# Half Tones in Pantone with Corel Draw X3



## 5thQuarterSports (Jan 20, 2007)

How do you creat a 1/2 tone background (or anything for that matter) in Corel x3 when you are using Pantone colors on the rest of the print.


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## identityburn (Feb 24, 2006)

All you do is create a percentage of the Pantone color until you get the desired effect.


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## 5thQuarterSports (Jan 20, 2007)

I Am Totally New To This...how Do I Set The Percentage Of Pantone?


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## Fluid (Jun 20, 2005)

Select your object you want to apply a tint (halftone) click and hold the left mouse button on the color in the the Pantone color palette for a couple seconds. A pop up window will appear with tints (shades) of that specific color.

If you choose 50% when you print to a postscript printer or rip software you will assign the size & shape of the dot and you will ahve a halfone patter @ 50%

hope this helps


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## MotoskinGraphix (Apr 28, 2006)

Richard is this the same function you would undertake to prepare art for screen printing or do you create the art with a halftone (dot type, size, angle etc)? Is this something that should be left up to the printer to handle?


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## Fluid (Jun 20, 2005)

I set the art the way it should look. If you use halftones pu them in the art. As far as dot size, shape and anlge its best to discuss with the printer.

I personally handle all this for all my clients yet if I were to send the art out to a shop I would reccomend talking with thir artist/separator.
Each shop has specific limitations and if you "the artist" specify the dots, shape and angles in the art it could have not so good results.

One job might work best with 45lpi and 25 angle and another would best fit 15lpi.


Honetsly it really depends on the art at hand. if its raster the printer will manage halftones, dpi, dot shape and angles.
If the art is vector 
Example:
1 color with solids and tints you would specify the various tints in the art.the printer will specify the correct halftone size, shape and angle that best fits their setup.

hope this wasnt too confusing. my typing isnt the best.


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## 5thQuarterSports (Jan 20, 2007)

okay, in corel x3 how do you control the angle and size of the dots?


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## 5thQuarterSports (Jan 20, 2007)

forgot, I am using PowerRIP


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## Fluid (Jun 20, 2005)

You specify that info in the advances print options under the separations tab.
Specify that info before printing to the rip.

If using pms spot colors right click the object and you have extra options you can specify there.


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## 5thQuarterSports (Jan 20, 2007)

The Higher The Freq, The Smaller The Dots?


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## Fluid (Jun 20, 2005)

yep. Normal t-shirt priting ranges from 42-65. If manually printing i would stick around 42-50


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## 5thQuarterSports (Jan 20, 2007)

damn, i had the area on where to adjust the lpi and angle, but I am having a brain fart...can anyone help on how to get back to that area?


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## Fluid (Jun 20, 2005)

Ctrl+P to open the print dialogue menu. Click the spearations tab and the advanced button there you go.


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## 5thQuarterSports (Jan 20, 2007)

when you say print ranges, do you mean LPI?


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## 5thQuarterSports (Jan 20, 2007)

when i go there all i can change is the freq and angle on each color? but when i change my colors to Pantone and go to "fountain fill" and click advance, i can then click on post script options, then click on "dots" then I can change my LPI and Angle.


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## tim3560 (Jan 7, 2007)

I've designed a t-shirt with all text, it's a Bible verse design for my church and when I produced it I just used rgb colors to do a gradient fade from dark to light, top to bottom. Each line has its own gradient in addition to the fade from top to bottom. The first line at the top is the darkest and the line at the bottom of the shirt is the lightest. Does this fall under the category of this thread, or do I need a different process to get the art ready for First-Edition?


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## Fluid (Jun 20, 2005)

I dont know anything about first edition yet I would imagine all you need to do is supply the final art in full color. Exactly how you want it to look. They will handle the preprint.


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## tim3560 (Jan 7, 2007)

They were talking about using halftones for the gradient areas. Will this give me anything close to using a gradient fill on the computer?
Also, what is the reason that submitted artwork has to be in pantone colors for the screen printer to be able to use it?


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## Fluid (Jun 20, 2005)

Again I know nothing about the company your working with. These are questions you really should ask them as I am just guessing from what your telling me.

A gradient in the art will ultimately be printed using halftones.

Specifying specifc PMS colors in the art so they know what colors to print.


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## tim3560 (Jan 7, 2007)

Fluid said:


> A gradient in the art will ultimately be printed using halftones.


The gradients are on text in my design. can I get a uniform 270 degree black pantone to white pantone gradient in each word?
Does it look anywhere close to what's on my computer when screen printed? Everyone is saying that halftones are dots so that's all I can picture. Are they really small like pixels? Or is there a noticeable size and shape of each dot?


Fluid said:


> Specifying specifc PMS colors in the art so they know what colors to print.


Why do the colors need to be in pantones though? Why not just using the cmyk or rgb values on the computer? I'm just trying to learn the difference.

I was just wanting a screen printer's knowledge, not about First-Edition specifically.

Thanks


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## Solmu (Aug 15, 2005)

tim3560 said:


> Does it look anywhere close to what's on my computer when screen printed?


It should look close, but probably not the same.



tim3560 said:


> Everyone is saying that halftones are dots so that's all I can picture. Are they really small like pixels? Or is there a noticeable size and shape of each dot?


They're not small like pixels, but they're not exactly noticeable either. If you're standing at a distance (and I'm talking two or three metres here, not a football field ) then you can't tell. A few inches away and it'll be obvious.



tim3560 said:


> Why do the colors need to be in pantones though? Why not just using the cmyk or rgb values on the computer? I'm just trying to learn the difference.


If they want the artwork in pantone colours it's likely to make it easier to separate - easier means quicker, quicker means less labour, less labour means they keep their (and therefore your) costs down.

In terms of why Pantone is useful... if I tell you "it's red" that could mean just about anything. If I give you a hex value, it still has a colour range depending on your monitor settings, etc. If I give you a Pantone colour number... that's the colour, full stop. It ensures colour accuracy.


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## Fluid (Jun 20, 2005)

Thanks Lewis 


> 270 degree black pantone to white pantone


270? not sure where you got this number.

256 is probably what your meaning to say. A gradient from Black to white (greyscale) will provide 256 shades of gray ranging from Black (0) to White (255).

In order to print this on a shirt, a halftone shape and size will be specified. Depending on the design, elemtns using the halfotnes and many other aspects the dot size will be one that like Lewis mentioned youll see the dot pattern at a close look. From afar it will look smooth.

Print your black to white gradient to paper. look at the print closely with a loop or magnifyer glass. Youll see the dot pattern used to print the greyscale iage/gradient. More than likely your printers default setting is set somewhere between 75-150. Most textile prints use a halftone size of 45-65 with 65 being mostly used in automatic printing


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## tim3560 (Jan 7, 2007)

Thank you both! That really helped me to understand!


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## Fluid (Jun 20, 2005)

Glad we were able to help.


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