Drag and Drop Browser Seps

[Spreading Ink]

Has this been disabled?  I tried and it took a long time and then shows a blank screen?  Saved a PSD as a PNG from photoshop - did I do something wrong?

Interested in looking, but the blank screen wasn't really a good representation of the file I dropped on the browser window.  Used chrome for the test.

Anyone else have similar results?

[Dottonedan]

There are two main things you need to make sure of first.


1, your browser must be up to date and have openGL active. (to see if it is, read the instructions and links at the bottom of that drop page.


2, Not only does it need to be a png, but it must not be an interlaced png.


Also,  once it's dropped in, the action is being done behind the scenes. It takes a while  Mine took maybe 5 min. or so. The larger the file, the longer it takes...but also depends on your internet speed. Then it pops up.

[Spreading Ink]

Yep - finally got it.  The file I posted to it was rather large even for a PNG, but it did it reasonable justice considering it only used 5 colors.  Would definitely be better if you could pick your own colors to be used with in the 'sep'.  It's interesting - I'd like to see more - about all I can say at this point.

[TCT]

I have to say it looks interesting and promising, but like Dan said something so powerful comes with hesitation,  nothing against you, just grumpy screen printers set in our ways8)

Count me in for another vote for the spot color function. That, and if you could make it work somehow with discharge inks, my friend would be the bees knees!

[Dottonedan]

Yes,  thats another thing.  Discharge seps.  Those are set up a whole different way of thinking (as it pertains to simulated process discharge).




Another thing is being able to separate low rez choppy bitmaps.  There has got to be a way of gathering that (entire visual softness) you see in the composite of the RGB, CMYK.  If you can harness the colors (from the composite), thats where you get the smoother prints. A conversion, or pull in any other way never gets a good breakdown.  Any time you try and break that down in various methods, it takes away from any composite quality you see.


D

[DDSol]

I have never done discharge and I don't know the interactions and such. When some tests are done, measurments made, I will come to understand that too and I'll add it as an option.

There's a big "+" which does nothing yet. I may add that today. But you can still not delete or reorder yet either. That "+" allows you to add inks, when it works, which it doesn't (I hope it's clear you can click it, but it won't do a damn thing!).

So to say that it would be better if you could pick your own inks... it's in the pipeline! Also, reordering them in whatever order you like and (very important) being able to pick a shirt color and (very important) use that color in place of an ink. (Like, why print black if your shirt is black, why print red if your shirt is red). This chops another color away and makes your 4 color press even hotter.

Did anyone notice the absence of a white base? I'm going to add one soon, but it's not easy. There's no good formula. I'm going to use a similar base as the one Spot Process makes and hope it works out for everyone. But really, I need measurements (with one of those densitometers or spectrophotometers). Same with the inks as well. They're transparent, slightly, but who knows how much? I hear "80% opacity" and even 5% opacity (yes... uh... like glass?). I put in 80% for now, but I'm going to add a slider to change it. I may do a per-ink slider, but then you have so many sliders that it becomes a forest. I did drag and drop because I want it to be super easy. Being asked "what is your ink opacity" is hard, because, well, who knows the answer? Some Joe Printer is not going to know the answer, but not knowing the answer for him could mean not being able to use it. That's fine for the pro separators over here , they DO know and can use my stuff to do it for Joe.

So, I'm going to change it from producing very good seps to producing perfect seps. I may even run opacity/color measurements on all inks from all providers, so that when you pick Rutflex Gold from the list, you get all the real-world measurements that go with it (which means: No ink opacity slider).

You're all going to have to be patient with the discharge stuff and such. There's a LOT of stuff in the pipeline, including comps, client proof and approval page, 3D shirts, art storage locker and many more things. But first: Panning, add ink, delete ink, reorder ink and (a biggie), download film package. That will make it usable in actual production. You'll have to conjure up your own white base at that point . I'll add that next then. 1) Make usable 2) Make better

Please note that I work extremely long hours already. "When will it be done" is a hard question for me to answer. But, as you can tell, I'm well on my way.

[Sbrem]

Now this is exciting, I just wish I had some time to check it out; but I know all of you are doing that, so I'll stay tuned. DD, thank you for the great work.

Steve

[3Deep]

DDsol, being just a printer here and not a sep guy, would it not serve you justice to let some of the top in the biz try your beta program, such Dane Clements, Lon Winters etc these guys are great printers and would really test your program out.  I think you got something here that might really be good for us run of the mill sep and print guys, but the thing I wouldn't like is having to have films send to me, or maybe I just just read something wrong.  I know no one has ask about cost and you most likely don't know a cost yet yourself, but that would also be a factor in who will buy it, you know if some one can do something cheaper and get close results they will, not that you will in anyway, but I saw one giant outhink himself, and we talked about this same thing who's going to buy it.

Darryl

[DDSol]

Okay, I added the "+" functionality. There's something wrong with the sRGB conversion, so the color you pick is NOT the color you pick. The color turns out darker. Get over it .

Anyway, you have to hit Shift-F5 to reload the new version. If you just refresh, your browser will not actually use the new version, it will re-use the one it still has from last time you tried.

So, you can add PMS colors, Inks from specific manufacturers, and any other color. Enjoy!

Ps. Each added color makes the browser engine much more complex. Too many colors makes it slooow. But it'll still work .

PS2: You can add, but you cannot delete! OH NO! So, it's not exactly useful. Besides, there's no films yet, so who cares? It's not useful even if you can tweak ALL settings, not until it makes films, that is.

[DDSol]

@3Deep: I'm not sure that those guys will want to do a whole lot of hand-lending. I hear Dane does hand-seps. Not sure how it would be beneficial to him to help me.

As far as pricing is concerned: it's totally free! At first. Not later. But that's not until I have it working Well, and that's still a while away.

In any case, it will be priced per sep. They are, after all, seps with the quality of hand-seps and a turnaround time of 5 minutes. That's nice for those who are small because they don't have to buy an expensive program. It's also nice for the bug guys as they can get bulk pricing. And it's nice for everybody that it runs on my servers. Updates are instantaneous and for everybody! Yay! I'll be sure to price everything to move. That means it will not be priced what it's worth. The value of the seps will in reality be much higher than what I'll ask for it. Right now you can pay upwards of $200 for seps of this caliber. I won't ask for anything near that.

It's free! for now, though, so enjoy it . (Sorry, no films yet, and working on it, please, please be patient!)


As far as films: You have to print them yourself. I make "seps" but I like calling them "films" or "inks" or "screens", whatever I'm in the mood for at any point in time. You get bitmaps. I'm going to probably toss in a PDF with intricate specs, print order, etc, and a pamphlet about how to set it up on press (this one will be ignored the most, I'm sure, and that's Great! Because what do I know?). So sep=film=screen=ink. While it's still in the PC I call it any of those. The idea is to turn it into shirts... uh.. ink. But really, they're seps. FastFilms makes no films either, does it? Just seps, right? Anyway, I don't mean to confuse anyone...

[3Deep]

Like I said I could have read it wrong, I was thinking you would have to send out films, looking forward to it, I also remember back when the epson 3000/1520 came out as the poormans image setter, now look at it every just about uses inkjet films...like I said just don't overthink it and this could be the next great thing for sepping art.

Darryl

[inkman996]

Ive been trying this but its not working I think. Dropping a 1229x2725 PNG non interlaced, as soon as it drops I get the same pic showing but nothing else. I assume I am just looking at my original image.

I am on MAC using Safari does that make any difference?

[Dottonedan]

Inkman,  It needs to generate so it takes a while. Its doing it behind the scenes.

[inkman996]

Been sitting there since this AM lol

[DDSol]

@Inkman, you need to use a browser that supports WebGL (for one). It also has to support drag and drop. It should take no more than a minute on HUGE images (10000px x 20000px).

I don't know if it works in Safari at all. I read that WebGL is supported on Mac OS X 10.6 in the WebKit nightly builds or in Safari 5.x and above. I don't know what you use...
WebGL is available in the stable releases of Chrome and Chromium for desktop platforms.

Now, I myself use Chrome on Windows and have tested it with Firefox. They both work. I know Safari on Windows does not work, but hasn't Apple abandoned Windows with Safari?

So, it's NOT the size of your image. I don't know if Drag and drop is even supported. You could try opening the debug inspector and seeing what kind of messages you get. You could also install Chrome.

The last option is to just give up . It's not your problem, but any info I can get would be appreciated. I'd like to be able to let users know what will work for their platform.

Edit I just realized what's going on in your case: The drag and drop does not work. It gets handled by your Broswer, but not the webpage. This means your browser just opens the file from your HD and shows it to you. Waiting will do you no good. Your URL probably starts with file://. Your no longer even on my page . The upshot: Dropping your image to see it in the browser will work for any webpage!

Also, knowing what's wrong helps to fix it: Just install Chrome to test, or not to not test. You may try Firefox as well.