I've new to screen printing, and am now trying to master screen printing by converting images to halftone. I am wondering if Photoshop CS2 has the capabilities to do this effectively for screenprinting. Any help or opinions would be great. Thanks!
CS2 definitely has this capability. Just change the color mode to bitmap. Then choose "halftone screen" from the menu that pops up. Select your appropriate settings (halftone shape, frequency and angle) and you're done.
You'll probably want to play with curves and/or levels before you convert to bitmap. Maybe even change to grayscale first and then play with the contrast, but basically, converting to halftones is pretty simple in Photoshop. If you need more, here's a pretty good rundown: Photoshop Halftone Effects The Design Playbook
I've new to screen printing, and am now trying to master screen printing by converting images to halftone. I am wondering if Photoshop CS2 has the capabilities to do this effectively for screenprinting. Any help or opinions would be great. Thanks!
I dont know if this is what you need , but this video is top notch for getting files film ready without a rip in photoshop... hope this helps
I don't know if it's me or what but every time I do the bitmap thing to make halftones
in Photoshop they always look really ragged up close. Not nearly as clean as when I import my seps as a PSD with spot channels into Illy, and let the RIP (or Ghostscript as it were) do the halftoning.
I don't know if it's me or what but every time I do the bitmap thing to make halftones
in Photoshop they always look really ragged up close. Not nearly as clean as when I import my seps as a PSD with spot channels into Illy, and let the RIP (or Ghostscript as it were) do the halftoning.
are you viewing at print size or are you blowing it way up?
at print size they should look clean if done correctly
I'm pretty anal about these things. Good dot formation
is pretty key to halftone prints. You lose dot quality at
every step, so best to start with a perfect dot. I guess it's just
my tendencies toward vector art that make me think everything
should look clean at 1200%.
I'm pretty anal about these things. Good dot formation
is pretty key to halftone prints. You lose dot quality at
every step, so best to start with a perfect dot. I guess it's just
my tendencies toward vector art that make me think everything
should look clean at 1200%.
comparing raster to vector is like comparing apples to oranges......there is no comparison.
I don't know if it's me or what but every time I do the bitmap thing to make halftones
in Photoshop they always look really ragged up close. Not nearly as clean as when I import my seps as a PSD with spot channels into Illy, and let the RIP (or Ghostscript as it were) do the halftoning.
Are you noticing a difference at printing or on-screen?
Ironic, I was just toying with the PS bitmap method..I was wondering the same thing, the rasterized halftone from PS is sketchy..haven't printed anything yet.
I dont know if this is what you need , but this video is top notch for getting files film ready without a rip in photoshop... hope this helps
Inked
This video was really cool, thank you for posting the link.
I would like to try this out myself but I have two questions first:
If I had a 305 mesh screen would I really be able to get that level of detail in the exposure? That seems incredible that when I washed it out I would push out holes the size of a few pixels.
In what order would I print the colors onto the shirt?
This video was really cool, thank you for posting the link.
I would like to try this out myself but I have two questions first:
If I had a 305 mesh screen would I really be able to get that level of detail in the exposure? That seems incredible that when I washed it out I would push out holes the size of a few pixels.
In what order would I print the colors onto the shirt?
the level of detail on the film is determined by the lpi(lines per inch) which means how many dots there is in a square inch.screen printers typically use between 45 - 65 lpi , this also depends on what mesh screens you are using also.the higher the lpi the smaller the dots and the more detail.if you expose the screen correctly at say 55 lpi on a 305 mesh , the screen should hold the detail without a problem.
the order in which you should print is your preference, but most printers print light to dark..if you are printing a 4 color process job , start with yellow then mag then cyan then black.now you may need to switch the ink order depending on how the print looks.......play around with the order of the inks until you like the print.
This video was really cool, thank you for posting the link.
I would like to try this out myself but I have two questions first:
If I had a 305 mesh screen would I really be able to get that level of detail in the exposure? That seems incredible that when I washed it out I would push out holes the size of a few pixels.
In what order would I print the colors onto the shirt?
Doesn't matter which order, find amongst which is dominant for your first color. This way, you will find it easy registering your next color.
Quote:
Originally Posted by EastBayScreen
I don't know if it's me or what but every time I do the bitmap thing to make halftones
in Photoshop they always look really ragged up close. Not nearly as clean as when I import my seps as a PSD with spot channels into Illy, and let the RIP (or Ghostscript as it were) do the halftoning.
If you wanted a clean halftone, in converting your art to bitmap change your output resolution to 1000px/inch and notice the difference.
Are you noticing a difference at printing or on-screen?
Ironic, I was just toying with the PS bitmap method..I was wondering the same thing, the rasterized halftone from PS is sketchy..haven't printed anything yet.
This may also be just the preview in photoshop. Bitmaps don't preview well at most zoom levels. If you convert the image to grayscale or RGB it will preview fine at all zoom levels. When you're done viewing just undo back to bitmap mode.
The order of printing CMYK does not matter unless you get poor results. Some even print black first. Others print the color with the smallest print area first and the color with the largest print area last.
The best way to see how the dots look is to print it. After all the screen resolution is not the important resolution - only the printed ones matter. And I believe most printers can print only upto 300dpi. Maybe higher models can print higher resolution. However, some color separation program recommend only 200dpi or so. I may be slightly mistaken but am pretty sure that I saw some recommend working or saving files in less than 300dpi. So, print and see how the dots look.
A lot of people affirm that the resolution should be beetween 180-300 dpi.But why Scott Fresener recommend for Photorealistic images 551lpi resolution?
Halftone Screen Printing in Photoshop CS2 
