[kurt28]

Could someone tell me if I need any other software for what I'm doing. And if so, maybe you could advise me what I need. Thanks.

I am going to do spot color, and only three colors at the most. I have Corel Draw and an HP deskjet F340.

All the video tutorials that I've found online for using Corel Draw for screen printing have it being used in conjunction with another program. This is why I'm asking if I need another program or not. Can what I want to do be done with just Corel Draw?

I know I don't need any rip software since I don't have an Epson printer. But, I also see people using different color seperation programs with their main graphics program. Some of them I've heard of are: Pixel Splitter, Vector-Sep, SimpleSeps, T-Seps, Seperation Studio. Do I really need any of this other software, or is Corel Draw sufficient for the job?

 

[Flagrant-T]

You should be fine. CorelDraw was the first "real" graphics program I used. I've since added photoshop, a RIP, and some separation software, but CD works fine. If you design using the Pantone pallet, it will do all the separations for you (in the print menu, select print separations)

Good luck!
Nick

 

[Preston]

Could someone tell me if I need any other software for what I'm doing. And if so, maybe you could advise me what I need. Thanks.

I am going to do spot color, and only three colors at the most. I have Corel Draw and an HP deskjet F340.

All the video tutorials that I've found online for using Corel Draw for screen printing have it being used in conjunction with another program. This is why I'm asking if I need another program or not. Can what I want to do be done with just Corel Draw?

I know I don't need any rip software since I don't have an Epson printer. But, I also see people using different color seperation programs with their main graphics program. Some of them I've heard of are: Pixel Splitter, Vector-Sep, SimpleSeps, T-Seps, Seperation Studio. Do I really need any of this other software, or is Corel Draw sufficient for the job?

You should be able to do what you want with what you have just fine. The biggest mistake newbies make with Corel when using it to separate for spot colors is they use the CMYK or RGB pallet when creating the art. That is a big no-no. Use one of the pantone color pallets. This way when you click on "print preview" and select "separations" each color will be on its own plate. The just print them out one at a time to your hp printer.

If you need screen shots of how to do it, let me know.

 

[kirkmansigns]

Does your printer lay down enough ink for a good exposure ?? A RIP should improve the ink deposit in addition provide you the ability to print halftone dots, so you can have multiple shades of each color... without the costs of additional colors.

 

[kurt28]

Does your printer lay down enough ink for a good exposure ?? A RIP should improve the ink deposit in addition provide you the ability to print halftone dots, so you can have multiple shades of each color... without the costs of additional colors.

Well, it’s just a deskjet printer so I thought I might have to print each color twice and tape the transparencies or film positives together to make the ink look darker. I thought you had to have an Epson printer if you were using RIP software. I also thought that if you’re doing halftones then you are doing process printing (CMYK) instead of spot color, but I could be wrong.

I was just going to do spot color, but it would be nice to be able to have multiple shades of the same color. But, I really don’t understand how that would work, how you could get multiple shades from one ink without mixing it with other colors. Seems like you would have to mix it with other colors, and then you would have the cost of additional colors wouldn’t you?

 

[Preston]

Well, it’s just a deskjet printer so I thought I might have to print each color twice and tape the transparencies or film positives together to make the ink look darker. I thought you had to have an Epson printer if you were using RIP software. I also thought that if you’re doing halftones then you are doing process printing (CMYK) instead of spot color, but I could be wrong.

Halftones are not just for CMYK but also if you want to print gradients of a spot color. You should use a RIP to print halftones to an inkjet printer. There is always the free Ghostscript and Ghoastview that will allow you to print halftones. Another way is to convert each color separation into a bitmap and set the halftone range during the conversion.

I was just going to do spot color, but it would be nice to be able to have multiple shades of the same color. But, I really don’t understand how that would work, how you could get multiple shades from one ink without mixing it with other colors. Seems like you would have to mix it with other colors, and then you would have the cost of additional colors wouldn’t you?

Look at a newspaper photo with a magnifying glass and then you will understand how halftones do this.

 

[kurt28]

Thanks a lot guys. Glad to know that that you can also do halftones with spot color printing, and that there is a free program that you can do this with.

Also, nice to know that it can also be done by converting each color seperation into a bitmap and setting the halftone range during the conversion. But, if you do it that way, wouldn't you have a lower quality image that is less clear and crisp since it's a bitmap image instead of a vector image? I thought bitmap images were pixelated, but I guess it would depend on the resolution of the image.

I did look at a newspaper photo with a magnifying glass to see how they could get multiple shades from one ink. It looked to me like what they do is print more dots closer together of the color in areas where they want it to look darker and less dots more spread out in areas where they want it to look lighter. All with the same color ink of course. Is that what you're talking about?

If so, then it sounds like these dots (tightly packed in the dark areas, and loosly packed in the lighter areas) would get printed onto the film postive and burned into the screen. Am I understanding that right?

 

[kirkmansigns]

Exactly. But with screen printing you have what is called dot gain. You can't print as fine a dot on a material such as t-shirt. You'll have to experiment to see what you can achieve. For us, we don't go under a 30% half tone or over a 80% half tone in the range of 30-45 lpi.