Author Topic: Separation -Pre production preview- programs/options  (Read 2173 times)

Offline Dottonedan

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Separation -Pre production preview- programs/options
« on: September 11, 2015, 11:46:42 AM »
With all of the different customers I come across, and shops I've worked in, they all seem to have a common need to preview the seps before ripping just to confirm what they've done is what they want (before going to their RIP). This applies to any art department.

I'm looking to gather info on all the different options people use.

* On Macs, I've only seen/worked with one actual preview program called Preview built into the MAC operating system. This seems to be very fast and efficient.

* For Mac and PC, here is another 3rd part program that I am trying out called DeskPack https://www.esko.com/

* I believe you can also preview seps in Adobe Acrobat or Distiller but I've not tried those yet.

* Here is one method in Illustrator that is free no matter what operating system you have. Many seem to not be aware that Illustrator has in it. On complex files, it's a little more cumbersome than the standalone program of Print Preview.

In Illustrator, you can go to WINDOWS in the menu bar, scroll down and choose SEPARATION PREVIEW.Click on OVERPRINT PREVIEW. This visually changes the colors when overlapped onto another color, so that you can see the difference and what is happening, for example stokes or chokes.
 
Uncheck the CMYK eyeballs to only view spot colors. It will will show every color in your file (even if it's not used). It will just not show anything if you turn that eyeball on.

Not sure if Corel offers any type of Pre Production preview feature.


Artist & high end separator, Owner of The Vinyl Hub, Owner of Dot-Tone-Designs, Past M&R Digital tech installer for I-Image machines. Over 35 yrs in the apparel industry. e-mail art@designsbydottone.com


Offline Sbrem

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Re: Separation -Pre production preview- programs/options
« Reply #1 on: September 11, 2015, 12:04:37 PM »
Hey Dan! Preview is the Mac PDF viewer (also assorted raster images too). I  like to view my channels in PS though, but that's probably because of my experience, I can judge pretty well what I'm going to get. In Illustrator, as you suggest, Separation preview is cool. I don't use it much, but I know some of the other guys use it a lot, so hopefully they'll chime in. Thanks for the tip on DeskPack, I'll check that out when I get a chance, totally buried right now.

Steve
I made a mistake once; I thought I was wrong about something; I wasn't

Offline jvanick

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Re: Separation -Pre production preview- programs/options
« Reply #2 on: September 11, 2015, 12:08:28 PM »
I LIVE in the separations preview on Illustrator.

big note -- in order for it to work, the color mode has to be CMYK.

other note:  when doing overprints for stuff like underbasing you need to use the 'overprint fill'/'overprint stroke' options that are found in the attribute menu.

-J

Offline ZooCity

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Re: Separation -Pre production preview- programs/options
« Reply #3 on: September 11, 2015, 01:37:04 PM »
Inkquest from Astute Graphics has become a big part of my work flow for measuring image sq in and I like the "temperature map" for some PS channel seps, it's a nice check point for even ink coverage.

Offline jvanick

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Re: Separation -Pre production preview- programs/options
« Reply #4 on: September 11, 2015, 01:53:02 PM »
I'm still looking for a good auto underbase tool...

Offline Dottonedan

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Re: Separation -Pre production preview- programs/options
« Reply #5 on: September 11, 2015, 02:08:02 PM »
I'm still looking for a good auto underbase tool...


Some rips do that for you. Many times people don't dig around in their rip enough to find the goodies.
We had a version of our  I-Image rip that did auto underbased with adjustable traps. The thing is, having that option slowed the rip time down and not very many used it.
Artist & high end separator, Owner of The Vinyl Hub, Owner of Dot-Tone-Designs, Past M&R Digital tech installer for I-Image machines. Over 35 yrs in the apparel industry. e-mail art@designsbydottone.com