This is how stupid we are when it comes to Photoshop and screen printing.

[Gilligan]

We are completely lost with this simple one color design.

How do I print this to film?

[ebscreen]

I've attached an AI file where I took the image and converted it to greyscale and then assigned a spot color,
you can print it straight from Illy. (I shy away from printing out of Photoshop whenever possible)

[aauusa]

this is how i would do it in photoshop,   select color range click black area then in invert selection create channel.

www.aaufl.com/customart/starstripe.zip

[Chadwick]

Flatten image. ( it's over on your layers menu flyout thing )
Image>mode>greyscale.
Output through your RIP.

[Frog]

I was looking for a good [pic link to illustrate the obvious point here, of "more than one way to skin a cat", and came across this little photo manipulation tute:

http://www.pwnedcake.com/Aviary/tut/newkitty/newkitty.html

Heck, I've never even heard of this softeware.

[Gilligan]

I had tried some of these methods, like the selection tool and the making a channel out of it, but it lost too much detail every time I tried.  There just has to be a way to not lose the detail, if it closes up too much then it will look like poo poo compared to what the customer's artist drew and sold him.

Chad, will this flattening the image and printing through RIP keep it all basically "as-is"?  I guess the same question applies to EB's method as they are basically one in the same right?

[Frog]

I had tried some of these methods, like the selection tool and the making a channel out of it, but it lost too much detail every time I tried.  There just has to be a way to not lose the detail, if it closes up too much then it will look like poo poo compared to what the customer's artist drew and sold him.

A little bit of a tangent, but if indeed, the artist got paid to produce a reproducible design, isn't some of this on him or her? What exactly are folks buying?

[Gilligan]

Let me clear that up "sold" him metaphorically.  It was done for free... it was done at 300 DPI in Photoshop.  That's pretty respectable and I SHOULD be able to output films.  Just so far all we've ever done is output vector stuff from Illustrator.

[Frog]

My point is that even with the two or three methods described here,
1. they require some work
2. results may vary

An artist who knows what they are doing, may even take the time to ask what one needs to produce a print-friendly file.
But we all know that that is a fantasy.

Will folks here charge for the work involved to make this right?

[Frog]

btw, I'd have to fiddle with this and  try different adjustments with color range or magic wand, and still be nervous about a totally faithful reproduction.

You are not alone, for me, this would not be a slam dunk.

[screenxpress]

Gilly, I have to say I'm a little saddened. 

A long, long time back, I thought I sent you all kinds of Ghost stuff.  Install files, postscript print driver and instructions to output postscript files from PS, Corel and Illy.  I did, didn't I?

I digress.  I opened the file, did a "merge visible" to get it flat, set Image Mode to Greyscale to establish just a RGB Black, pointed printer to a postscript print driver (I do not have that printer, just use the driver) and "output to file", set screen to 35 lpi, set angle and shape, and saved out to a .ps file.  Opened the .ps file in Ghost and it printed out as halftones.  However, the Black text is halftoned too and jaggy because it's shaded out on the edges (not sharp) in the original file.  I'm pretty sure that could be fixed by just retyping the two text lines to make them have sharp edges. 

Just my thoughts......


Later post - actually that's pretty much what Chadwick said.  Sorry bout that.  Hopefully I filled in a few more spaces though.

[Chadwick]

Chad, will this flattening the image and printing through RIP keep it all basically "as-is"?  I guess the same question applies to EB's method as they are basically one in the same right?

Yeah, it'll be just a raw greyscale bitmap.
I don't know why folks keep everything in layers like that if they're done with the design.

Channel data is essentially greyscale data.

If something looks like it will gain too much, you can play with some simple curve adjustments before output.

[Gilligan]

I'm with you there Wayne... I have RIP abilities... just the lack of understanding of how to make sure to get it out of PS... I hadn't thought of just making it grey scale.

I also see what you mean about the jaggies... I wonder if that would lend itself to the rough nature of the print or just look like a bad print.  I'll have to look at it again when I get to the shop.

[mk162]

I had this same thing come up the other day, I find it easier to import them into corel and make a monochrome bitmap from them.

I feel lost in PS, and much more at home in Corel.

[screenxpress]

I also see what you mean about the jaggies... I wonder if that would lend itself to the rough nature of the print or just look like a bad print.  I'll have to look at it again when I get to the shop.

It was pretty much expected since the text was faded out (gradient) on the outside.  Just expand the print big and you see the fading out to white.  Any RIP is going to interpret that as halftones just like any other faded out parts of an image and make them into halftones.  The text that was cut out of the white was not a noticeable as the Black and could probably fly.