Saving Photoshop Spot channels so they can be printed Via vector program.

[Dottonedan]

Saving Photoshop Spot channels so they can be printed Via vector program.


For me, when I do seps in Photoshop, I include the registration marks and the colors and print sequence on each color.  If these are printed out (one at a time) to film, they will be more sure to align up after an individual output.


The following is an example in case you receive separations (in photoshop channels) but you want to print them out of a vector program like Illustrator or Corel Draw.



* To have each color as it's own file, you can SPLIT them up.
Open Photoshop,  delete the shirt color if you have any before the separations. There should be NO shirt color. Nothing but separation channels.


Go to the TOP right side of the channels list, and click on that little drag down area for options. Scroll down to SPLIT channels.   This breaks that file up into individual colors/files.


Save as a copy as .psd, .eps, or .tif and place into Illustrator. Print (one at a time).




* The other option is to have all separations in one file as a DCS2.
Open the file back up in Photoshop, Delete the shirt color, and then SAVE AS A COPY, DCS2. Then choose 8 bit pixel, then SINGLE FILE, COLOR COMPOSITE.


Then PLACE and LINK the file into your Illustrator file. BE SURE TO LINK.  If you do not, click LINK, you are telling Illustrator to make this file (part of) and ai file. Illustrator does not want you to embed large files into Illustrator as it bogs down the program and causes glitches. Therefore, it only allows you to LINK. When you LINK another file, it doe snot become PAR TOF the Illustrator file, but only refers to that Photoshop file. For this reason, you must always keep that linked file in the same location folder, so that it can be found again later if you ever spent hat file up again. PLACE and LINK.

You will now have the file and it's spot channel colors in the color swatch list. You can add vector art and sign it one of these Pantone colors and all of the photoshop art and the vector art will print out together one one film.




Thanks,
Dan

[Atownsend]

Thanks for this. I usually use the "add RGB channels" action from ultra seps, but I can see this being very helpful!

[Sbrem]

Thanks for the reminder yesterday, I'm guessing that prompted this tut? I haven't used DCS in a few years since we became able to import the .psd with channels, but I learned it originally waaaaayyyy back...

Steve

[Dottonedan]

Sbrem,
Yes,  you were what caused it all.  LOL.   But that's a good thing.


That also led me to do another that I haven't post dup yet, but will. There are 4-5 things that I am constantly explain to people about.  This was just one of them but common.


Many people want me to give them files split up into individual colors.  Many people don't know how or hasn't been taught how to put them into the vector files themselves and they don't deal with this in-house since they are alway working in vector only.


Interestingly, it would be a good but long tutorial on the many different way to place files and print files to film.

[ebscreen]

If you place a spot channel PSD in Illy it doesn't display correctly because the individual channels are set to "multiply" transparency.
It will print correctly however, and does not require separating to individual layers or files. One set of reg marks and your screen info
set to same color as plate and away you go.

If you change the opacity of the channels to "normal" it will display correctly, albeit with the channels in reverse order from PS.
(I could shoot Adobe for that) It will not print correctly though, knocking out the channel beneath it.

Long story short:

Place spot channel PSD in Illy
Embed

For mockups/display set individual channels to normal opacity and reverse order top to bottom.

For output leave as is add reg marks/screen info and print.

[Sbrem]

For mockups/display set individual channels to normal opacity and reverse order top to bottom.

For output leave as is add reg marks/screen info and print.

I gotta check this one out, I usually save a .png or similar with a transparent background of the original. Though not exact, it's great for FPO. Thanks, Sean.

Steve

[CBCB]

This is so good.

It’s ‘easy’ when you’re placing a grayscale design from Photoshop.

The big thing I learned is you can’t apply a spot colour from Illustrator to those channels. But you can bring the Photoshop file in and then apply the spot colours from those channels onto vector stuff.

Actually the first time I had to figure this out was getting seps from dan! I wanted to use our reg marks and could only print from Illustrator due to RIP headaches and wanting to reduce variation.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Lizard]

We print all PS files through illustrator by placing them. This also works great when adding vector elements. And if you have a texture pattern in your name drop you only have to sep it once then you can clipping  mask that into the text area and every job is sepped the same.

[Dottonedan]

The thing I find irritating about texture knock out patterns in vector programs using bitmaps or even vector (auto traced distressed patterns or textures)  is that (knocking them out via vector) does not enable you to choke that texture easily.  This is one of the reasons you see so many prints with the base peaking within the texture from vector file. It's a but more cumbesome. Often times, it's not that overpowering or that noticeable unless they double hit the base, but it's a pet peeve of mine.   It takes more effort, more thought to correctly trap a distressed pattern within 3-6 top colors and knock out and choke the base in vector. This is another reason why 90% of my files are only done 100% in Photoshop.  Edits, name drops and all.  Heck I even print to film straight from photoshop.


I wrote this is for the convenience of others because there are still so many that place into vector (for the reason to mostly print to film out of vector), but some do also add/combine vector with the bitmaps but I find that is rarely needed or (not needed at all) unless you are more of a vector person. Probably the more seasoned.  Many still do it this way for the convenience of just not having to learn more about raster.  I get that.  I do.  I'm not complaining, just mentioning.  I'm just saying that I myself, don't find it that beneficial. Just another example go how different we all can be and get the same job done with the same results.  Some with more time invested but it's done and what we know.


I set my files up at 600ppi (for the reasons of good tight and accurate chokes on small detail items). It also helps remove those little rough edges on low end printers like the Epson 1430. A bitmap of type output from that 300dpi printer doesn't look good. rough edges made up of little dots. At 600, and anti aliased turned off, you don't get that. Doing this, enables me to do any art, handle any small detail in print on apparel that I need.


The fact that I have customers that need to print from vector, is the the only reason I need to show these other methods of placing bitmap files. Some shops (art departments) don't do that at all. They may have not ever placed a bitmap in their life, so I wrote up an example.

[ebscreen]

For mockups/display set individual channels to normal opacity and reverse order top to bottom.

For output leave as is add reg marks/screen info and print.

I gotta check this one out, I usually save a .png or similar with a transparent background of the original. Though not exact, it's great for FPO. Thanks, Sean.

Steve

NP. Only took me 15 years to figure out.

[Sbrem]

I started with PS 2.0, there's just so many things in PhotoShop. I've learned a number of cool tricks over the years, but not this one.

Steve

[Maff]

Thanks Dan there are some great points here!

We import PSD files with spot channels directly into Illustrator the same way ebscreen mentioned, but i think you have to keep the RGB channels. Once you embed the file you can delete the channels/layers you don't need.  We have a set registration template in Illustrator for our pre reg, so everything needs to output from Illy. But it also allows us to add in vector on top if needed as well.

You could also rename the spot channels in PSD to the exact same spot color names in Illy and they will automatically merge and become those spot colors set in Illy.  This way we use a light gray as our "white base" spot channel and it just helps us see the actual design when sending to print.

[Dottonedan]

Excellent content here!  Thanks to everyone!