High-end Seps with ICISS or...

[AAMike]

Is it a fair statement to say that any high-end sep program can only take you part of the way and that the best high-end sep artists can produce better results only using photoshop?

[aauusa]

for me the first part is true,  but high end seps can be achieved through illustrator, corel or photoshop.  depends on artwork, and separator.

[Sbrem]

I'm not sure, but ICISS is a very expensive package compared to most. What I don't sep manually I use UltaSeps and edit from there, it just cuts down so much time, and of course, I have a lot of experience to draw from which helps. Time saving is the big part...

Steve

[ol man]

Correct

[dirkdiggler]

crappy name!

[Sbrem]

crappy name!

Seemed like a good idea at the time, LOL

Steve

[UltraSeps]

Although I develop and sell color separation software used by an immense number of printers and artists, I'll be the first to admit that a one-click color separation solution does not exist.  Most everything requires some sort of adjustment following the initial automated separation.

[Dottonedan]

It's fair to say that any sep program can take you all the way (for some jobs) and some people's expectations. It's also fair to say they can speed up the process for all of the other jobs that you must tweak. It's all about how much you want/need to put into them and your level of acceptable results.

One thing is true without question, those programs have opened doors for many, saved many dollars and gained many new customers for many printers.without a doubt, they are a good thing for the industry.

As for the programs, yes, you can use any of the vector programs and get great seps for different jobs.
As for me, I use photoshop even when you send me a vector file. corel or Illustrator, there is no comparison when separating high end, complicated files. Especially those vector complicated files. It could take hours to prepare the seps file correctly in a vector program to output with great results. About 1-2 hrs in Photoshop for the average job. Tough 12-16 colors jobs could take up to as many as 6 hrs. It depends on how picky the customer is and the art file.
 

[Orion]

The Iciss seps program was discussed here back in 2012.

Pierre,

ICISS is an awesome program akin to photoshop.  What Coudray had the programmers of that program do is frikin awesome.

Easiest way I can explain it is: It basically allows you to change the RGB color spectrum - Example R:255 G:000 B:000 for a solid RGB red - into a specified color pallet, typically pantone colors that YOU CHOOSE, as many as you want.  You want 12 colors, program in 12 colors.  You want 7 colors, program in 7 colors.  Not just the 6 that are available (internally) in Photoshop.  You program the curve adjustments you want each color generated to have and voila!  Beginner seps in the color pallet you have asked for.  And yes, you still need to tweak them for awesome prints.  The seps you get from Coudray are from this program and like Dan said, you still need to tweak them unless you pay extra.

A old customer of mine here in Seattle has the program, so I took the chance a few years ago to ask him about it and give me a quick walkthrough.  If I could (easily) aford it..... I would get it!  I just looked at their site... It contains less info than the last time I looked about 10 years ago.  Is it still priced around 10k?

End result, a superior seperation tool that quickly gets you to a pre-selected set of colors that you then, with your screen printing knowledge, make into press ready films.  But I am not sold on the cost Vs. return for the average shop, you need to be using the program several times a day to see a reasonable return IMO.

Colin

We used it back in the mid '90s and produced some amazing work.

[Sbrem]

It's fair to say that any sep program can take you all the way (for some jobs) and some people's expectations. It's also fair to say they can speed up the process for all of the other jobs that you must tweak. It's all about how much you want/need to put into them and your level of acceptable results.

One thing is true without question, those programs have opened doors for many, saved many dollars and gained many new customers for many printers.without a doubt, they are a good thing for the industry.

As for the programs, yes, you can use any of the vector programs and get great seps for different jobs.
As for me, I use photoshop even when you send me a vector file. corel or Illustrator, there is no comparison when separating high end, complicated files. Especially those vector complicated files. It could take hours to prepare the seps file correctly in a vector program to output with great results. About 1-2 hrs in Photoshop for the average job. Tough 12-16 colors jobs could take up to as many as 6 hrs. It depends on how picky the customer is and the art file.

I do too, if they are overly complicated vector images that are too laborious to take apart in Illustrator, it's just so much faster...

Steve