About Color Separations by Scott Fresener
We can provide complete color separations for your job. Each set of separations is done personally by Scott Fresener. You get Scott's years of experience in doing literally thousands of colors separations for companies large and small. Even if you own T-Seps, FastFilms or other automated programs, there are often critical jobs where it is worth $75 (72 hour turnaround) or $95 (24 hour turnaround) to get a great set of seps done by a seasoned separator who can do the little things that make the job really pop off the shirt.
This service is ONLY for color separations that you output. If you need film output of your file you need to order it on our Film Output order page. And, you don't need Photoshop to use our separations! We can provide files you can print from any program.
Note: Our price is based on delivery time. If you upload a file but do not make payment, the clock does not start "ticking" on the delivery time until payment is made.
This service is not designed for simple spot color separations that can be done in Corel Draw or Adobe Illustrator. We often get high-end graphic files created in those programs and our service works well when you have a vector file with lots of gradations or placed photographic images. This service is designed for high-end photorealistic image or images with a lot of colors and color gradations. These are images that could be done with our program T-Seps and if you think you will do a lot of this type of work, download a Free Trial of T-Seps – a Photoshop plugin. To see the type of color separations we can do for light and dark shirts simply look at the shirt samples in our Gallery. These are actual shirts sent in by customers that have separations done by us.
What we Provide
We provide a standard Photoshop Channel Separation that you can print directly from Photoshop OR Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw if you have a RIP (like T-RIP) for halftones. Learn more about how to output the separations in Illustrator or Corel HERE.
If you don't have a RIP we can provide "pre-halftoned" files that print from any program – for a small additional fee.
The seps have registration targets, the print order, the print color, the recommended mesh count and a grayscale (to help with screen making) on each film. We make it a no brainer and as long as you follow our directions and burn a great screen with all the small halftone dots – you will be amazed at the final print…… and so will your customer! If you are new to this type of printing and burning halftone dots there is a great article HERE.
This service is great for start-ups, critical jobs, companies who don't do high-end work often, or as a backup source for your art department – or when your artist calls in sick.
We offer all separation types and the fee is not dependent on the number of colors.
* Simulated Process Color
* Index Color
* Discharge Ink Separations
* Real CMYK Process Color
* Complex Spot Color
* Black and White Old Photo
These images are samples of separation jobs we have done.
The Final Separations
The final separations will be sent electronically to you via an email with a download link. The separated file will be an Adobe Photoshop PSD file AND a PDF file with Channel "separations" ready to print out to an output device with a software RIP to control the halftones. If you do not have a software rip for halftone dots we will send the file as individual separation files with the grayscale areas pre-halftoned for output on any type of printer (a printer with a RIP is better for you because it controls the amount of ink deposit and gives a denser image and better halftone dots). Output files to your inkjet printer, laser printer, or dry film system (OYO and others).
We will include with each separation the recommended print order, ink color, screen mesh and any critical print details. This service does not include art preparation or artwork re-work. We will separate what we are given. If your image has black type and you want separations for black shirts we will ask you for a piece of artwork with the type in the correct color. If you find errors on your part after you receive the separations (spelling, missing components, wrong size, etc.), you will have to pay for a new set of separations. We can't be responsible and while we like to think we are smart, we are not mind readers. BUT… we will use our own common sense and if we feel there is a problem with the file we will contact you before we do the seps. We will bend over backwards to communicate problems, issues and questions.
If you are not sure how well a piece of artwork will work or if you just need to know how many colors it should be, send a copy of the artwork using our Upload link. Please do not email us files as we may never get them due to spam filters. We look at files all the time.
The truth is not a day goes by that we don't get emails of thanks. Read some Testimonials HERE. They usually start out with "the shirts came out great!" We have some large accounts that we have done over 500 jobs for!
If you are new to printing high-end halftone work on light and dark shirts you need to click HERE for Screen Printing Tips and read a great article on proper screen making and printing. This short article should be printed out and followed when doing your first few jobs.
