Hi Guys
I recently started working with a screen printer, re-drawing the scraps of paper his customers give him into nice clean vector art. But I am struggling with my half tones.
What is the best was to create a half tone for screen printing?
This is the image, it will be a one colour (white) print on a black t-shirt. I just need to get my half tones correct or it will look like crap!
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Simply
Research "Halftone Pattern"
which is the way to conver a "Gradient" into Variable Size Dots
You may need to rasterize the image then re-vectorize it for best results
Good Luck
I'm not exactly sure what you're asking, Josh..........
But if you have a Postscript printer or at least a ps driver installed (you can also use the generic device independent ps file the Corel provides), you can go into the Advanced area under the Separations Tab and change your .lpi and screen angle for your halftones.
Thanks for your replies.
I was not 100% sure what I was asking either...I am not a screen printer! I have just been asked by a screen printer to do artwork....which is easy enough but when you start talking about screen angles I get all confuzzeled.
rasterizing the image then converting it back sounds like a good idea. I know the guys I am trying to do this for has some large professional epson printer...but he is totally computer illiterate.
Is what your talking about the same as a RIP?....
I was hoping I could set up a pattern in Corel to replicate a half tone or fade...but that I am guessing will depend on the mesh size and screen angle?
I might just pay someone to do it...I am so lazy...
Thanks again.
Josh
essentially you just create your images using shades and gradients. Ultimately the designs will be printed out as black and white for each color being printed to films. You specify your halftones during printing.
Manual printing halftones I reccomend 35-45 dpi. Automatic printing = 45-55. This along with dot shape and angle are specified in the print options or by right clicking the object / properties / postscript if using pms spot colors
If your jsut doing the art and they are printing to films, just send the image in black and white. Everything that is black is what will be printed to film. (im sure you knew that)
Fluid - Richard Reilly http://www.unleash.com/fluid/
You need to supply more info Josh...
1. What is the final size of the finished design?
2. How are you making the film? In house on something?
3. How are you proofing this so you can get a feel for how this halftone will print at actual size?
Ned's Mother -- You gotta help us, Doc. We've tried nothing and we're fresh out of ideas! ( The Simpsons, Hurricane Neddy -- Season:8 Episode:8 First Aired:12/29/1996 )
Cheers guys...
Yani/Fluid I have not done much set ups for screen printing myself and the stuff I have set up has been really simple block colour images. So yeah I know very little about screens and printing films and ***. There is a place I can send artwork too but it will cost me...the thing is my I am doing this for a friend, who happens to be a screen printer. He has all the equipment we need to produce the positives, screens and to print the shirts. He also knows nothing about computers. After researching on the internet we think we can down load some software to enable his epson printer produce desent positives with, to produce descent screens. He uses the process with light, and light effective material stuff...(see how technical I am).
Yani your 3rd question might also be the answer. As we have the equipment and facilities to produce as our own test's, we could draw up a few patters, set up on differenr angles to see what produces the better half tone print at the desired size. Which is about 300mm wide by its proportionate height.
Does that sound like an idea?
As long as you can RIP the files and get 'golf ball' halftones you should be able to suss it out.
Yani
Hi! Josh,
We do see the design you have posted. As an artist, the art that you have done is the end. You do not need to do anything else. As for the half tones that you need, will depend on the Rip software and the printer that your printer (friend) has. Understand that he has all the equipment. The half tones and screen angle will come up automatically when you rip the design to the printer output. Once you see the color separated films, you will understand what we mean. Once you are used to it, your experience will tell you about the changes that you want to the dot size, shapes and frequencies. For now let the software do the work.
Once you have the art ready to prit to film (black and white/grayscale). When printing to the rip specify your dot size, shape and angle and thats it. Manual Printing stay within 35-55 dots per inch, Use elliptical dots for your shape and for anything other than cmyk you can use 25° angle and get excellent results.
The higher the dots per inch you use the smaller the halftones. The design you posted, printed white ink on a black shirt will work just fine with a 35-40 dot size.
For a ton of info on screenprinting check out these articles
http://screenprinters.net/articles.php
He uses the process with light, and light effective material stuff...(see how technical I am).
This is photosensitive emulsion. Essentially the art / separations are printed to a clear film in black and white/grayscale. this film is taped to a screen with the dried emulsion and exposed under a light for a certain amount of time. The black on the films positive block the light and everything else on the screen is hardened. When the burn is finished, the image is washed with water. everything that was not hardened (blocked by the print on the film) washes out resulting in your screen. now its ready to print on the shirt
Wondering if there is a way for us to preview the half tone dots as well as its angle VISUALLY on the computer screen before its being output to the film. A preview of half tones before its being output. Please advise.
the only way i know of is to convert the percentag to a greyscale bitmap, change the mode to B&W and specify the dots there. too much work. best option is to print to paper (will save film)
Thanks for the info, Fluid. Wouldn't it be nice if we can have one? I believe some high end color separation software does have this. May be because there are ways to make this so a shortcut way is not neccessary. But then again, think about CorelDraw having one and we can alter the angle and frequencies and dot shapes and sizes LIVE before they are output.
I agree. even something like post script fill, yet in full color
Actually, it is not that difficult to emulate the halftone to view on your computer monitor. You must first convert the vector portion in question to a bitmap, then go to menu Bitmap > Color Transform > Halftone...
You can't specify the line screen here, but you can control the dot size and the angle. It gives you a pretty good idea of how gradient fills will appear in halftone. If you're going to have it screenprinted, definitely keep the original b/w artwork in tact, as the printer will in fact specify the halftone as he is outputting to paper or film. If you have a postscript printer, you can also output the artwork yourself, and specify the halftones in the Corel Printer dialog in the Separations tab, under Advanced Settings. Here you can specify the line screen, resolution, and dot type.
Fun to play around with the halftones to see how it will look with different dot sizes and line screens.
Best of luck!
Anything is possible, The Graphics Guru
www.graphicsunique.com