I have a design background and have been working in an Embroidery/Screenprint shop the past 5 years. Most of that in embroidery digitizing. This past year I've expanded into Screenprint design and I am convinced our artists are working bass akwards.
We print primarily spot color designs created in Illustrator and sepped onto vellum through a Xante screenwriter.
My beef is with our seperating process. If two spot colors "butt" next to each other we have to choose one of the colors and everywhere those elements "butt" another color add a .35pt stroke in the same color. After we print that color sep by itself we remove the stroke and print the other colors.
Needless to say this is insanely time consuming! Especially with a complex 5 or 6 color job! But, our artists claim without those strokes you'll see garment, or backing, between colors.
Is anybody else doing this? Please tell me we're crazy and there is a better way to quickly knock out spot color seps.
You really shouldn't have to trap much. The inks tend to spread a little when printed anyway. I will choke an underbase to make it easier to register, but aside from that, I rarely trap butt-registered plates. It's too much extra work for not a lot of gain.
If you have a good press that can hold decent registration, you should have no problems. Send a few films out there and see if the guys even notice.
Right, but you will get a natural dot gain even around text and outlines. That should be sufficient in printing a 2 color job. Our quality is great, I won't send anything out that I wouldn't be proud of. If it didn't work for us, I surely wouldn't try to pawn it off on my customers.
We've been printing for over 20 years, I think we have a pretty good grasp on how to print a 2 color design without a trap. If in doubt, you can always use a piece of acetate between the film and screen and trap one or more colors. That way is even faster than PS and a lot less hassle.
As far as trapping "much," I was saying that you shouldn't have to trap often, sorry for the confusion.
HAHA, yeah, I've been doing this since middle school. My parents started the business. I trap maybe .05% of jobs. Maybe that. It's just not something I do a lot.
I do choke underbases, otherwise I would have some pretty ticked employees.
Our first computer was the same way. 16 MB of RAM, that was smokin' then.
But hey, it works for us. And your's works for you.
In Illustrator, add the strokes as you build the job, and in the attributes palette, check the "overprint stroke" box. Or, when you're done with the job, from the "Select" menu, pick "select same fill color," add your stroke, click "overprint" in the attributes, then print the whole job. The Xante Screenwriter is a postscript device, I believe, and this will trap all of your chosen color. The specified trapped color will have to reside on top of any colors it is to trap to for this to work, but it works and it's quick.
The program i find which does this the simplest is adobe photoshop.
Is it safe to assume you import spot color work without anti-alias for this method?
Quote:
Originally Posted by ImageIt
...i'm able to use the magic want tool and flip between layers to select the areas where i need to build a trap, then i can use the expand selection or contract selection to create the chokes and the spreads.
No concern with the selection tool rounding sharp edges when expanding and contracting?
Quote:
Originally Posted by ImageIt
If you know how to use photoshops selection tool, this technique works pretty quickly.
Thanks for the technique, it seems a little more effcient than our current method. I'll give it a shot with a few jobs.
I'll also send out a few jobs without a "spread". My guess is the production guys won't notice.
There must be an easier way... 
