how would you print this

[Shanarchy]

I know this shouldn't be rocket science, but for some reason I do very little halftone work. I am looking at the image on the left.

What lpi and mesh count would you recommend? Should this be print-flash-printed? Or would I be better off with two screens, so I am just p-f-p'ing the solid lettering at the top.


Thanks!

[prozyan]

There are a lot of different ways of doing that, depending on how much the customer is willing to spend and how important accuracy is to the customer.  Using just white, I'd do at least two screens, a base and a highlight.

The best results would come from the two whites and at least one gray.


(Gray to be on high mesh like 305 using 55 lpi.)

[Doug B]

  Just gray/ flash/ white. Underbase the solid white areas with gray.
Easy Peasy.

[Dottonedan]

I would prefer to use a light gray as a base but where you see gray, it would be cut back to halftones of near 30% so that it looks darker than it is.


Then, For the top brighter areas, I'd use a top white but then also take that selection of the top white and add it to the underbase gray so that it is 100% underbased to add to the brightness.

[Socalfmf]

with ink on my auto?  how you would print it manually?  without ink?

you are nutz...

[Shanarchy]

with ink on my auto?  how you would print it manually?  without ink?

you are nutz...

^This guy is a jerk face =(

[Shanarchy]

Dan's suggestion sounds pretty nice.

The customer requested it to be printed with just white on black and greyscale it. But I just don't think the end result is going to be what they think looking at the mockup the sent. I'm thinking throwing some grey in there may be a good idea.

The file isn't the best to play with, at least not for my skill set. I'm wondering if I printed it in gray then dropped the white over it how it would look.

[Gilligan]

For a "more accurate" mock up you can always use PS's halftone "effect".

But that is neither here nor there, just for future reference really.

[Dottonedan]

speaking of a halftone effect. What method do you use?  Anything simpler than this?


I convert seps to grayscale bitmap and in put my halftone, convert back to grayscale and then drop into a RGB file again. then select that channel and add to te layers and fill it with it's PMS color. Then, send customer a jpg of that. To take it even further, you can drop it on a garment blank.

[Gilligan]

I was talking about the dirty filter in PS "colorize" or something like that.  For just grey scale it shows how ugly it may end up being.

[Parker 1]

1. Base WHT 230 mesh
FLASH
2. Medium Grey 255 Mesh
3. HL WHT 255 Mesh
All at 55lpi

If you are not comfortable doin the seps yourself, there are plenty of artist here that can do it for you and rest asured it will come out perfect.

[Chadwick]

Do some cleanup first, as that image is rife with jpeg artifacts.

Anyhow, this is what you're after.

Gray undercoats the white
Light Gray, *flash*, white, done.

ed:looks like I still can't type in a hurry..what the heck is a bugshug ( filename )?

There is rarely a need to underbase a gray, unless of course you're on a red or funky polyester garment.
On black, it's a non-issue.

[Chadwick]

Dan, you should use Brent's (photoscreenprint) Simrip action.
It'll save you several minutes.

[Dottonedan]

I think  i downloaded it once. I remember seeing it on an old drive of mine and in an older photoshop program. It's an action of what I described right?

[Chadwick]

Yeah.
You could use it for a real rip as well if needed.
http://www.photoscreenprint.com/downloads/
I think I posted this before but whatever.
He's giving it away for free now.
Brent's a good guy.

* oh..you'll have to adjust his angles/res/etc as you work through the action. Not a big deal.
He set it up for his own preferences, which is all good, but heck, he left the option open for adjustment,
which, in my book, is golden.

Quote:
Although there are a few compromises in creating output halftones within Adobe Photoshop, in many ways it is an appealing option due to its simplicity. Another benefit is the ability to see the actual halftone dot placement, edit and preview the image as it will look when printed.

When viewing a processed separation, the effect of the Spot Color Dot Gain settings will not be visible at the normal size, giving the image a washed out appearance. To view the image with the dot gain settings in effect, zoom out to about 6%, to view the actual dots as they will be printed zoom in to 100% (actual pixels).

I tend to view my sepped 'dots' at 12.5%,25%,50% or actual size.
Computers can't display these things properly at certain zoom levels, such as what photoshop will try to display at 'fit to screen' or whatever it's called..it makes it look all fubar. Understand what you are viewing and remember that most graphic programs apply some aliasing to ease the view at certain zoom levels. That's all fine and good, but it's a lie.
Make sure you are looking at the art from a 'real' perspective, not an 'interpreted to make it look pretty' perspective.

I don't need to tell Dan this, obviously, but some of you may not be aware of the limitations of digital displays.
They're not truthful, so be aware.

Cheers.