[rufusjohnston]

Hi thanks for taking a second. Im desperate. I have never printed any multicolor artwork before. I have a source that does my printing. They require the artwork to be 300 resolution. I took the image to make it look on how i want on a shirt, but they keep rejecting the artwork becuase its in raster. So i put my multicolor artwork into illustrator and did with what i could, but its all messed up. I have a deadline for these shirts, if someone could help me out with the separation i would greatly appreciate it. heres a pic of what i need this to look like on a black shirt. The print is one color white and one color grey. i just need an eps file to give to my printer. Thanks in advance, i always come here, because everyone is always so helpful, tshirtforums rocks

 

[dennyk671]

huh? They require the artwork to be 300 resolution but they reject it because its raster? That doesn't make any sense. If they want artwork to be in 300 resolution then that means they accept raster files.

Anyway I took a look at the image and it should not be a problem. It may be a little rough on the edges but I don't think it should be an issue once its in final size. It's seems acceptable unless you really want to vectorize it then go for it. But I think a simple photoshop separation is all you need. Really depends how much your customer paid.

It would be great if it was a vector file though.

Here is a photoshop sep. You may have to smooth out the edges and open up some of the small openings in the design.https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-MT6xPkO5r2ZWZZeHRFU3hNRk0/edit?usp=sharing

 

[rufusjohnston]

Thank you! I do have a one color AI file with just a black line drawing that I live traced. Keep in mind I'm a serious newbie at illustrator. I do not know how to seperate colors in illustrator or add a multicolors, that's were my problem was. Because I would seperate in Photoshop and save as an eps. They would open that in illustrator and it would open up pixelised. I know I'm doin something wrong or missing a step somewhere.

 

[dennyk671]

In illustrator select the black then go up to Select-Same-Fill Color. All the black will be selected. Then go to the Color Tab (F6). Go to the pull down menu on the upper right. Go to Create New Swatch. Then on Color Type choose Spot Color and on Swatch Name give it a name like Spot Black or something. Or you can choose a pantone color. Now you have a spot color that is for that black. To see your separations go up to window and select Separations Preview. Click on Overprint Preview. From there you can click on the eyes to turn on or off the spot colors.

If you save an eps file from illustrator and you want to open it up in photoshop without pixelation. You can go to photoshop and open the eps file from there. Rasterize eps format box opens up. In the resolution box you can type somewhere around 600 to 900. Uncheck Anti-Aliasing. When the design opens up you will get sharp edges just like your vector file. Up close you will see the jagged edges but that is just when its up close. If you ever looked at a imagesetter film or an inkjet film set at high resolution with a loupe (something like a magnifying glass) it looks like that. At 600 to 900 with anti aliasing off it will print out like a vector file. You cant tell the difference once its on film.

And if you are color separating in photoshop make sure the tools your using has antialiasing off also. You can select colors with your magic wand and not worry about not selecting enough or selecting too much. If your tolerance is set to 1 you will just select that color. You can zoom in to see that the magic wand stays right on the edge of the color selected. This is for solid spot colors.

 

[rufusjohnston]

my problem is the artwork that was originally was a scan from posterboard. I live traced it in illustrator. So i had a black line drawing with white background. I had to add the color in on photoshop, the grey color on the design was added by selecting the artwork and adding in a 100px stroke. So if i start over. ill got through the steps and if you could tell me if im doing something wrong.

1. open up scan in illustrator.
2. live trace scan.
3. save image as eps.
4. open eps in photoshop at 600-900 with anti alias unchecked.
5. add colors in on seperate layers
6. save as eps.

 

[sben763]

Once you open in photoshop its a raster file. You can save it as a eps but it will be nothing but a raster embeded eps file. If you have in illustrator in the 2 Pantone colors its very simple to seperate or let the printer do as its as easy as print, chose print separations and it will print 2 films.

 

[rufusjohnston]

the problem with it, is i do not know how to add color to my document in illustrator. i do in photo
shop so thats what i did.

 

[dennyk671]

Can you give a link to the live trace vector file so I can determine what needs to be done?