Is there affordable Simulated Process Software

[Logoman]

I have Software for doing Simulated Process but it seems that you have to be a Photoshop Guru to get it to work properly. Is there one out there that is affordable that I don't have to know Photoshop to use?

[blue moon]

I have Software for doing Simulated Process but it seems that you have to be a Photoshop Guru to get it to work properly. Is there one out there that is affordable that I don't have to know Photoshop to use?

from what I've seen and heard, NO! Some are easier to use than others, but in the end, good color theory and photoshop knowledge are a must for decent seps.

M suggestion, pay somebody to do it for you and pay attention to what they are sending you. Open it in photoshop and play with the curves for each color. You'll eventually figure out enough to get by . . .

pierre

[tonypep]

Agreed!

[Sbrem]

Also agreed. Trial by fire is best, especially if someone guides you along in the beginning.

[shellyky]

i have amazing results out of my Seperation Studio software.  i've only ever paid for a seperation 2-3 times ever. and that was just because it was high piece count and could justify it....i know its pricey but you literally load in a JPG and its done in a couple seconds...boost some colors if you want to its all done with a slider bar with instant previews.  couldn't be more simple. Saves as an EPS that you open in photoshop and print the channels/colors that you'd like. no need to be any sort of a guru

[JBLUE]

i have amazing results out of my Seperation Studio software.  i've only ever paid for a seperation 2-3 times ever. and that was just because it was high piece count and could justify it....i know its pricey but you literally load in a JPG and its done in a couple seconds...boost some colors if you want to its all done with a slider bar with instant previews.  couldn't be more simple. Saves as an EPS that you open in photoshop and print the channels/colors that you'd like. no need to be any sort of a guru

Except when you see a high end sim job next to an out of the box job. Then you will see the difference. I am all for sep programs however a script is a script and it cant think like a person. Some jobs require a person behind the wheel. Its no different than a auto traced logo. Sometimes they work and sometimes they dont.

[Chadwick]

An autotrace is an excellent analogy.
It's a starting point, not a finished product.

[blue moon]

i have amazing results out of my Seperation Studio software.  i've only ever paid for a seperation 2-3 times ever. and that was just because it was high piece count and could justify it....i know its pricey but you literally load in a JPG and its done in a couple seconds...boost some colors if you want to its all done with a slider bar with instant previews.  couldn't be more simple. Saves as an EPS that you open in photoshop and print the channels/colors that you'd like. no need to be any sort of a guru

I think Sep Studio and about an hour of training should be able to produce decent results. The problem is, in order to do the adjustments needed to the Sep Studio files you need to have some basic knowledge of photoshop. Nothing advanced, but one should be able to open up the curves for the individual channels, be able to read the coverage and have some basic familiarity with sim process to know where to darken and where to lighten up.

pierre

[Sbrem]

A food analogy; there's waffles, and there's Eggos. I'll eat both, but I'd much rather have the real thing. I have Quick Seps and Ultra Seps, but I can do it in PS as well, as that's how I learned it, and that knowledge helps me fine tune prints, and with experience, cut down on remakes (down time).

Steve

[GraphicDisorder]

i have amazing results out of my Seperation Studio software.  i've only ever paid for a seperation 2-3 times ever. and that was just because it was high piece count and could justify it....i know its pricey but you literally load in a JPG and its done in a couple seconds...boost some colors if you want to its all done with a slider bar with instant previews.  couldn't be more simple. Saves as an EPS that you open in photoshop and print the channels/colors that you'd like. no need to be any sort of a guru

Except when you see a high end sim job next to an out of the box job. Then you will see the difference. I am all for sep programs however a script is a script and it cant think like a person. Some jobs require a person behind the wheel. Its no different than a auto traced logo. Sometimes they work and sometimes they dont.

6 of 1 half a dozen of the other.  You can see a lot of seps done out there by randoms that look worse than something out of separation studio.  I don't think Shelly is suggesting that it's the end all be all.  But, as she said, we have had some great results.  Shelly also knows Photoshop extremely well and is in no way just dropping in a file and printing what it spits out, she tweaks it all.  Excellent tool if used correctly IMO. 

[ZooCity]

Let's bear in mind that many separators start out with canned seps to expedite the most basic part of the process and keep costs down then dig in and work their black voodoo magic in PS.

I think most any human or machine alike can pick out the most prominent colors of an image but it takes an entirely different skill set to know what to do with those colors and there just ain't no automatin' that part of it. 

Out of what I've seen, Sep Studio looks like the best of the bunch.  I looked hard at it because I really like the ease of quickly and accurately previewing what you are doing in various composites but couldn't justify the price for any of the features.   I'd rather pay others to sep when I'm busy or just deal with turning channels on and off. 

PS is actually pretty easy to get along with the more time you dedicate to learning all it's weird selection features, which is my big hang up and frustration. I don't see why the hell every single command and function has to be so different from Illy.   Once you know how to select, modify and sort your chosen pixels/values into channels the rest is all color theory and knowledge of the process it seems. 

[starchild]

i have amazing results out of my Seperation Studio software.  i've only ever paid for a seperation 2-3 times ever. and that was just because it was high piece count and could justify it....i know its pricey but you literally load in a JPG and its done in a couple seconds...boost some colors if you want to its all done with a slider bar with instant previews.  couldn't be more simple. Saves as an EPS that you open in photoshop and print the channels/colors that you'd like. no need to be any sort of a guru

The problem is, in order to do the adjustments needed to the Sep Studio files you need to have some basic knowledge of photoshop.

pierre

I've learned to separate in photoshop and because of understanding when to use +/- levels/curves to adjust the density of my channels and how the colors are created, both in RGB and CMYK, all I use is Separation Studio.

The saturate and desaturate tools are the power tools of Separation Studio, the selection tools for when I'm really focusing in on specific areas to saturate/desaturate. I get amazing results (and no I don't just purchase any pair of sneakers). I rarely-more like never open in photoshop for adjustments because the channel's output algorithm is different so it looks different, besides it's not necessary. I have quick seps- I don't  know why though.

[Chadwick]

All the automated sep software out there works.
I'm not going to dump on any of it, and if one get used to the particular..'quirks'
of a certain program, and becomes fluent with it,
the grunt work is sped up immensely.

I'm still messing around with my own simple action to simplify ( speed up )
the grunt work, and it works great. It ain't all refined and stuff, but it tells me in a few seconds
whether I should do more work on the art before getting into the real sep process.

[Dottonedan]

@Zoo,

Let's bear in mind that many separators start out with canned seps to expedite the most basic part of the process and keep costs down then dig in and work their black voodoo magic in PS.

I think your sort of right these days. Most shop artist are learning how to sep on these "programs". Nothing wrong with that as it gets the job done. I've tried them. If I could not get better results from my own, I'd use them also, or  I'd pay someone to do them for me if the job demanded great seps.

All of the professional separators that do it for a living don't rely on these programs but I'd guess that the heavy hitter pro separators are fading away and doing something else more and more. I think the invention of these programs lowered the bar for the print world (as a whole) and stole much of the ART of separations away from you all.  As more and more people are satisfied with "less than great" seps, you become numb to what a real high end printing is or was.

Granted, I have my days where a sep is not perfect for whatever reason but for the most part, even the 2 and 4 color jobs can be better than what the sep programs put out and more importantly, (reduced down in numbers of colors). Many people who only use these programs live and breath using them but are not skilled in seps themselves will often fall into over using colors, e.g. printing 6 when you really can do great with 5 or 4.

I worked with a gal for a time that only used these programs and she pretty much thought she was the bee's knees's (whatever that means).  She was good, I'll give her credit but the outcome was very different than mine. That printer was very accustom to those types of seps they got from that program.

I was sort of "tested" by way of using my own seps and putting them up against her "program method". I will leave out what program it was since it doesn't matter what one, the results are the same for all.  Sure, she tweaked them big time and I'm told by her, she does every time. (I knew that), since you would have to in order to get great results. So much so, that I never end up using any of what came out of a program. Anyways, The owner had me sep a job and didn't tell me until afterwords that they were also going to print the "program seps" to do a comparison. I was thrilled since I've never had that opportunity. They burnt screens and had mine up on press for samples by the time they were reviewing her seps on film. They decided not to even burn screens for hers. I was never told the reason they never burned hers, but I'm assuming it's because they were happy enough with what they got from mine. I wish they had burned hers. It would be great for the portfolio as a comparison.

I will also note, that I've found that being a full time separator, you come to realize that not everyone will print what you give them 'correctly" or how you would have imagined. So, results can be vastly different. With that said, I've also learned that even tho I would have never done a job the way some did, they somehow still come out very well.

Dot-Tone

[ZooCity]

That's some good insight Dan.  Just to clarify, I wasn't presuming that folks are necessarily learning how to do this form the sep programs, although you're right I'm sure that some are in the same way web developers often learn from Dreamweaver.  I was just saying that initial selection of dominant colors for the print isn't quite the science that the rest of the process is.  Seems like the best of the canned seps routines, like separation studio, select color ranges for you and then make it easy to merge, manipulate and preview the channels and also simplify and streamline the more common and effective adjustments that PS offers for screen print art.  But all this is just as do-able PS if you take the time to learn it. 

On the same note, I really do agree with you in that I don't think I would find much, if any help from these programs if all I was after were higher-end seps and frankly that is all I'm after.  Your work is a great example with how you use a little bit of every color practically everywhere in the print and it doesn't come out like confetti, it comes out with a lot of depth an the illusion (and creation of, via wow printing) many more colors than are actually present on press.  Your seps also lay down a perfect, even amount of ink across the image.  I don't see auto programs being capable of achieving this or even how they would do it though I may be wrong.   

In fact, I can't really imagine even letting one of those programs select a color range for me, it seems like that alone would be too much of a loss of control.  Yet, many are rocking very good seps and prints using some of them so perhaps I need to look at it again.