Separating Spot Color Screen Prints - The Ultimate Guide

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

Be sure to subscribe and ding the bell because we will be releasing and episode on how to separate a spot color job in Adobe Photoshop...

[@nuxboxen]

Matt, Thank you so much man! I've done about 40 separations over the last 6 months and was starting to get very comfortable with it. But when I saw your video pop up I just knew I'd find something I didn't know. ATTRIBUTES - OVERPRINT FILL / STROKE dood! I've always wondered how I could do this. I had been putting my underbase on a separate layer and printing it by itself with the art not visible, now I don't have to do that anymore! You da man! keep it up!

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

Thanks, Nux! The attribute / overprint feature is a screen printers best friend. You can even put the white base one the same layer and past it behind your color art using the command or control + B command. I'll be sure to upload more in the near future to get everyone used to this concept. No need for a ton of layers. Sometimes it makes it a little easier to make a separate layer for the white base, but now you know you can just print all the colors at once instead of having to turn layers on and off. More to come soon.

[@livingoverseas5122]

Thank you for sharing your knowledge! Very helpful! If I want to send to the printer, do I send the Ai file, or save the file as pdf file?

[@ashokbajracharya4206]

Thank you Mikey design. Very helpful tutorial.

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

Thank you!

[@supernube5051]

Mikey Designs & Silk Screen ... would you choose to use Illustrator over Seperation Studio for any particular reason ... are there times one is better than the other... which one it's easier to use. Thanks.... I loved the video... and the end result was excellent.

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

Thanks! I prefer Adobe Illustrator over all. Vector art / / separations will give you the crispest cleanest films. Even when you go from Illustrator to Separation Studio, it converts it over to pixels. Knowing how to choke or spread your colors and which situation it's best for is key in Illustrator and I will try and teach that over a coarse of many videos because every job is a little different. Separation Studio is great for doing spot process jobs, or realistic images, and that's mainly what I use it for. Quick easy seps. I'd say Maybe 1 out of 15 jobs I'll sep out in Sep Studio. I don't use it too often. Most art is separated in Adobe Illustrator. Some in Photoshop, and then brought into Adobe Illustrator because the prepress / output setting in Illustrator are superb. I hope this helps some.

[@phototec]

Matt, another great video, but to be honest I am going to have to watch it a few time because of all the going back and forth with the white and yellow problems, it got a little confusing for me.

[@Brinb]

Amazing Video. Thank you

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

Glad you liked it!

[@beardbooze]

I watched the video just to see how you did the base. Been doing all my seps manually in PS and 99% of the time choke the base. Recently got accurip so wanted to see how do go about it. This was great. I love the attribute overprint thing. That makes it a lot easier. It’s usually hard as shit to choke or spread and still have butt reg where it meets other colors. If that makes sense.

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

Makes absolute sense! One of the great things about Illustrator is the prepress features. I do seps in Photoshop as well, but even still bring them into Illustrator to output my film and check my overprint settings.

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

And thanks! I really appreciate the feedback!

[@beardbooze]

Mikey Designs & Silk Screen awesome, thanks for the reply. That brings me to another question. Sometimes when I sep in PS and try to bring into AI to print, the edges seem to get pixelated. How would you output the seps from PS best to print from AI? Would it make a difference if you sepped in layers vs channels as far as exporting?

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

@@beardbooze I find it easiest to do the sep at 300 dpi at full print size, create spot channels, save it out as either a psd or DCS 2.0 after deleting the RGB channels, import it into Illustrator and print the spot colors. If you wanted to print from Photoshop, just make separate layers for each color and turn them on and off for each film. That's how I personally would go about doing it, but I'm sure there's other ways to go about it.

[@Pat_S]

Beard Booze I don't see a single reason to do spot color seps in Photoshop. Illustrator is so much better for that, especially since you have accurip which is what I use. For the meeting other colors issue you mentioned, I actually used to make white base a compound path and then stroke it, outline stroke, and subtract. That would leave all the colors on top butted with the white slightly smaller forca bit of overlap. It was a good system but now with my Anatol, I don't use any overlap anymore.

[@ceelocc1]

What's the difference between a spot color and process color?? And why pick one over the other???

[@michaelgarcia9062]

I downloaded a regular image from google and I try separate the colors on illustrator but I don’t know how to divide my colors or separate them from my image do you have a video on how to separate an image from scratch

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/npuQdJSkfJenh9E maybe this will help.

[@supernube5051]

Mikey Designs & Silk Screen ...Do you think a 4 colour 4 station press... thinking Riley Hopkins Junior... is ok for a start up....or would it be better to spend more for the 6 colour 4 station ? Do you get more 6 colour jobs than 4 colour ... or is that a stupid question.

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

Personally, I'd go for a 6 color, even if you have to buy used. We do 6 colors jobs often and it still has it's limitations, but we do our best being limited to 6 colors. With a 4 color press. What you really have are 3 colors with a white base. It just all depends on your clients. We do 6 color jobs often.

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

Also, if a 4 / 4 is what you can afford, then you could outsource jobs that require more colors to contract printers and mark up the cost of the garment and printing to make money until you can save up for a 6 color.

[@supernube5051]

@@mikeydesignssilkscreen473 I have mentioned this to you before ..I have basically got about £10,000 ...to start up...IF I decide to do this... so im trying to work out the best way to spend my money... bearing in mind I'm going to need much more equipment etc... any advice would be VERY much appreciated....After all it was finding you and your channel... and watching all your videos.. that got me hooked on the idea 🤯

[@KijayUD]

I love your videos.... You have mad skills and you do a really good job of explaining things. I do however know of a better way to remove all stray bits. Select the rectangle tool, drag a box and change it to NO Fill NO Stroke. Go to SELECT and chose the action (same fill and stroke). All those bits and pieces with no fill and stroke will highlight and then just Delete. ;)

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

That's the great thing about how different minds work.

[@KijayUD]

@@mikeydesignssilkscreen473 😉

[@ashleycr8279]

What printers would you recommend for anyone wanting to print their own films that’s new to screen printing?

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

Hi Ashley! I would recommend a 1430. They stopped making them, but you can get a good deal on a used Epson 1430 Artisan for pretty cheap. $200 or so. You used to be able to buy them new for $350. Lots of aftermarket support and CIS kits for them to help keep costs down.

[@ashleycr8279]

@@mikeydesignssilkscreen473 any other suggestions?

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

@@ashleycr8279 An Epson P400

[@Pat_S]

Why are you cutting and pasting in front before you unite? I can't see any reason to do that, unless I'm missing something. Also, after I unite I like to ungroup and make compound path. Another tip, I have an illustrator template set up with layers like you and I also made spot color swatches for all my stock colors. This saves a lot of time creating spot color swatches every time. I also make a layer for background color and lock it once I have a backgriund set and make a spot color for garment color. I also have a spot color swatch called base white and another one called highlight white. I make the highlight white slightly cyan so I can distinguish it whilecworking.

[@Pat_S]

And why didn't you just use the ulano orange for everything? I've been using it on up to 305 screens doing simulated process.

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

What I've come across in my experience is there's been times when I do what you're explaining and certain areas get filed in. You won't realize it until you're either on press, or the job has been printed. It might take a few more steps, but it'll save the time and money spent doing misprints. So I practice this and train my employee to do the same. It can make the difference between making profit, breaking even, or losing out on a large order (1k+ shirts). I know it might seem like, what's going on here, but as I post more examples, it'll become clear as to why.

[@clarencewilley6083]

Can you package the reg template and the mockup for a savings deal? Maybe both for $23 or $25 bucks?

[@yaplifee]

Why did you use separations instead of DTG? My partner and I are torn between what printing method we want to use for a similar shirt with an image and multiple colors. WhAt would you say is the better quality option?

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

They have different purposes. Screen printing is more cost effective, great for larger runs, and requires more physical work and knowledge of printing. DTG is great for small runs, but the cost to maintain one is more. However, you can get some great quality work with little experience. A screen print will be more vibrant than DTG, but DTG is easier to get higher quality detail.

[@alexandrechagas4907]

Hello Doctor Mickey, all right, I hope so! I liked the error in the description of the video and the lesson itself congratulations we are together like like hugs stay with God 🙏🙏🙏

[@quehuongchexanh]

Thank you so much man, I learned illustrator by myself with videos on KZbin, I watched your video and was did followed your video. But I can't export to PDF because I don't have a printer, In the print section, the output item cannot select the Mode item because it does not appear but only dims. Even though the steps are the same. Can you show me where I am wrong?

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

Sure. Let me dig around and see if there's a work around.

[@denisestewart2957]

Will your template support Photoshop, and Corel Draw as well

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

The t-shirt registration template does.

[@denisestewart2957]

@@mikeydesignssilkscreen473 Ah :( thank you

[@jade413]

I have a mask for a distressed look, as soon as I hit merge or divide on path finder to seperate the art it gets rid of the mask :/

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

Try selecting your image and the distress on top. Go to your transparency pallet and select the mask check box. That should do the trick.

[@that1artchick]

Which would you say is better to use for separations. Photoshop or illustrator?

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

Illustrator hands down.

[@that1artchick]

@@mikeydesignssilkscreen473 would you mind doing a video on a full simulated process from beginning to end for illustrator like you did for photoshop please?

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

@@that1artchick Sure will! Keep an eye out for it.

[@that1artchick]

@@mikeydesignssilkscreen473 Thanks

[@summerloughridge6474]

So I purchased the template but I do not know how to insert my image when I open the template it just opens my saved file on another page please help me

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

When you open the template, it'll create a new file with the template ready to go so you don't save over it. You can either open your art you want to register and paste it in there, or use the place function to paste in your art. Should be File > Place

[@embassykingdomapparel5525]

I cant see my layers in window when selected only in separations preview

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

Hmmm, try going to window and workspace. Choose essentials. I hope that'll get it back.

[@MazinoAmuno]

Hi I purchased the art it’s but could not download from your site. I paid $10. When clicked the link says forbidden. how will I get the temple or can you kindly process a refund.

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

Hello. We'll send over the template tomorrow once we get back in the office. Thanks for your patience.

[@tonyfdesign]

Did I miss the link to the film?

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

That's my bad. Here it is. I'll add it to the description. amzn.to/2ZaRzVh

[@Pat_S]

Mikey Designs & Silk Screen jeez, I'm paying almost $100 for 13x19 sheets!

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

@@Pat_S I used to as well. And $100 for a refill of all black inks. We converted over to a CISS kit for our Epson 1430, with a waste tank, and that $65 investment has lasted well over a year. It's saved us at least $2k in ink. I've been sitting on videos on how to install one, because I had the kids up at the shop when I filmed it and just needed to get the job done, so I need to narrate the whole process. It'll be great info though. That'll come soon.

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

@@Pat_S BTW, the GoldUp film, from my experience using it for a year is it's the same stuff at REALLY discounted prices.

[@vezecreative1]

You never explained why the white had cyan added to it! Why not just make it white?

[@mikeydesignssilkscreen473]

You can make it just white. But, I like to just add cyan so you can visually see the under base once you turn the view to overprint. That way you can check your choke, or spread. Know what I mean?

[@livingoverseas5122]

@@mikeydesignssilkscreen473 How about the white with 10% cyan, not the underbase? Why did you do that?

[@vitaliyfedorcov6197]

Пожалуйста сделайте перевод на Русский 🙏

[@mackimmackim996]

2 thumbs up....