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Printing half-tones from Illustrator


Thread posted 06/02/09 by SjSings22 last edited 06/02/09
12,407 views, 5 comments.

Title
Printing half-tones from Illustrator

Content

I'm a pretty heavy Illustrator user, but this one has me stumped.

I need to create a one-color image with a gradient that is going to be screen printed.

My screen printer wants the half-tones to be in vector art so he can open it in Corel-Draw. So I planned to print to a .pdf file with the correct half-tone settings.

I've tried everything I can think of and I just can't figure out what setting to use.

Please please help me!!!

Comments

posted 06/02/09 by tphinsf | Report Abuse

<p>Hi SjSings22,</p> <p>Check out this tutorial:</p> <p>http://vectips.com/tutorials/creating-halftone-effects/</p>

posted 06/02/09 by SjSings22 | Report Abuse

<p>I'd rather not "create" the half tone--I just want to print it--like my printer would do it.</p>

posted 06/02/09 by tphinsf | Report Abuse

<p>Then ask you printer for the settings they need. If they are spec'ing the work, they should have the settings.</p>

posted 06/02/09 by SjSings22 | Report Abuse

<p>I wish it were that easy. Unfortunately, he's really good at screen printing but he doesn't know anything technical. I asked him what he would do if some stranger off the street gave him art for his kid's birthday party and he answered "I'd pay a college kid $70 to give me the art I need."</p>

posted 06/07/09 by artdept@mac.com | Report Abuse

<p>&nbsp;i think&nbsp; i can help&nbsp; you with this.&nbsp; Unfortunetly it seems as though&nbsp; your &nbsp; screenprinter&nbsp; does not&nbsp; know what to do with your&nbsp; art..&nbsp; IF you have already&nbsp; set up your art in illustrator&nbsp; and you have the gradient already,&nbsp; then&nbsp; by&nbsp; all means&nbsp; your part should be done.&nbsp; generally&nbsp; then&nbsp; halftones that screen&nbsp; printers require&nbsp; are&nbsp; made durring the output side.&nbsp; Just like paper printering, &nbsp; screenprinting&nbsp; currently requires&nbsp; film to be made,&nbsp; the&nbsp; general&nbsp; line screen a&nbsp; screenprinter&nbsp; can use can be&nbsp; from&nbsp; 1- 65 lines per suare inch .&nbsp; the lower the # the bigger the halftone dot. &nbsp; Are you going for a&nbsp; certain look for your project&nbsp; such as you might see in&nbsp; old comic&nbsp; books&nbsp; that have big&nbsp; halftones in it&nbsp; or&nbsp; are you just more&nbsp; concerned&nbsp; with a&nbsp; nice clean&nbsp; graident? if all you need is a&nbsp; clean graident then your screen printer should&nbsp; make&nbsp; his film @ the&nbsp; desired&nbsp; line screen that works best for him...</p> <p>In order to&nbsp; make&nbsp; halftone seperations from illustrator&nbsp; you&nbsp; usually need a&nbsp; postcript printer&nbsp; such as&nbsp; most hp laser jets&nbsp; etc.&nbsp; inkjets can&nbsp; make&nbsp; halftone seperations but they usually require&nbsp; a&nbsp; third party rip&nbsp; program.&nbsp;</p> <p>Hopefully this shed some light on the subject for you,&nbsp; however if you still have&nbsp; problems&nbsp; or questions&nbsp; feel&nbsp; free to email me .</p> <p>vivek</p> <p>email:artdept@mac.com</p> <p>Jiminy stitch It</p> <p>Screenpinting &amp; Embroidery&nbsp;</p> <p>San Jose CA</p>