Hey,
I just bought an Epson stylus 1400 to print my positives, but..... I can't do color separations. I use Illustrator CS3 on a mac, I try to follow the classroom in a book instructions, but I just don't understand. I need to know what this whole PPD file and Postscript thing mean so I can do color separations. Any help would be appreciated. Thnx
You need to install a Laserwriter printer so Illustrator will see a Postscript printer and print seps. Then you need a RIP to interpret the Postscript for the printer, Ghostscript is fine. Then you need Ghostview to print it.
It's a bit fiddly but worth it.
Make sure each one of your colors is a spot color before you go to print.
Ok.. I'll make a video another time, but here's the quick and dirty. Select all elements of a single color and then add a new color swatch. On the color type, make sure its set to spot color. Then select the color you want. When you then go to file/print you need to make sure you have a "PPD" which is a postscript printer definition selected. You can use anything that says "postscript" in the name and then under output, you'll be able to select "separations" and can then select the "separations" listing under mode.
As you'll see, I've selected 780P as my printer which is a Tektronix Phaser. It's a postscript printer, which is why this works. Download and install the driver for that printer and install it as its actually hooked up, but set it to be an IP printer. Put in some random IP address and you'll be able to use that to create separations. The reason I picked this printer is because it can support super b.
Once you select the printer, the PPD for that printer will automatically be selected and you can then change your mode to "separations" and you can then select which separations you'd like to print.
Hey,
Now I downloaded the same driver you did (tektronix phaser 780), then I typed in some random IP address like you said, but the problem is is that where it says "Printer" in my print options, the IP address is used for the name, so when I print, it says printer not found. But when I go to change it back to my epson 1400, the PPD box disappears. My screen shot also doesn't look like yours. Yours has the name: 780 and the PPD: Default tektronix. but where mine says name, it just has the IP address and not the name of the printer. Can you let me know if I'm doing anything wrong? thanks
You need to print to a PDF document or file. Then open that up in acrobat and print. Looking at it again, you can use the PPD for the 1400 itself to print separations without all those steps. I'll throw up a YouTube video later this week explaining how.
You need a RIP to do halftones. This will output postscript halftone information with some modification to the procedure above, but in order to process that, you'll need a RIP. Search for ghostscript.
Epson 1400 PPD?? 
