Color Separation On Affinity Photo ipad

[denk]

Can anyone explain how to do something like this in Affinity Photo (iPad).  See pdf file.  In garment printing there is 4 color process, simulated process and index.  This here is called simulated process.

 

Need to be able to pull colors from the image.  Need to be able to adjust dot gain or simulate it per channel. Need to be able to change color per channel and see it live while picking a color.  Need to be able to choose a Pantone color from a Pantone swatch.  Need to be able to save with channels so it can be sent to a RIP to make film positives.

 

Sometimes necessary but need to be able to split channels and turn them to grayscale so it can be converted to bitmap halftone for people who don't have RIPS.  When converting channels to bitmap halftone there needs to be options to choose dot shape, lines per inch and dot angle.

 

In the future when Affinity Designer (iPad) comes out:  Need to be able to move the image from Affinity Photo (iPad) to add vector text or other objects.  Need to be able to move from Affinity Designer (iPad) to Affinity Photo (iPad) to color separate.

affinity color sep.pdf

[Alfred]

Welcome to the Serif Affinity Forums, @denk.

 

3 minutes ago, denk said:

In the future when Affinity Designer (iPad) comes out:  Need to be able to move the image from Affinity Photo (iPad) to add vector text or other objects.  Need to be able to move from Affinity Designer (iPad) to Affinity Photo (iPad) to color separate.

 

I sincerely hope that we won’t have to switch from one app to the other just to do colour seps!

 

[denk]

2 minutes ago, Alfred said:

Welcome to the Serif Affinity Forums, @denk.

 

 

I sincerely hope that we won’t have to switch from one app to the other just to do colour seps!

 

You have to.  Vector based programs can't color separate like raster programs.  Unless Affinity Designer can pull colors like a raster program?  Screen printing is a totally different beast.  It's hard to explain.  Just like illustrator and photoshop need to work together.  Text in illustrator and if its just simple enough to print on paper then no problem.  If it is photographic then it needs to be moved to a raster program.  You can't print 4 color process the same way it is on paper.  Totally different.

[Alfred]

Affinity Designer is a hybrid app. Although lacks many of the raster image processing features of Affinity Photo and other image editors, it includes a Pixel Persona which allows you to perform a range of operations at the pixel level.

[denk]

34 minutes ago, Alfred said:

Affinity Designer is a hybrid app. Although lacks many of the raster image processing features of Affinity Photo and other image editors, it includes a Pixel Persona which allows you to perform a range of operations at the pixel level.

Well anyway.  I wanna see if anybody can do what I did in the pdf file.  I’ll check back later.  But I’m afraid Affinity Photo is not designed that way.  

[stokerg]

Hi @denk i know at the moment with Printing, we just hook into the IOS print side of things, so the print options are limited when printing direct from the app.  I've honestly no idea what the plans are for printing on Photo or Designer (when it's ready).  I'll have a work with the QA guys on Tuesday, who should know a bit more what's planned for the printing side of things for Designer for iPad.

 

I can't see a way to do the colour separation in the iPad version of Affinity Photo at the moment, so unless someone posts in the meantime, i'll get more info on this on Tuesday when we are back in the office.

[steveyates]

Hello, did anyone resolve this? Im looking to only use the ipad for design and color separation for screen printing. I have both Designer and Photo. While both are great programs, the inability to do basic indexing (user created palette) and color selecting and spot channel separation and layer diffusing (for faded opacity) stuff like that makes it impossible for me to convert over to ipad yet. 

Sorry kind of wordy. Just anxious to use only your software on ipad.

 

thanks

[denk]

16 hours ago, steveyates said:

Hello, did anyone resolve this? Im looking to only use the ipad for design and color separation for screen printing. I have both Designer and Photo. While both are great programs, the inability to do basic indexing (user created palette) and color selecting and spot channel separation and layer diffusing (for faded opacity) stuff like that makes it impossible for me to convert over to ipad yet. 

Sorry kind of wordy. Just anxious to use only your software on ipad.

 

thanks

Cant be done.  Use photoshop for separation.

[steveyates]

Finally Resolved!

Simulated Process in Affinity Photo with Color Separation AP is available at Etsy at https://www.etsy.com/listing/848986958/color-separation-ap-for-affinity-photo?ref=shop_home_feat_1

Check out the videos below.Let me know your thoughts I’d be happy to answer any questions and comments.

Thanks

Steve

Overview video

Trailer video

 

[DM1]

Wow, $93 aud for a set of colour separation Macros. That’s 3x what the app cost!  Nice work for sure, but definitely not for those just 'dabbling' in printing. 🤭

[steveyates]

Hi DM1

thanks for your reply. While Color Separation AP is intended for daily screen print pros, the price was a tricky thought for me for the reason that you brought up. The desktop version on Affinity Photo is $50 USD but the cheapest color separator out there on sale is my Spot Me while on sale at $75. Most are $300 plus. So at that point it was going to be about value. And I hope it’s packed with a good amount of features to fill the ipad pricing gap. However, I’m listening and appreciate your input big time. 

Thanks again

Steve

[DM1]

Hi Steve, to be clear, It was not my intention to belittle what you have done, it certainly looks like a lot of time and effort has gone into developing these macros, and looking at the videos they do an excellent job separating the colours. 
Your Macros are clearly targeted at those invested in designing on the iPad for screen printing and worth the cost given the investment in time and effort you took to create them. 
Anything that allows iPad users to complete tasks that otherwise require a desktop computer are a good thing. 
Maybe you can sell them through Serifs Affinity store? I don’t know what the process is but people make and sell brushes.

[steveyates]

Hi DM1

I appreciate your reply. And I got that you weren’t belittling or anything.   I appreciate your input. I also appreciate the info about Serif’s store. I’ll take a look. Thanks again and honestly, I didnt get a bad vibe at all from your post. I felt that it was honest and helps address the pricing mismatch between Affinity’s generosity in Photo’s pricing and the pricing norm for color separation add ons. By the way, are you a screen printer yourself?

Thanks again!

[Paul Mudditt]

Maybe Dave’s macros do the same thing?
 

 

[steveyates]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the tip. It’s a cool set of channel to layer utilities. But it’s not the same. 

Color Separation AP was created for screen print spot color separations. Screen printing color separations are their own animal. And I’ve heard that exact frustration coming from the garment printing industry about Affinity Photo. Some of it on this forum.

Photo is such a killer program and achieves it’s killer results a little differently than Photoshop. Making the only color separation method available on our new cool photo editor CMYK. And that, not treated for the unique challenges of garment printing. Like out of control dot gain. CMYK doesn’t work well with most screen prints because of the faded none saturated look. It works with some designs that aren’t that saturated to begin with but for designs that use rich saturated blues and other saturated colors, spot colors are needed. Not to mention that screen print on cotton’s dot gain is 30% to 35% or more making CMYK a mess on cotton most times. We do several different methods to get that controlled saturated color pop look and “simulated process” is one of them. Which is what Color Separation AP is. 

Color Separation AP generates all positives for the sake of burning screens for screen printing. The Red, Green and Blue are the positive spot colors in the image. Not the RGB channel color values from the original file converted to layers. The other three none Black, Gray or White screen colors are Turquoise, Yellow and Purple. As well as the two blacks, a gray a highlight white and of course a grayscale underbase for dark colored garments. And those separations can be fine tuned in Color Separation AP to the specific job at hand.

Color Separation AP is geared to that end. To leave the screen printer with a great set of high end screen burnable simulated process positive color separations that weren’t available before in an automated format like the automation that’s already available for Photoshop.

I hope that helps. And I hope it helps screen printers to color separate their saturated garment printing designs on Affinity’s killer app. 

thanks again,
Steve

[Boldlinedesign]

@steveyates - this looks really awesome! I work full-time for myself, designing specifically for apparel screen printers. I love Affinity and use their apps daily, but still resort to my outdated copy of CS6 to accomplish the things Affinity can't do. Having the ability to use Affinity Photo to create separations would offer a lot to my business.
the title says it's for ipad - but looking at your etsy post, it headlined "Color Separation AP for Affinity Photo iPad, Mac and Windows"
so triple checking that these macors can be installed on desktop and ipad versions of Affinity Photo?
Does your macro set create an under base for printing on dark shirts?? Can I export the positives and individually saved files to send to a printer/client through email? I assume I can also save out the photo native file with seps as layers as you were showing and send that native file to a client to print if they have Affinity Photo?
Have you looked at other ways to distribute it besides etsy? 

[steveyates]

Hi BoldLineDesign

Before I reply, i saw your art work. It’s killer! Nice work! I work in the apparel industry myself. Mostly High end color separations..

Color Separation AP will work on all three. IPad, Mac and Windows. I think I got carried away with the iPad talk when I realized I could do my simulated process and halftones on my iPad now. Rather than my outdated CS5.  

Color Separation AP does do an underbase as well as a highlight white. You can export your seps to individual files. And that’s how I’ve been doing it myself. I normally print all of the Photoshop channels to PDF and still do for some customers but a lot of times I can export to EPS straight from Affinity Photo or Design to my customers email. That also works well if my customer has a last minute sep change on one screen while the job is on the press and time is ticking. That’s handy.

Distribution wise, Etsy has worked better than I thought it would. I’ve been selling Photoshop and Corel add ons for about a year there. Slowly building it. Color Separation AP is the Second function available for Affinity Photo. The first being Blackline. Which makes line art from photos. More to come. I have several domains and when I get more time will likely Wordpress those up as well. I think Ebay will be another possibility.

Thanks for your kind words. Affinity Photo And Design have changed the way I work hugely for the better. I am missing my scripting, warping, custom indexing, sizing halftone by lpi, batch automation and a few other things but I’m able to use Affinity Photo 90% of my day. 

Thanks again BoldLineDesign