posted
I use to make 4 color separations in Omega Composer /EDGE using the GSPlot rip...Then I would just print each color on clear using the black cartage for all 4 color separations...then I could burn 4 screens.
I sold my EDGE...Still have Omega/Composer and GSPlot, but cant get those separations to the VersaCamm from GSPlot
SOOOOO....can you make 4 color separations from Corel or Adobe to print on clear on a VersaCamm ( printing each color separation with black ink with targets to burn 4 diiferent screens?
Or how does everyone else do it?
Thanks in advance! :
[ August 02, 2007, 05:16 PM: Message edited by: Dave Draper ]
posted
I don't have a printer but I do color seperations to send to the plotter using the layers feature. Assign each color to a different layer, check the printer box next to the layer you want to print.
-------------------- George Perkins Millington,TN. goatwell@bigriver.net
"I started out with nothing and still have most of it left"
posted
Why can't you just cut them all in vinyl and put them on a clear transparency material?
-------------------- Jane Diaz Diaz Sign Art 628 W. Lincoln Ave. Pontiac, Il. 61764 815-844-7024 www.diazsignart.com Posts: 4102 | From: Pontiac, IL USA | Registered: Feb 1999
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posted
Yea, my concern would be the black ink on clear actually blockng out the light when you burn the screen. I've heard there's issues doing this.
I would just create my document as usual, with say 3 different colors. I'd create my own crop marks around the document, then duplicate the whole thing 3 times. Delete the appropirate colors from each version and make all of the items black in each version. There's your 3 separations.
Now actually having trap lines, that gets a little more complicated.
-------------------- Bruce Evans Crown Graphics Chino, CA graphics@westcoach.net Posts: 910 | From: Chino, CA | Registered: Nov 1998
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In Corel, when you click "Print" there should be a "Device Independent Postscript File" option.
Select it.
Then click on the "Separations" tab. You should see a "Print Separations" option. Select it.
Then click on the "Prepress" tab and select your registration mark options.
Click "OK".
This should create a file with a ".ps" suffix.
You should be able to open the ".ps" file in your RIP program. Depending on your RIP program, you should be able to select and adjust your LPI and angle settings.
Your wide-format inkjet printer should be able to print the separations onto clear acetate film.
George & Jane, I can't cut vinyl...this is a photograph type art work, cartoony, but it is way too complicated to cut color separations in vinyl.
Bruce, when we use to do printed color separations on the Gerber Edge (and we are talking a photographic type print with lots of colors) we would get the half tones we needed, (the tiny little dots. it worked...but it was grainy.
posted
Finally a topic that I know something about! A big key to getting the screns to burn properly when your dealing with halftones is having good density. Assuming your doing 4 color process, you should do a couple of tweaks, first with the screen angles. The standard offset printing angles can cause BIG headaches with moire when you burn the screens, I've used this set up for the past 10+ years with great results: -Yellow 22.5 -Magenta 52.5 -Cyan 82.5 -Black 22.5 I know this sounds whacky, but it works! Also use an eliptical dot versus a round dot-you will get a much wider exposure range. (I would typically get down to a 3% dot @ 55dpi on a 300 mesh screen) Hope this helps somewhat.
-------------------- Kenny Lund Phenomenon Designs Farmingdale, NJ Posts: 72 | From: Farmingdale, New Jersey | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
Yeah, angles have always been a bit of a headache for me. There are so many differing opinions. I spoke with one guy who's an artist for some big operation in South Carolina the other day. He said he uses 25° angles on all of his CMYK shirt prints. Another guy I spoke with uses the same angles Kenny has listed.
I've been using C/15° M/45° Y/75° K/75°. An alternative recommended over at Usscreen.Com is C/22.5 M/52.5 Y/82.5 K/82.5.
Something else to keep in mind with creating seps with Corel is the dot gain. If you are looking for a 20% dot, be sure to adjust for the 35% dot gain you're likely to get.
posted
I worked out something that may be helpful re halftones...
it's pretty-well always been a case of "you have to have postscript to get 1/2 tones", but it's not true. Well, with ghost script, you have an alternative, but there's a waay easier way I've been using for about 8 months.
Previously if I sent a file to the laser printer to output a positive on vellum, and picked the PS driver, and set the angle, freq. and dot shape, it printed fine, except that even 100% black stuff, like text, still came out with dotty edges. I used to redo the text on a non-postscript setting, and cut & paste the two together- tedious. I was also stuck with multiples of an A4 page in size, and joining two was not good in the middle of a halftone pic.
Now, I just use photoshop, and take the design, or picture alone, make it in greyscale, and go image>mode>bitmap and from there select "halftone" as the manner of conversion, say 200 ppi output, and select a line frequency, and enter that, and it'll make your halftone pic at the frequency you chose, and the quality of the dots will be OK as 200 ppi when printed. Select 250 if you think 200 is too rough.
Then go image>mode>greyscale>1 bit, and from there you can add text in solid black, and then print it all out sharply on a non-postscript printer. I've made 2 ft x 3 ft positives on translucent bond paper out of the HP designjet 650C which have worked great, and the sample dot is the same, to the naked eye, as what the laser printer produces on a PS setting for the same LPI figure.
(The HP designjet 650C has a pigmented black ink- good for making positives.)
Edited to add- you need to adjust for dot gain by altering the curves in the original greyscale pic, before converting it to bitmap.
[ August 04, 2007, 09:53 AM: Message edited by: Ian Stewart-Koster ]
-------------------- "Stewey" on chat
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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At the shop that I'm working at we use this system Aspect Quadra to output all of our large format (larger than 40" x 36") films, spot color or 4cp. We use 45 or 55 lpi but the system can do up to 85 lpi. Probably a bit rich for most (if memory serves it was near $35,000) but does most of what it is advertised to do.
The real keys are the film (proprietary, from Agfa only)and the ink (again, proprietary). The ink is a special super opaque black that gives us a good density reading.
I'd think that going out and picking up a good RIP software package should allow you to do what you want. I noticed that the Wassatch RIP that we use is available in a desktop version for $595.
Mark
-------------------- Mark Sheflo Renton, Washington A-Squared Signs, LLC Posts: 145 | From: Renton, Washington | Registered: Feb 2003
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