j.lyon

Thank you all for the input. I will take a look at the tutorial in detail when I have time. My upcoming projects dont require separation but I wanted to find out if that had been addressed in V2 before I decide to upgrade. Honestly, I think there is enough improvement in V2 to justify the purchase even without color separation. I did achieve decent half tone seps using RIP software when I was doing screens. But its been a few yrs and I recall it was not a "seamless" work flow.

I bought into Affinity yrs ago to use for t-shirt designing. But I quickly learned there was no easy way to separate the colors to produce my screens. So I basically abandoned it after wasting hours learning it and looking for a work around. Id like to give V2 a try. But has there been an easy means of separating colors worked into the upgrade?

Hello...Im the OP for this thread. I pretty much gave up on finding a seamless way to do color seps in AD. Ive been out of the game for almost a year and haven't even looked at AD (or AP) in that time. Thought it might be worth checking to see if this ever found its way into an update. Anyone been able to do separations of colors without a ridiculous string of steps? BTW: if I recall, I was able to do some basic seps of simple designs by manually hiding layers/elements in the design and then manually recoloring the ones left on in black.

Hi Guys, Stil havent had a chance to try the screens. Yes Mike, your approach sounds about the same as mine but I think I just describe it in newbie lingo. I do have the problem of knowing just enough to ask questions here but not enough to comprehend the whole anwers you guys so dilligently gave. Anyway, I'm going to prep another piece of artwork and then test them all out on press in the next few days. Will let you know how it goes! Thanks to you both very much for all your help so far. I think if a noob like me can work with Affinity long enough for them to implement the capabilities we need, we'll eventually have an app that is superior in many ways to AI and CD.

Hey guys, I think Ive cracked the case! I have not tried them on the press yet but I FINALLY developed a reasonable work flow that results in decent looking films and does not require any fancy footwork between applications. Further, I did it all with the software I have - AD, Sep Studio and Accurip. Im not going to pat myself on the back just yet because there could be registration problems when I get the films to press. I will keep you posted once Ive done some test prints. But wanted to let you know I haven't dropped the ball. And...I haven't run out and bought more spendy software to throw at it. I was going to get Corel in the beginning but found and fell in love with AD. I ruled out AI long ago because of the price tag and/or ongoing pay to play charges. I was also not looking fwd to figuring out how to make Corel run on my Macs. Anyway, just to outline what I did to get these films.... It is a 5 color design with some raster elements that needed separating on Sep Studio and some vector elements (text) that looked too jagged when separated in Sep Studio. So I... 1> Pulled the vector images out of the design and then sent the remaining raster images to Sep Stu to separate. This results in a EPS with the 5 "channels"/ colors stacked up. 2> I am able to open those in AD and see all the layers/colors/films. But I had to take care of some resizing issues (the films came back from Sep Studio larger than the 11"x17" as designed in AD). 3>So I then spread them out side by side and used Snapping to get them lined up with each other. 4> I created an artboard under each panel and named it for the color of the film ...but Im not sure if I even needed to do that. 5>Then I pasted the vector layer (actually I had Grouped the vector elements) containing my text back onto each color panel using Snapping to position it just like the other panels. 6>After that it was just a matter of unchecking the boxes of the vector elements that didn't belong on the given color/screen. 7>I also discovered and had to use the Invert feature found in the Adjustments menu at the bottom of the Layers panel because I had a couple of vector elements that needed to be flipped as negative. It was some text that was to be black on the finished shirt and the design is for a black shirt. So where the black text goes, I need no ink on the film. 8>Then I printed them out one at a time. In the print menu, there is a check box for registration marks. They are tiny but I think I can work with them. I think it will be easier next time because I won't be exploring uncharted waters. And I might even be able to shorten the steps. But if this prints well, I can live with the process for a while. I actually think the bulk of my clients wont even need this complex style of art. From what others tell me, the bread and butter is 1-3 simple spot colors. But I want to have the capability to create the really nice designs as well.

Whew...Thank you Patrick. Maybe it takes a few days to show up on my credit card statement.

I went onto the Apple App store to buy Photo the last day of the special price offer. I hit the "buy" button and it popped onto my computer. But I do not see a charge to my credit card yet and I don't think I got a receipt emailed to me. Apple's app store is continuously busy tonight so I can't check the order there. Is there a chance that what I actually got was a free trial version? How can I tell from the software?

It was not a "try then buy offer". It was a special price for the "launch" of the new version. I received lots of warning that the sale was ending...to the point of being pestered. I ended up buying it the last day of the special because I knew it was ending and Im hooked on Affinity. Honestly, with a regular price of only $50, I seriously doubt Serif needs to even offer special pricing to lure people away from the high dollar and subscription competition. I am just grateful they have given us a viable alternative at a price anyone can afford. And it won't do any of us any good if we dime and nickel them out of business.

I think it would add thousands of potential new users if AD had user friendly tools for separating spot colors and printing the film positives. In particular, I am hitting a dead end with trying to add vector elements back into my eps files after separating the raster elements in Separation Studio.

Hi Mike, Here is the design in several versions. * PDF - so you can see what the finished product is supposed to look like. * EPS - This is what I get back from Sep Studio * AFDesign File - This is after I label the layers of the EPS file. I guess it turns it into an AD file just because of that little edit. See what you can make of this. It looks, to my untrained brain, like the final product is ready to print thru accurip. And the only thing I need to do it leave the text elements out for the Sep Studio operation and then insert the text back into the appropriate layer/color/screen/channel once I open the file in AD again. Meanwhile, tonight, Im going to try what I just described and see if I can print a test screen. And also Im going to play with my idea of stacking the films on the screen (text + Raster image) just prior to exposing. I think one of these might be a valid work-around although not exactly a smooth process. But it might get me thru until AD comes out with seperations in a future update. Realistically tho, I have no indication that it's even in the works. I haven't heard a peep from anyone on the "inside" at AD.

Another idea I have for getting a crisp version of the text onto my screens.... What if I go ahead and run my half tone/shaded "raster" elements of the design thru Sep Studio and then print the films without the crisp "vector" text elements. Then. I could print the vector elements on seperate films. Then, before burning the screens, I could stack the 2 films together carefully and expose them. Then, as long as the vector text elements match one of the colors in the raster part of the design, it wouldnt require extra screens for the vector elements. Does that sound worth a try?

Now we're in territory that is definitely over my head. I am getting back an eps from Sep Stu that I open in AD and it has the films separated as layers. And since I did the design, I am able to re-label which color goes with which screen/layer. Last night I printed a film of just the white underbase. It is a version where I just left the text in and seperated it all in Sep Studio. I wanted to see how "pixelated" the text would be. And...as expected...the text is pretty jagged. I havent tried it out on the press yet but I doubt it will be very hi quality text on a shirt. But Im going to produce a few of these....half-assed attempts and then take them all out to the press to see how they look in print. Would it help if I attached my file here of the eps Im getting back from Sep Stu so you can see what Im seeing? If so, I;ll do that in a while when I get to the other computer.

Hi Mike, Thanks again for taking the time to help! Yes I do have Accurip Black Pearl. I just got it set up with my epson 1430. I am brand new to this tho so have yet to actually print anything thru it. Im still trying to figure out what exactly I do get back in AD when I import the eps created in Sep Stu. There seems to be a corresponding layer for each color. And it's in "film" form (as opposed to color). But I haven't found names for the layers (I presume you are referring to the colors?) But they could actually be in there somewhere. I notice there IS a check box in the AD print setup menu for inserting registration marks and "page information". Might that include the page name you refer to? Anywho...I am just doing seps for my 6 color manual press so Im pretty sure I can identify which color each layer represents. As for naming the swatches, I think I can do that but have not explored swatches much except for setting up a swatch palette for the design. So Im with you up to about that point. What I was thinking is that a person could just paste (a black version of) the vector elements back into the design on the appropriate color/layer. Of course, the vector elements (which is almost always text) would have to use one of the colors from the raster element to avoid having to do separate screens just for those elements. One problem I see with that is; those vector elements need to also be on the white underbass screen. So there would be some tedious pasting/positioning involved. Please forgive if Im babbling nooby nonsense. And I know things that work in theory don't always work in practice. But I tend to think outside the box...way outside the box. In fact, I haven't been inside the box for years! But it has paid off big a few times in my life.

I am still working on coming up with some sort of work-around for how to do color separations in AD (as it appears many have tried in the past). With so many people needing this seemingly simple feature, I find it mind-boggling that AD does not have this capability right out front. Had I known this about AD, I would not have chosen it as my design app. Im still hopeful that I can find a way to get around the issue until it becomes a feature. * Does anyone know if it is in the works for a future update? If it's not even a pipe dream yet, then I am going to have to drop AD and start learning Corel. I just hate that Corel doesn't run native on Mac and of course I hate the price tag. * Are there any suggestions for another app I can use to separate my designs done in AD? I shelled out $800 for Separation Studio and then found out that it doesn't really do the whole job of separating the designs. It is basically just an expensive color tweaking tool that then issues the separations of only the raster elements. It doesn't even print those. You have to take it back into your design app to add any vector elements back in and print it. So now Im a little gun-shy about forking over another $200-300 clams for yet another app that may or may not do what I need. * What about Affinity Photo? I just got it the other day and have not had time to play with it yet. Might there be a way to use it to do seps?

I sure hope there is a way to do the seps. Ive invested a LOT of hours learning AD with the workbook over the last month and I really like it/want it to be my design program. I thought the Sep Studio program would let me print the films directly from there but now I find out I have to seperate the file, then send it back to my design program (AD I hope) to then add the vector elements back in and print the films. I am able to open the seperated file in AD and it has the positives all laid out in layers. So I suppose I could print those layers out. I guess I could add the vector elements to the appropriate layer that corresponds with the color of the vector element. Or - I could leave the vector elements in and send it all over to Separation Studio. Then when I separate it and send it back to AD, those elements will already be where they need to be. The down side is, those elements wont be as sharp as they could have been because they will be raster elements at that point.