How to Separate Colors for Screen Printing (Photoshop Tutorial)

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

What is your preferred method for doing your seps? What application do you like to use?

[@ianbowie8121]

@@beto4Cristo How much do they charge per design?

[@lynnecole718]

I thank you a lot as I know there are many others who will really appreciate your doing so.

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

Thanks!

[@artisin1]

Great video, well explained and is a BIG help, Thanks. Would be good to see how to convert a Photo using specific Pantone colours to reproduce a 4-colour effect for printing to Flexo Print for packaging?

[@Szenenmischa]

Thanks so much for this video. I 've just started screen printing and I am happy I've decided to start printing with just white or just black colour. I think I need to learn the software better before I can print multi-coloured shirts.

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

You're welcome. Just practice, or get some orders in that require multi-color and it'll motivate you to learn. :)

[@fchiarini]

Very cool your video, I watch almost all of them, only in lives because my English is basic, I'm here from Brazil a city in the state of São Paulo and I also have a silk screen. I really like your videos in color separations. Thanks I learned several things in photoshop with this video. Hugs

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

Well thank you so much for watching all of my videos. I really appreciate it!!!

[@vanessarincon483]

I just realize I bought that registration mark template from u a while back it really helps

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

That's awesome! We use it daily. :)

[@javiervillarreal5704]

Now this is a good tutorial I can follow

[@RomboutVersluijs]

I find the results using wand and anit-aliasing smoother. The edges using color range tend to be very hars. We could blur them a bit of course. Onliy when it looks really jagged of course

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

Nice tip!

[@weizhao9461]

Hope more like this 希望这样的教程多一些

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

Certainly! I'll post more because we process tons of this kind of work.

[@L2L_printing]

Thanks for your videos Matt. They are very helpful 🤙

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

I appreciate that Chris!!!

[@teamdunklin]

Thanks for the Knowledge!!

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

Any time!!

[@rpbvid]

😂😂😂 So getting a whiff of the lens helps with the working of the camera? Maybe that works, because this video came out slammin'! 😂😂😂 Great job as usual Matt, in these troubled times that We are living thru, it's always good to see Your kind face, the teamwork of You and Shannon, and the icing and sprinkles on the cake, real live Apollo cameos and "sightings"! Bless You, and Your House, for kind words that You spoke to Me a few years ago... They meant so much❤ Keep up the good work!

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

LOL! It's a little bit of camera voodoo. I really appreciate that and it was great talking to you! Bless you and your family! We're not immune to hard times, but we try to make the best of it and carry on with a positive outlook and smile on ours faces.

[@rpbvid]

@@mikeydesignssilkscreen473 YAY!!!

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

@@rpbvid :)

[@Flofresh]

I love photoshop, they make everything easy and thanks for sharing

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

Any time! They sure do. Great program.

[@barnavah]

Thanks for your videos I have learned a lot through them. and I don't have a special technique, sometimes I used color separation through Photoshop or separation study or also indexed the color depending on the design but all the applied techniques I learned on youtube which is a very useful tool to learn

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

Thank you! I'm glad you found them helpful. I'll be sure to upload more in the near future.

[@n44raofficial71]

Thank you bro! Very Helpful

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

Glad it helped

[@lynnecole718]

I have watched some of your videos and I fine them helpful in starting my screen printing work. I like this one also. but I am having an issue, I have just started using adobe illustrator, an became totaly lost as the video progressed. Do you have a basic video for beginners> I just want to learn the basics of color seperation using simple images so that I can learn how to use illustrator.

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

I'll get some up that are a little more beginner friendly.

[@RomboutVersluijs]

Som emore love for the doggy ;)

[@RomboutVersluijs]

SHould you apply the expand amount of pixels by the image size vs real size? If you work on a really hi res image, that 1px is really thin guess would hardly do anything at all

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

I tend to work on the image at full print size, the expand the pixels. As long as it extends past the white base, you'll be golden... with good registration of course.

[@RomboutVersluijs]

@@mikeydesignssilkscreen473 ah I see. So what real size is that 1 pixel then. That would be like 0.1mm or so that very small

[@RomboutVersluijs]

Love that design btw! I would have added a thicker outerline so the text would differantiate itself better from the graphic. I find it a bit hard to read.

[@kurtgulledge375]

I’ve just recently started using photoshop. I’ve been watching some of your separation videos. I’ve noticed you done some separation in channels and now you’re using layers here. Is there a reason you would use one or the other?

[@ianbowie8121]

I'm curios as well ! Seems like doing the job twice

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

It's been a learning process. I used to just make layers for the colors. Nowadays, we just make spot color channels and import the art into Illustrator to print our seps. Makes things faster. So what you've seen is us learning as well, lol.

[@untoldriders]

how do you label your colours on each individual film positive?

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

You could label them any color name you want but make sure you don't use CMYK color names such as cyan, yellow, magenta, or black. Give them another name like lemon yellow, or dark black.

[@AshantiVO]

Ok I have a question when would you need to halftone a design and when wouldn’t you have to?

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

Anytime you have a gradual tone, or gradient. If it's just a solid colors, no halftones needed. Or if you're trying to use one color, say black onto of another color, to create a new color or shade, halftones come in handy there as well.

[@REGThree]

What would you prefer to go with adobe or separation studio for separations ?

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

I prefer to use both. Quick edit in Seps Studio and fine tune in Photoshop. If I had to pick one though, Photoshop over Sep Studio.

[@mohammadsharif2829]

good job boss

[@matthewgrider33]

thank you sir

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

Any time, Matt! We'll give you a shout out next live and sorry to hear about your loss.

[@matthewgrider33]

Thanks I appreciate it very much

[@KhunNaGar]

Thanks so much

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

Any time

[@edburley911]

Hi. Can I do the same thing with Photo Shop Elements 2020?

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

I'm not sure. As long as it has all the tool necessary to, then I don't see why not.

[@Hale-ze4gm]

What does it mean to choke the under base? I hear it all the time but I don't really get what it does

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

Choking the under base means to slightly reduce the size of it, that way the white ink won't peak out around the color overprint.

[@midyv.8426]

Hi Mikey How are you? I have no idea use photoshop i'm ready installed Adobe photoshop elements 2020 & premiere elements 2020 but i think is not the correct one for screen printing can you tell me if that one that i bouthg is correct to design for screen printing ?

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

I'm doing well, thanks for asking. You will need to install the full version of Photoshop. Elements only has a few "elements" of Photoshop and not everything you need for screen printing and creating designs. Happy New Year!

[@midyv.8426]

@@mikeydesignssilkscreen473 thank you very much for answer me so quickly happy new year for you and your family.

[@midyv.8426]

sorry to bother you again but i don't know nothing about i lol but tell me if you can which one exactly have to buy because i saw to many in your website thanks.

[@seph7889]

is it ok that there is a little gap between the colors?

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

The gap will show up just as it looks on screen. So what you'll want to do is spread the color(s) that don't but up.

[@AC-sf7rr]

So let’s say I have a design with a picture and some text. Do I bitmap the picture but not the text? Is that correct?

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

You could bitmap it if you don't have a rip software, and do you composition with the text not bitmapped. I would definitely go with a RIP software over bitmapping, but if that's all you have to start with, it'll work fine.

[@vanessarincon483]

When u say command its control on pc

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

Hi Vanessa. Yes! Control on a PC. I've worked with PC's for sometime professionally, and it has the same effect. Just a little bit more of a reach to do the keyboard commands. :)

[@vanessarincon483]

Oh ok thank u

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

@@vanessarincon483 Any time!

[@saltynfresh]

Are you still a fan of Separation Studio?

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

Definitely! I only use separation studio for stop process jobs. Most of the time, this is how I go about separating my art. To me it seems quite simple, but I realize how much I could help the community by sharing how I go about doing my seps without sep studio.

[@liewarstudio1853]

I can't save the PDF file please help me..

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

Did you get it figured out.

[@MaximRecoil]

That sucks... not your tutorial, but that someone would send you raster artwork that wasn't created with each color on a separate layer to begin with. There's no perfect way to separate adjoining, anti-aliased colors when they're all on one layer. Had they created it as a vector file it would be no problem even if they'd put everything on one layer, plus it would inherently be able to max out your printer's resolution capability when you print out the film positives. I wouldn't want to screen print from a raster spot color design that was any less than 600 PPI at the desired print size. 300 PPI is only good enough for photographs IMO, not spot colors. And if some of those spot colors were in the form of relatively small/lightweight text, I'd want at least 1200 PPI.

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

It happens a lot in this industry. We just let the client know that we can either a) vectorize it for a charge b) expect subpart print quality. Crap in, crap out. But nicely put.

[@RomboutVersluijs]

Well its up to them. You can charge for vetorizing it, but also charge for getting the correct output needed. Or they supply a proper file themselves.