#SEPARATION STUDIO 4 DOWNLOAD SOFTWARE#

It also can be separated as a simulated process file thanks to automated color separation software such as Separation Studio NXT. Spot color artwork that has too many colors for a press can be adjusted by eliminating colors, reworking colors (i.e two different green spot colors into one green spot color with tints), and changing colors. The design must fit a screen print press. An Adobe Illustrator file or CorelDRAW file properly designed with only spot color swatches can be one color, a few colors or many. The design can include shading (tints and gradients) which translate to halftones. The key factor is that each color uses a single screen and therefore a single film positive. Spot color designs can be simple to complex, one color too many. We discussed the importance of understanding what a spot color swatch is in a design program. Spot color separations are the most commonly used color separation method in screen printing. The value of a color separation software is easy and quick management of the tasks you need to accomplish. They also need adjustment abilities that aid in color trapping such as choke and spread. Screen printers require a base (under base) to print professionally on colored substrates. How the eye perceives the color is altered by using halftones. You’re still pushing red ink through the red screen. reds and pinks) through the application of halftones. spot color red) applying tints/gradients managed in your illustration software (Adobe, Corel, Flexi etc.) will deliver visual variations (shades) of the single color (1% through 100%) for a more colorful “look” (i.e. It is important to note that a single spot color (i.e. This feature is designed to save you costly downtime. Separation Studio will auto convert “process colors” to “spot colors” in its vector engine. You do have the flexibility to custom mix press inks when there’s a requirement of a job and can therefore create a corresponding spot color swatch in your design program. We suggest you create and save spot color libraries that correspond to the press inks you use in production. Avoid process swatches and work exclusively with spot color swatches. Remember when you were young and you would mix blue and yellow finger paint to make green paint? Process colors (with very few exceptions) are about colors mixing to produce another color. The takeaway is that a process color red on-screen that hasn’t been converted to a spot color and a spot color red will look the same to your eye, so be diligent when creating designs and reviewing art files. You can use spot colors in a raster-based image editing program, but we will leave that for another article.ĭesign programs offer color swatch libraries, allowing you to convert color swatches, and offer custom swatch creation. For the most part our discussion of spot color use is when designing in an illustration program such as Adobe Illustrator and/or CorelDRAW. Since a RIP can’t make that mistake you will look to the file for the error to correct.

The unhappy surprise when printing film positives when the artist mistakingly used one or more process colors is a common one in the industry especially when learning. This all sounds logical, of course, but users new to screen printing can often unintentionally use “process colors” instead of spot colors when designing in Adobe, Corel and other mainstream graphics programs. You’ll add red press ink to the red screen and yellow press ink to the yellow screen. You will want a film for red and a film for yellow to create a screen for red and a screen for yellow. Imagine you have a design utilizing the spot colors red and yellow. You wouldn’t want elements that are colored red and yellow, for example, on a single film when creating spot color seps. Proper spot color separations result in each spot color in a design to print to an individual film. This article discusses color separations intended for film output. Screen printers output their separations to films using a RIP software through an inkjet printer. The top two utilized are “spot color” and “simulated process”. After a graphics art file is complete and approved the file may need preparation so that the printing of the film positive separations yield the proper results for direct screen printing, or at a minimum a review.Ĭolor separating for screen printing has a few categories.

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