# I have a spot color image with black halftones for grey... need to print on a black shirt...



## earwicker7 (Oct 27, 2014)

I created a design a while ago with a knife that was basically black and different shades of grey using black halftones... it would print easily on a white shirt as a one-color job.

The problem is that I am going to be using it as part of another design with a heart made out of red halftones, and it's going on a black shirt. The hard way to do this would be a white undercoat, and just slap the black over it, so it would end up as a three-color job.

Is it possible to just swap the Pantone Black with an inverse Pantone White? For example, the majority of the knife blade is 25% Pantone Black... to print it on a white shirt, can I just make it 75% Pantone White? And 40% Pantone Black would be 60% Pantone White, etc. That way I could do one screen with a white undercoat and white halftones, and one screen for red.

If it's not that direct, and it could end up with something like 40% black is 55% white, and and 30% black is 75% white, then it's probably just less work to do it as a three-color than to toy around and find the exact values.

Thanks!


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## jgabby (Mar 29, 2007)

It would be easier if we could see the design


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## earwicker7 (Oct 27, 2014)

jgabby said:


> It would be easier if we could see the design


Here's a rough version... the heart and knife are final, but the text isn't.


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## mushroomtoxic (Sep 5, 2013)

I would, just re-sep the job to be able to print on lights and darks. You would have 1 base screen for darks, then change the same screen with the black colorway version. adjusting the knife in the artwork for both. you can use the black of the shirt to help with your blends in the knife.


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## jgabby (Mar 29, 2007)

3 screens, is really the minimum

here how I would set it :

underbase --> image // mode // lab // pick up the lightness channel and make underbased red solid









red









Highlight White - sorry, I forgot to add the text on it !









Final


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## Screen Medics (Feb 23, 2015)

earwicker7 said:


> I created a design a while ago with a knife that was basically black and different shades of grey using black halftones... it would print easily on a white shirt as a one-color job.
> 
> The problem is that I am going to be using it as part of another design with a heart made out of red halftones, and it's going on a black shirt. The hard way to do this would be a white undercoat, and just slap the black over it, so it would end up as a three-color job.
> 
> ...


Hey guys I don't think that there is a "best" way to perform the separations and in regards to answering your question I can't. What I do have though are some separations at 14" Wide at 55 lpi. My Red, Black, and Highlight White halftones all interlock and my tshirt would have a total of two layers thick of ink as opposed to 3 (the heart).

Jgabby, thanks for the example. What rip software do you use? Your separations would stack the ink on the heart 3 layers deep pfpfp. Do you think that 3 layers of ink could look chunky? My question is the differences we would see on the garment between my films and yours. I like that you only have 3 films as opposed to my 4, I decided to prepare the artwork to accommodate any color garment and if you are printing on white just drop the underbase.

Please give me your feedback.


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## jgabby (Mar 29, 2007)

Screen Medics said:


> Jgabby, thanks for the example. What rip software do you use? Your separations would stack the ink on the heart 3 layers deep pfpfp. Do you think that 3 layers of ink could look chunky?
> Please give me your feedback.



You could print all with 230, the hand will be soft, or discharge the underbase or many other ways 

I use accurip, I chose it for its simplicity.


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## Screen Medics (Feb 23, 2015)

Screen Medics said:


> Hey guys I don't think that there is a "best" way to perform the separations and in regards to answering your question I can't. What I do have though are some separations at 14" Wide at 55 lpi. My Red, Black, and Highlight White halftones all interlock and my tshirt would have a total of two layers thick of ink as opposed to 3 (the heart).
> 
> Jgabby, thanks for the example. What rip software do you use? Your separations would stack the ink on the heart 3 layers deep pfpfp. Do you think that 3 layers of ink could look chunky? My question is the differences we would see on the garment between my films and yours. I like that you only have 3 films as opposed to my 4, I decided to prepare the artwork to accommodate any color garment and if you are printing on white just drop the underbase.
> 
> Please give me your feedback.


With prescript halftone dot generation my vector pfs are huge they can be seen at the below links. If I did'nt make any mistakes the files are ready to print 55lpi 14" wide design.

http://ellisonadvertising.com/2015/Red.pdf
http://ellisonadvertising.com/2015/Underbase.pdf
http://ellisonadvertising.com/2015/Black.pdf
http://ellisonadvertising.com/2015/Highlight White.pdf


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## dial911forme (Sep 22, 2014)

I take it everyone is using illustrator? Screen_Medics, how long did that take you?


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## Screen Medics (Feb 23, 2015)

dial911forme said:


> I take it everyone is using illustrator? Screen_Medics, how long did that take you?


I used a plugin for Illustrator called Phantasm CS to create my dots. I spent about 1 1/2 hours on the separations - I think I can squeeze it down to about 45 minutes I took a weird approach this time. The reason it takes me so long is because I have to click and apply the Phantasm effect on each design element and then mask one by one. You can watch youtube tutorials on utilizing Phantasm CS.

I spent the time to perform the film separations because I am looking to get help from the community. Jgabby provided separations that layerd the white highlight dots over a solid red fill. I am wondering if my time spent is worth it because the quality of my "lock and key" seps is that much better? Or should I just send it through accurip and process the job like Jgabby and save a bunch of time?

Please share your experience with me on this subject guys!


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## dial911forme (Sep 22, 2014)

Screen Medics said:


> I used a plugin for Illustrator called Phantasm CS to create my dots. I spent about 1 1/2 hours on the separations - I think I can squeeze it down to about 45 minutes I took a weird approach this time. The reason it takes me so long is because I have to click and apply the Phantasm effect on each design element and then mask one by one. You can watch youtube tutorials on utilizing Phantasm CS.
> 
> I spent the time to perform the film separations because I am looking to get help from the community. Jgabby provided separations that layerd the white highlight dots over a solid red fill. I am wondering if my time spent is worth it because the quality of my "lock and key" seps is that much better? Or should I just send it through accurip and process the job like Jgabby and save a bunch of time?
> 
> Please share your experience with me on this subject guys!


IDK if you are willing/have CorelDraw but I use Corel X6 and simple seps. Seps like that would take 10 mins with tweaks and I can preview what they look like right on screen. All for less than half of what accurip cost. Not knocking Adobe or accurip. Just not my cup of tea.


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