Turning drop shadows into vector halftones

[Rockers]

Got an artwork all made in Adobe Illustrator with some drop shadow below the text. Now how do I turn that into a vector halftone? Don`t want to take this all into Photoshop.

[blue moon]

go into the drop shadow settings and select a spot color instead of regular black. Then print out normally through the RIP, it will convert it to halftones. . .

pierre

[Dottonedan]

Pierre is correct, providing what you have is simple drop shadows.  Often, in preview mode, what looks like like easy drop shadows are actually cmyk or even rgb blends that are in mega steps as a result of another filter from another programs imported into Illy or even Illustrator shadows effects.  So first, you have to determine if that color can be selected in the drop shadow as a whole or is it made up up varying cmyk %'s. If CMYK, then my only answer is to take that potion alone, into Photoshop, convert to a greyscale black, then import into the Illy program and add that to the vector black.

[Sbrem]

In Illustrator, try the Color Halftone filter if you don't want to try Pierre's or Dan's... https://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-create-halftone-effects-in-adobe-illustrator--cms-25121

Steve

[Dottonedan]

Nice tutorial there.  It's been such a long time since I've looked at doing halftones in Illy, but those are good options.  I'm not bothered by them being raster like people gripe about in the comments there.   I just did it again and converting to vector seemed pretty clean. I liked those big dots. DOTS and LOTS OF DOTS!

[CBCB]

Nice tutorial there.  It's been such a long time since I've looked at doing halftones in Illy, but those are good options.  I'm not bothered by them being raster like people gripe about in the comments there.   I just did it again and converting to vector seemed pretty clean. I liked those big dots. DOTS and LOTS OF DOTS!

Isn’t a raster dot less clean or blockier in raster? What I understand is that it’s made from squares, whereas when AccuRIP makes a dot it happens right at the printhead.

Not trying to go too far off topic. Just curious!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Frog]

In Illustrator, try the Color Halftone filter if you don't want to try Pierre's or Dan's... https://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-create-halftone-effects-in-adobe-illustrator--cms-25121

Steve

Ya know, I had to shake my head a little at that otherwise fine article, because the author, at the very beginning, seemed to dismiss the small, almost imperceptible dots used in digital printing as something other than halftones.
Of course, my 5'1" wife has been feeling this type of discrimination much of her life as well!

[Dottonedan]

Nice tutorial there.  It's been such a long time since I've looked at doing halftones in Illy, but those are good options.  I'm not bothered by them being raster like people gripe about in the comments there.   I just did it again and converting to vector seemed pretty clean. I liked those big dots. DOTS and LOTS OF DOTS!

Isn’t a raster dot less clean or blockier in raster? What I understand is that it’s made from squares, whereas when AccuRIP makes a dot it happens right at the printhead.

Not trying to go too far off topic. Just curious!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No, not "less clean",  but merely resolution dependent. This is to say, A high rez file (bitmapped) to a high rez output is very clean or (as clean) as your output device resolution can handle. I print 1:1 for solid type in photoshop going to my RIP. the DTS printer is a 600ppi printer, so I send my files at 600ppi. Large back prints or front prints are fine at 300ppi.  Just yesterday, I decided this would make for a good educational tutorial.
Have you ever tried to keep your Times Bold fonts nice and clean in photoshop for a pocket or left chest and then need to do an underbase and a bleed blocker under that with registration choke?  Gets pretty tough.  600ppi files help this greatly!!

I have examples of this at work for the art staff to recognize how much of an impact the resolution plays on quality at output. Artist will take parts of the back (large file) and use it for a photoshop pocket print or left chest. When they size it down, they often don't follow the proper steps to reduce...therefore, causing blurred or interpolated edges. Added to this, most artist are still in the habit of doing pocket prints at 300ppi when it would have been best to (uncheck) the re-sample feature when resizing down, so that the files resolution will go UP proportionality. Anything beyond what your printer (film or DTS output device) can handle, is just excess file space and kicked out/not able to be used. So once I do re-size with re-sample) unchecked, I then change my resolution to 600. There are steps needed (proper steps) to take, in order to get clean files using this procedure of reducing elements in smaller files sizes.

When I rip bitmap files or raster files and want clean (solid) or hard edges, I adjust the levels of curves to get solid. No fuzzy edges on type for example.
AS you know, 72 ppi files are jsut too crappy to work with and do any type with. Lower than 300ppi can even be a problem, or depending on what you are doing, even a 300ppi file is not efficient enough to do whats needed well.


I will do a video tutorial that explains all of this later on tonight.

[Prince Art]

...most artist are still in the habit of doing pocket prints at 300ppi when it would have been best to (uncheck) the re-sample feature when resizing down, so that the files resolution will go UP proportionality. Anything beyond what your printer (film or DTS output device) can handle, is just excess file space and kicked out/not able to be used. So once I do re-size with re-sample) unchecked, I then change my resolution to 600. There are steps needed (proper steps) to take, in order to get clean files using this procedure of reducing elements in smaller files sizes.

Thanks for making this point, Dan. It's easy to get locked into a 300ppi mentality. While I know that sizing down will result in resampling (and therefore loss of clean edges), the idea of simply changing output resolution to avoid that is something I technically knew, but something I rarely think of in practice. I need to remember & change that!