[ffokazak]

Hey looking to separte my 4 colour designs, to print in, you guessed it! 4 colours!
What programs are available, to make it possible to separate these colours so each separate colour is on a separate screen? Excuse my redundancy! i promise i wont say Separate again. Oh.....Oh damn! i just did!
Thanks Guys.

 

[identityburn]

Are they already on the computer or are they hand drawn? Corel Draw, Illustrator, and Photoshop support separations. If you want to do good halftones you'll need a RIP software to go along with it.

Hope that helps.

 

[NARC72]

I'm a color separator & I would suggest either Fast Films or Spot Process. Fast Films has excellent support services.

Happy Separating!

Narc72

 

[ffokazak]

Yeah they are on the computer already. Where Would I find a prgram like Fast films? Thanks guys!

 

[artwear]

I use FastFilms and Fast RiP. Great software and easy to use. Try screenprinters.net. If you are in a hurry shoot me the image and I will give it a shot for you.

 

[fizz]

As a fast films reseller I can concur with artwear and narc72.
A great all round program.
I have also used and sold spot process. It is a great program but fast films has more.
Spot process is only for simulated process seps whereas fast films does sim process four colour process index colour duo tones and sepia tones.
find fast films at fastfilms.com
Phil

 

[go-logowear]

Without knowing how your artwork was created or what it looks like, I'd like to recommend that you avoid purchasing plug-ins like Fast Films or Spot Process. They don't do anything that you can't do yourself in Photoshop or Illustrator with a bit of training and an investment of a few hours.

I believe that the industry's reliance on "out of the box" separation programs hurts everyone all around (except, of course, for the program's sellers and developers). Not only does an individual lose out on vital learning and understanding by using push-button solutions, but any kind of individuality in the separations gets lost...there's nothing to distinguish one person's work from another's. When that happens, there's no reason why a consumer should prefer one vendor over another. This helps feed the environment where all that's left to compete on is price.

Just my opinion, of course.

 

[Matto]

I kinda have to agree with logo. you should really learn to do these in your graphics program. after you have mastered that then using a program like fast films is a great time saver. In the end you will be able to do totally custom seps and run of the mill seps depending on the customer and thier needs. You will also learn to look at a picture and be able to estimate how many and what colors you will need to achieve an acceptable print, if you learn to do seps on your own. Can be a big benefit when giving a quick quote.

 

[bubulubu]

Nice. Then if you can separete colors using photoshop, what are the steps in order to do that? Like taking a jpeg and then separating the colors to burn the screens? Separating gradients and stuff like that!

 

[ecreations]

For simple artwork color separation, I use coreldraw. I use fastfilms for the rest of my color separation process.

 

[smutek]

I do the simple stuff manually, mostly in illustrator, sometimes in photoshop, depending on the art.

For the more detailed work I use spot process and acurip.

I demoed fast films and spot process before purchasing and found that I preferred spot process. It is very easy to use and gives great, acurate results. One of the main things I like about it is that it is a stand alone application. The level of support is also excellent. We've been getting fantastic results using spot process, acurip, and an epson 1400.

 

[dollen]

Its always best to do these things manually. You have more control over the entire process. That said you need to know what your shop can do. For an image like this Page 28 | 260 you need to have a good pressman who knows what he is doing.. chances are you will have to take your best shot at the art and then do a test print.. from there you may need to modify a screen or two. The order in which they go down and where you decide to flash the different colors will all come into play as well. For a simple 4 color like this Page 21 | 260 there is not reason not to do it in Photoshop.

Cam
Rj Dollen

 

[cmsteel]

Without knowing how your artwork was created or what it looks like, I'd like to recommend that you avoid purchasing plug-ins like Fast Films or Spot Process. They don't do anything that you can't do yourself in Photoshop or Illustrator with a bit of training and an investment of a few hours.

I believe that the industry's reliance on "out of the box" separation programs hurts everyone all around (except, of course, for the program's sellers and developers). Not only does an individual lose out on vital learning and understanding by using push-button solutions, but any kind of individuality in the separations gets lost...there's nothing to distinguish one person's work from another's. When that happens, there's no reason why a consumer should prefer one vendor over another. This helps feed the environment where all that's left to compete on is price.

Just my opinion, of course.

/agree

Those programs are a "quick" solution to what you should already have learned. I personally have to use a few programs to assist my separations along the way. Photoshop / Illustrator (for the vector stuff) and so forth. I avoid Corel Draw with all haste as I've developed my skill with Adobe products being an Illustrator/Cartoonist in the apparel industry.

My set up is simple (Vue Rite Spot Process for provided art I can't stand to look at for very long) and Wilflex's Easy Art 2 for the simple CMYK or 4 color process separations. Photoshop can sep the CMYK already but if you don't know Photoshop that well, we bought this program from the ISS Long Beach show a while back and it's worked out fairly well.

I also use Wasatch SoftRip and an Epson 7600 for film output.

Again. One should know more about the programs, but if you don't know a lot about Adobe or Corel products, see the listed above.

It's like working on a car... if you don't know which way the breaks are suppose to go... take it to a mechanic!