CMYK Separations for Process Printing in Photoshop

How to make halftone color separations for four color process printing in Adobe Photoshop

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Closed Caption:

what's up Internet Tom Glavine here one
more time
ya betcha I'm making another this is
another halftoning video kinda like the
last one but different
last one was about spot colors after the
spot colors this is about creating half
tone color separations for four color
process printing
I had a piece of art that was just a
jillian colors and I sort of was kicking
around the idea of getting it printed on
paper
screen printed and I knew that it would
have to be a four color process prince
and I didn't want to pay anyone to do
separations for me so I thought I'd
figure it out
and through trial and error playing
around i I've come up with a process
that I'm pretty sure is
is the real deal and if not you know any
screen printers or artists who watch
this video if I'm doing something wrong
or saying something stupid
leave a comment let me know you won't
hurt my feelings
it's the only way I learn I'm no expert
but I think this is a pretty cool it's
pretty cool deal
so we are going to open a i'm going to
do a photo i did a Google image search
for portrait
I found this person I think that's I
think that's the spoiled chick from lost
right now
I crop it just so we don't have to deal
with quite so much junk
yeah that's cool alright so first thing
we're going to do this is a this is an
RGB final so we're going to convert it
to CMYK that's the first step
we made it this far or a for us
all rights over here in the channels
palette
we've got our cyan magenta yellow and
key which is black
we're going to start with that the black
layer before when I was first figuring
out how to do this
I had my process had a bunch of extra
steps and I was in a bookstore reading
about process printing
I saw this little blurb about a
photoshop feature that i have never
heard of I've never stumbled across
it's probably been there forever I just
never had a reason to see it
I don't know how the book was didn't
seem as probably at whatever it doesn't
matter anyway
I don't know everything there is to know
about photoshop i should stop talking
about it
hair we go two channels the drop down
menu go to split channels and what that
does is it takes your document your CMYK
document breaks it into four separate
documents one for each color which is
awesome
now here's our black and this is what
we're going to start with we're going to
turn this black into our destination
document the others will be our source
so once we have this way to go to the
image - image drop down menu mode and
bitmap output that's just the default
resolution of the your document that's
fine
halftone screen now you have to ask your
screen printer what mesh
what kind of mesh count he's using TPI
which is threads per inch on the screen
for four color process they use higher
mesh counts like 300 ish
he'll be able to hear she will be able
to tell you exactly what if he says 300
you would take that mesh count and
divided by three and a half
oops fat fingers 300 / 3.5 equals 85.7
bit of that
so if I were designing this to get
printed i would use something an ideal
frequency would be eight ish
that's dots or lines per inch so the
half-tones you have to think of it like
a square grid and 40 right now it would
be 40 dots in that grid and then it
it perpetuates out it patterns itself
out to fill the document or the art
whatever it is the angle is also very
important
black being the darkest color what
they've screen printers and artists have
determined over the years is that if we
were to have a zero angle for black it
would just be the square like this and
as it patterns that would create a
visual pattern that the human i would
pick up and you don't want that
so the best angle for black for the
darkest color is 45 degrees already got
it set that way to tilt it this way and
then patterns it out
so we're and click ok and there is our
and I left the frequency at 40
just so we could see the dots you know
what for he's a little too big
I'm gonna I'm gonna go back and change
that image mode that map
I'm not going to go much it's 55
all right that's good
now we go image mode grayscale
this is so we can get rid of the light
double click the layer to make it an
active layer not a background
if you have you want to have a light
selected as your foreground color go to
select color range and since white is
the foreground it will default to light
and you can just hit backspace . bourbon
mention much sorry
so we deleted the way we do you select
it and we're going to move over here
first let's actually let's change it to
CMYK since we're going to be copying
other layers in here and applying colors
to them
so the next one up is a thirsty
this is magenta yellow
we're going to go through the exact same
process image mode bitmap and yellow
being the lightest of the four colors
we're going to give it an angle we're
going to leave the frequency the same
for all of them but the angle for each
of them is going to change so we don't
get them lined up on the same angle
because that would create what's called
a a war pattern and the human eye picks
that up and it's it's hard to unsee it
once you do it it's really distracting
takes away from the art so each angle is
different
yellow being the lightest color we're
going to give it an angle of 0
we can't weave between 0 and 90 degrees
which we can use if we go past 90 then
basically if we go from zero and then do
one that's 90 that's the same because
it's a square and would get a pattern
keeping it square a 0 angle will create
a bit of a pattern but being the light
color that yellow is it's going to be
pretty much imperceptible so once we do
that we got a grayscale double click the
layer
select color range
I i delete select now we're going to do
a commander control a to select the
whole document copy
you can drag it over but sometimes
getting it lined up if it doesn't snap
to correctly is a bummer and you need a
lined up perfectly
so then do command V to paste it now
this work is fun this is our yellow
layer so we're going to go to layer
styles color overlay select the color
picker
click color libraries and take this
slider right here all the way to the top
and then click the down arrow 2 times
and you should show up at your process
colors like yellow
click ok click ok now it's not just a
layer style it's not really really there
so we're going to add a new layer and
that hurts that yellow down onto it to
flatten it and we'll drag that below the
black so you can kind of see what's
going on
all right now we're going to close this
yellow we don't need it anymore is
yellow and now we've got magenta
so we go through the same deal image
mode bitmap and magenta being the second
darkest color after black we get black
45 degree angle we want to give magenta
angle that's far enough away from black
that they won't interfere
cause pattern between themselves so
we're going to do 75 for magenta image
mode
grayscale
like that select your color range right
the Select command control a copy at all
carpark select all copy at all and taste
it and this is what is a magenta
so we're going to color overlay again
color libraries down to genta all right
throw new layer under it march down and
now we can close this one
alright so now we've got our cyan image
mode bitmap cyan is the second lightest
color
so we're going to get an angle of 15
which is relatively close to yellow
but being the two lightest colors they
won't interfere with each other much we
will get a slight what's called a
rosette more but that's you know that's
that's actually not that big of a deal
rosette is the least the least the best
of the worst in turn in terms of more
patterns and how the human eye sees them
it's considered acceptable so we'll take
it
image mode grayscale select color range
will select color range
he delete it
whoops I don't want to fill it cancel to
eat
what are we doing oh I didn't make it
see it's a background layer over you now
to eat it
- select control a copy and paste the
image color overlay layer color overlay
color libraries go find Diane
ok
now we can close this there's no white
and CMYK so I'm gonna throw a light
layer underneath because chances are you
going to be printing on a base of white
get paper or shirt
anything else
I see
see why ok the the order here is like it
if we throw yellow up here you know it
changes it really this doesn't matter at
this point you're going to you could
give this to your printer and he has
enough information here and stuff to
make four screens
one of each color to them to the print
to get an idea of how it will look
roughly order that the layers like this
black cyan magenta and yellow
if you want to see how it's gonna look
on up as a print change these color
layers to multiply and what that that
does is just kind of simulates how the
ink will lay on top of each other in a
real print so that's what it's going to
entitle print if we zoom out
I mean that's it looks like a photo we
can open up our original here
drop it
ah
so obviously some of the punch in the
colors gets lost that possesses the
nature four color process but it's
pretty damn close
and if you are a an artist who designed
t-shirts or anything that was screen
printed in you're dealing with spot
colors it using half tones and trying to
maximize your colors for the effect the
you know that the illusion of color then
you'll be able to appreciate how amazing
this is
and if you turn these off we go one by
one
it really is just go away
lost girl named maggie grace
it says on that file here WS Maggie
Grace portrait
so yeah black you know there's yellow
you don't look like much by themselves
kinda cool but together they
it's magic i mean that that is a photo
right there and it's four colors
half-tones I think it's awesome I'm
super excited about it
I can't wait to you know start designing
my next t-shirt and give it a real
painterly effect it maybe not worried
about colors all see if I can get one
printed with the four color process
because i think it's pretty cool
all right that's all i have for you guys
play around it
let me know if I if I dead wrong
wouldn't be the first time all right
take care of yourselves
eat well get a good night's sleep else