Creating a Base

[Rory]

I was wondering if anyone out there who does screen printing pre-press work happens to know of any programs available that will automatically create a base for artwork in Illustrator? At the moment I am just creating them manually but would love to find something that could save me hours of work.

[Paths]

Can you explain what you mean by base.

Thanks :)

[Rory]

By a base I am refering to a white base screen that goes down as the first screen when you are printing onto coloured or dark material. So basically the colours will be sitting ontop of the white base and will not be affected by the material colour.

[Scott Weichert]

You could, select all, copy, paste in back, hold the Option key (PC: alt) and click Pathfinder Add, then fill with white.

That would give you one solid shape the exact contour of all the objects. Just watch for areas where Pathfinder > Add may fill a hole that is needed.

You could then record this to an action and batch files with it.

[Rory]

That is basically what I am currently doing. However it gets more complicated once you have things like black in the artwork which need to be cut out of the base. When there is a file (Usually supplied) that has many small parts or dots to it all on the one layer It can sometimes become quite tricky. As-well the base needs to be cut back by a small ammount and in some areas where there is fine or thin text you need to cut back the base by a smaller ammount or you will loose the base in that area all together.
I was just wondering if there was something alreay out there that someone/Company has produced to tackle this for Illustrator, as there is a product already availaible Specifically for screen printing out of Photoshop.

[Paths]

I was wondering if anyone out there who does screen printing pre-press work happens to know of any programs available that will automatically create a base for artwork in Illustrator? At the moment I am just creating them manually but would love to find something that could save me hours of work.

OK, thanks Rory, that is what I thought you meant (but also thought you might mean a reg template too).

Can I ask how you do your base manually?

I do artwork for a screen printer too - but we have had issues with underbases. I'm wondering if you halftone it, etc.

Thanks :)

[Rory]

Basically if I have to create a base for any artwork I will often if necessary put all of my artwork onto a separate layers based on colour. i.e. everything that is orange will be on one layer and everything that is red will be on another. (Ususally I wont bother unless it is particularly complicated but it can help make things clearer) and then I just create a new layer and copy all of the artwork I want to have a base underneath it onto the "Base" layer. Once it is all there I just use the pathfinder options to make it all one solid shape and then cut out any areas if necessary (Whatever is black) and then finally I put a stroke around the base layer, set it to stroke internally about 0.5 to 1 pt.
Usually that works fine. There is also a program called Wilflex Easy Art2 that I use from Photoshop. But it is mostly used for creating simulated process work with lots of photorealistic type prints. Basically its a list of actions that you can apply to an image and it will output all of the alpha channels for you, and when I use that program it will use a halftone base a lot of the time.

[Rory]

I should also add that I am still fairly new to screen printing. I have had a fair bit of experience with off-set printing but have only been working in this current job for 3 months. I have had to basically teach myself a lot just through trial and error and research, So i dont know if the way i am doing things is necessarily the best way to do them, but I have no-one to instruct me otherwise so I just do what I can...

[Paths]

Thanks, looks like our previous posts crossed :D. I have made 'flood' fills for them in a similar way - but it always ends up being 'patch-like' heavy.

I likely do my seps differently then you as I don't print on a postscript. I print the spots to pdf (seps - host based) and then import into PS if haltoning (or manual trap / choke) is needed and then export to PDF for printing on a normal printer (since the seps and halftones are done, in application, as opposed to at print time) - I like to add my registration manually too so I can get it tight - plus there is nothing better then layer comps in PS and support for multipage PDFs.

[Paths]

I should also add that I am still fairly new to screen printing. I have had a fair bit of experience with off-set printing but have only been working in this current job for 3 months. I have had to basically teach myself a lot just through trial and error and research, So i dont know if the way i am doing things is necessarily the best way to do them, but I have no-one to instruct me otherwise so I just do what I can...

Can I say 'me too' without sounding like a dork. I've been at it for almost 1 year now. It's like some guarded secret of the great unknown sometimes :D - but I've managed so far to find out or 'invent' what I need. You and I could bend ears for a while I think :D

[Rory]

Yeah I have found it really difficult to find any information specifically for pre press screen printing. I don't think that you are in the same city as me (Perth Australia) but I think we could definately have find somthing to discuss over a couple beers.

[Paths]

Soutwestern Ontario Canada here :D

You can send me a PM with your ISP email and we can write. It would be great to have someone in the business to bouce ideas off of.

Cheers,
Tara

[SUIJAYPAO]

Hi Rory
Just want to let you know that you can do the base for your sep. by open your AI file in photoshop , select colors that you want for the base put those elements in separate layer or channel , delete other channels, select all and contract the elements one or two pixel smaller set the selection to reverse and delete. Change your graphic mode to bitmap save as tiff.
Open illustrator and place your bitmap file on top of your AI file try to select your bitmap file and align it to your AI art work. Hope this will help.

[jadedragon]

Well the only program I know of to help you seperate is Fastfilms but it works with Photoshop.I work for a screenrointing place and the only way to do it in illustrator is manually.

[phantasm]

Well the only program I know of to help you seperate is Fastfilms but it works with Photoshop.I work for a screenrointing place and the only way to do it in illustrator is manually.

Please excuse the obvious product plug, but you can now fully separate artwork in Illustrator CS to CS3 using Phantasm CS Studio (http://www.phantasmcs.com/features/). Not just an on-screen preview, but actually generate full separations of each ink (including any spots) in a new document. Each channel is copied to a separate layer which can then be accessed as normal. This can be tested by using the Trial version: www.phantasmcs.com/trial (http://www.phantasmcs.com/trial/index.html)

I think you will find other tools in Phantasm CS Studio of great help with screen printing such as overprinted object preview, ink coverage, and even a vector halftone screening tool.

The plugin was released a mid-March 2008 and is available from www.phantasmcs.com (http://www.phantasmcs.com)

Hope this is of some genuine help as well as being a plug!

Nick

[tatopovis]

need retail version please , share this one , thankz

[FrankAbagnale]

send me you mail address :cool: