full color screen printing with photoshop

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Full Color Screen Printing with PhotoshopApril 11, 2012 By Joshua Van Horsen Leave a Comment

If you have read my article, “The Secrets to Full Color Screen Printing”, than you already

understand the underlying principles to 4 color screen printing. In that article e discussed

the principles of the C!"# color model, color separations, halftones, and lines per inch

$%PI&. In this tutorial, e are going to ta'e hat e have learned, and using photoshop,

(uic'ly create color separations for output to transparencies for screen printing.

In this tutorial we will be using Adobe Photoshop CS2.

)onload the registration mar's .psd used in the tutorial, here.

1.) *e are going to start off +y firing up do+e Photoshop CS-, and open the registration.psd.

lternatively, if you ould li'e to start from scratch, create a ne file. This file ill +e ./” 0

11” at a resolution of 233dpi in the C!"# color mode. Clic' # and lets get started.

2.) 5e0t, place the artor' that you plan to use for the final screen print into the

registration.psd. File 6 Place. *e are going to ant the largest image possi+le in terms of

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resolution in order to get the +est (uality out of our printed piece.

3.) I am choosing a vector image, and hile I ould have +etter results going ith may+e /

color spot print, this ill or' fine for hat e are doing. lso, +eing a vector image, I havethe freedom to scale this as large as I li'e for our final screen.

4.) 7ecause I eventually plan to print this onto a colored shirt, I ill need to create a hite

spot plate. I am going to C!)8clic' $or ctrl8clic' for PC& on my Chic' layer, to create a

selection of the artor', and on a ne layer fill that selection ith hite +y pressing

C!)8)elete $or ctrl8+ac'space on a PC&.

5.) I am also going to create a (uic' drop shado for my little chic'. 7ecause I ant to print

this drop shado right onto the shirt, creating 9ust a dar' spot +eneath the chic', I do not need

to have a hite +ac'ground. So, I ill create a ne layer under my hite spot layer, and ith

the circle mar(uee, create a small, hori:ontal oval. I am going to fill this ith -3; +lac'.

6.) I am also going to (uic'ly add some te0t to my design. <sing the te0t tool, I am going to

(uic'ly add screensil'.com in century gothic under my chic'. I hit the color +o0 at the top,

and using the eyedropper sample the orange from my chic' to +e used ith the te0t.

7.) gain, +ecause I am going to ant this te0t to +e very visi+le, I am going to have to add it

to my hite spot plate. gain, I C!)8clic' $ctrl8clic'& the te0t layer to create my selection



and after selecting the hite spot plate layer, I hit C!)8delete $ctrl8+ac'space& to fill it ith

hite.

.) To ma'e this process as easy as possi+le, lets (uic'ly ma'e our hite spot into its on

plate. To do this, e are going to , once again, C!)8clic' our hite spot layer. *ith our

outline selected, open the channels palette and from the flyout menu select “5e Spot

Channel”. Selecting this creates a ne channels layer that includes our hite spot as a plate.

This ill +e helpful hen e start ma'ing our separations in the ne0t step.

!.) Save your file.

1".) %et=s start creating our separations. >uic'ly clic'ing through our channels palette, e

can see ho our original artor' is +eing +ro'en into / channels of color. ?ach channel

contains a certain percentage of color to create the colors in the final artor'. ur goal is to

+rea' out each separation and convert it to a screen printa+le halftone.



11.) t the top, select %ayer 6Flatten Image

12.) "i'es@ I 'no, I hate doing that too, +ut loo'ing at our channels palette, you can see thatall of our channels are still intact. pen the flyout menu on the channels palette and select

Split Channels. This is going to close our flattened file and create / individual files of each

color separation.

13.) ', so no e have our / plates. *hy / you as'A *ell +ecause even though e are

doing 4 color printing, e do have our hite spot plate. If e are only printing to hite

shirts, e on=t need that plate, +ut it is easier to create that plate no, than reali:e a fe

days later that you ant to go to colored fa+ric and you need to go +ac' and create it. ?ach

file open is named after the original file and has the color name appended to the filename.

14.) 5o for the easy part. *e are going to convert each of these files to a +lac' and hite

halftone. From the menu +ar, select Image6!ode67itmap.

15.) 5o e are presented ith the +itmap indo. Since e are going to output our artor'

at the same resolution as e created it, e ill put 233 pi0elsBinch in the output +o0. For our



screening method, e are going to use a halftone, so select alftone Screen from the drop

don +o0. Clic' #

16.) 5e0t e are presented ith our halftone screen settings. If you read my previously

mentioned article, most of these options should suddenly ma'e a lot of sense to you. The

fre(uency is our %PI. In the article e discussed the means of figuring out your optimal %PI

for your screen. For my screen ith a mesh count of --3, I figured out I should use an %PI of

2D. So in the fre(uency +o0, I put 2D linesBinch.

17.) In the article I also discussed halftone angles and their importance for (uality prints.

ere are the angles I had recommendedE

cyan G H/

magenta G 1/

yello G 13/

+lac' G 4/

1.) 7ecause e are creating our Cyan plate, I am going to put H/ into my angle +o0. For

shape, e are going to go ith the round halftone.

1!.) Clic' ', and our plate is converted to a print ready halftone separation.



Jepeat these steps ith the other D separations and you ill have print ready files ready for

output to transparencies or film.

The final printE

CloseKup of the final printE

Creating full color screen printed designs can +e a rearding $and profita+le& e0perience. The

'ey to success ill +e to e0periment, and finding the right +alance +eteen detail and printKa+ility.



Please #eel #ree to post $our %o&&ents about the tutorial' or photos o# designs $ou ha(e

%reated using this tutorial.

full color screen printing with photoshop

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