Garage Split Topic that got messed up

[Frog]

One step closer to good exposures. (remember baby steps)

[Maxie]

You seem to have everything on the floor.
You could put together a simple drying cabinet and screw it to the wall above the other equipment.
You can use the space up to the ceiling.

[sbrown]

True. I will have look into how to maximize my space. It certainly can be done.

And thanks Frog for the idea about jig for making better positive contact. Ive seen similar ideas around the net however Im not too sure where to accommodate a piece of foam for this purpose.

[Frog]

True. I will have look into how to maximize my space. It certainly can be done.

And thanks Frog for the idea about jig for making better positive contact. I've seen similar ideas around the net however I'm not too sure where to accommodate a piece of foam for this purpose.

You mean that you don't think that you can easily find foam rubber in Chico? How about Gates Resale-Army Surplus as a start?
Remember that you want good contact, so a lot of compression is the goal. If the foam is not significantly fatter then the depth of the screen, make a "spacer" out of plywood. Also, cover the foam with something like a sheet of black felt or other fabric.

btw, good tip for anyone working with foam rubber is use that electric carving knife that seldom sees any real action. It's almost the same as what the foam shops use. Cheap and pretty common at garage sales because they just don't get enough use in the kitchen or at the dining table.

[sbrown]

OK, so "foam rubber" is whats preferable in a jig like this??... I will have to search around.

[sbrown]

Kind of a side question - not that Im ready for it yet, but I presume with the current exposure setup that I have right now, I probably cant achieve decent halftones?... or would it be possible after all?

[Prosperi-Tees]

Depends on your view of what a decent halftone is. With your current setup I would say no.

[Frog]

Kind of a side question - not that Im ready for it yet, but I presume with the current exposure setup that I have right now, I probably cant achieve decent halftones?... or would it be possible after all?

Good halftones, or anything small require good contact because the light "sneaks" under, and closes up small open areas or fattens-up small lines.
With what you have, the very least you will need to hold anything tiny and to keep sharp edges is a hunk of foam rubber and some sort of downward pressure on your glass, with either weights or some sort of bungee cord arrangement.
Bottom line, the simpler your equipment, the simpler the designs you will be limited to.
On the other hand, for my market, 90% of my work does not require any halftones, though some is still quite detailed.

Master solid black or color on white, move on to solid white on black, master it, then worry about halftones.

[sbrown]

Thanks, yeah most, if not all of my artwork is generally basic spot color designs however I would like to explore halftones later on once I get multicolor spot color jobs down.

[Frog]

Thanks, yeah most, if not all of my artwork is generally basic spot color designs however I would like to explore halftones later on once I get multicolor spot color jobs down.

Spot colors are inks of a specific color rather than an ink mixed by printing a combination or inks. Solid, halftone, whatever.
Likewise, halftones can be printed as spot colors or process colors.

[sbrown]

Thanks, yeah most, if not all of my artwork is generally basic spot color designs however I would like to explore halftones later on once I get multicolor spot color jobs down.

Spot colors are inks of a specific color rather than an ink mixed by printing a combination or inks. Solid, halftone, whatever.
Likewise, halftones can be printed as spot colors or process colors.

Whoops, well what I meant was the artwork I will be using primarily will not rely on gradients that later need to be rendered into halftones for exposure. Solid color designs is what I meant to say I suppose?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[screenxpress]

Depends on your view of what a decent halftone is. With your current setup I would say no.

I dunno about that.  I was shooting halftones with a 500 watt Home Depot flood and weights on glass holding down the film.  Can be done.  Not like 4 color done, but 1 color for shading effects done.

A lot of my early Band Prints were just white on black and I was able to print halftones for effect.

Technically a halftone is not much more than a gradual reduction of a color on an image controlled by a RIP when printing to get a graduated spread of dots that fool the eye when viewing the print into thinking it's actually different tones of the target color. 

Did I say that right, guys? 

I only said that so he realizes it's not exactly rocket science to get from spots to halftones, but he will need one of these: PS, Corel, or Illy to graduate a color and of course....a RIP, which Ghost is still free and it does work.

[sbrown]

Nice. When theres a will, theres a way!

[Prosperi-Tees]

That's why I said it depends.

[sbrown]

Wait, wait, wait.... I just realized, did you say there is a free RIP software available??? Ive been searching for one for ages. Ghost??