work is black and white. It only becomes color when you print the shirt. If you think it would help Im going to be doing a design I will take screen shots through out. I think everybody has their own way of doing it and you will have your own ways of getting to the end product.

Best of luck to you ....

silverstone · May 23rd, 2007

you should also set up Photoshop for doing screen printing type seps. I will take some screen shots of my settings. These settings will help with the kind of stuff your going to be doing. Especially the halftone images. Remember when doing your design work that on your halftones your only going to be able to most likely get a 10-60 percent gradient in your half tone to hold in the screen so that means you want to lighten your darks in the image first before you start breaking it down by color. Your also going to gain 25-40% (depending in your screen mesh and methods) in the halftone dots spreading because your printing on tshirt material. Stuff you don't always think about until you see you truly only have a few solid colors to work with. You also take the color of the shirt that your going to print into consideration on your design work.

JeridHill · May 23rd, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by silverstone


	NO inkjet is going to give you the density in black that an image setter will give you (not that I know of anyway).

I'm not saying that I can achieve an imagesetter density, but I can guarantee you, I get close using an R1800. So close in fact, you can easily burn offset plates with our films with no loss of quality.

silverstone · May 27th, 2007

Jerid thats good to know ... I have been thinking about investing in that exact printer. After your propping of it Im sure it will do what I need it to do ..

Thanks

JeridHill · May 29th, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by silverstone


	Jerid thats good to know ... I have been thinking about investing in that exact printer. After your propping of it Im sure it will do what I need it to do .. Thanks

I've attempted to get good density using the printer with a RIP and I was able to achieve it. The problem is, there really aren't any settings to do only black ink, or at least none that I could find. This is good for solid colors, but without a RIP you get too much fill in halftoned artwork. I used Photoshop to create halftones and printed out that way and I couldn't achieve the desired result without a RIP. But with solid tones, it worked really well and was really dense.

Need to Register?

Resources

T-Shirt Sites

Don't have RIP/seperation Software. What shoul I do?