Question for screen printers

[jimbug72]

For those who do screen printing I was wondering if you use anything special for separations and trapping. For years now I have been doing it manually in Illustrator. I was wondering what others might be doing in this regard. I have it down to a science so art that I design is done with my process in mind so separations and trapping are pretty simple. When someone supplies their own artwork it can get somewhat time consuming. Especially for trapping.

Just curious if anyone uses some killer software that does it all for them I should look into.

Thanks in advance!

 

[gspinc]

Hello! We use the program Corral. These instructions are for a two color sign trap with Corral program.

We have to make two layers, we copy the original image, select one, edit bitmap (which opens the image in corral photo paint). Of course, you have to trap the lighter color so we go to the menu and choose mask > color mask> eye drop tool (select lighter color). You then go to Mask> Mask outline > we choose 5 (we screen print on coroplast signs, and your outline depends on what you are printing and how large the item is) file save and you go back to the main coral. The one you chose to mask will only show the lighter color that was trapped, you then repeat the same steps with the second image choosing the darker color, and we do not mask outline because the darker color does not need to be trapped.

Your question has inspired us to make some youtube videos!

 

[CVS]

I use Flexi sign and while i do some of it manually, I also use the colour trapping feature in the program with decent results - at least on fairly simple things!

 

[cy6designs]

I use Simple Seps, they have a version for illustrator. It works pretty well. I do a lot of stuff manually still, but let the software handle some of the tougher stuff.

 

[jimbug72]

Thanks cy6designs. I will definitely look into that a bit closer. If that works in Illustrator that might be exactly what I was looking for. I'm hoping to take some tasks off of my desk. I think it would be a lot simpler to train someone to use an automated software than it would be to train them to manually do traps, chokes, under bases etc.