How to halftone in PS the ghetto way
lemorris
07-14-2005, 08:01 PM
lol
Al asked me how to create a halftone of an image or art in photoshop. For those that don't screenprint you convert the image to tones for some methods then get them put on film and that gets burned on screens.
This is just 1 of many ways to do it. Kartoonz for example gets his fully rendered images converted to what the call process films. 1 red, 1 yellow, 1 blue and 1 black. Each bit of color is separated out in shape and percentage and when the 4 screens are printed they combine and blend to make the image. Do a image mode CMYK in Photoshop or whatever you use then look at the channels and you'll see each separate piece.
For Al he's wanting ro convert a 1 color rendering to tones so he can get film and print. That's what I'm gonna show.
http://www.58vw.com/af/tire1.jpg
base image (tire from that squareback - station wagon I'm doin)
http://www.58vw.com/af/tire2.jpg
image-mode-bitmap
http://www.58vw.com/af/tire3.jpg
select output resolution (actually for most of my films for fine screens I select 300) and select halftone screen
http://www.58vw.com/af/tire4.jpg
when the next dialog box pops up select your lines per inch and angle. For manual separators like me and people like Jeri this is the tricky part. Your lines per inch for a design may be affected by the mesh count of the screens your printer is going to use. For a fine mesh use a a finer lines per inch 55 lines per inch is pretty good on a 230 mesh screen. I believe Jeri uses 55 lines per inch and 25 degree angle with an elliptical dot on a 230 mesh. I think she uses a 47 line and something like 15 angle for coarser mesh counts. Check with your printer Al.
http://www.58vw.com/af/tire5.jpg
Photoshop makes a bitmap file of the image. This is a file that only contains black and white information. Your film guy would print this out on film and your printer can burn it on the screen. This type of thing is a lot like TV...if you look really really close you will see that the image on the screen is comprised of tiny dots of color next to each other. I believe it was Seurat the post impressionist who illustrated it best in his style of pointilistic painting. anyway there's the dots.
http://www.58vw.com/af/tire6.jpg
Here's the halftoned image in photoshop.
Now.....
This is all unnecessary if your film guy has RIP capabilities (which most do) Just take your greyscale image in at 300 dpi and tell him you want it ripped out on film positive at 55 lines per 25 degrees. The Fiery RIP systems will do the halftoning for you and they will also calculate the solid black lines so you don't get any stray tone bits on the edge of your line.
I realize that's a lot to digest but print it out and try it and it will make sense.
As far as screenprinting goes there are many methods to doing it. I have my preferences for whatever reasons as do many others. Ultimately you being happy with your print is the main goal. If you achieve that then what you did was good.
-Lemorris
Al asked me how to create a halftone of an image or art in photoshop. For those that don't screenprint you convert the image to tones for some methods then get them put on film and that gets burned on screens.
This is just 1 of many ways to do it. Kartoonz for example gets his fully rendered images converted to what the call process films. 1 red, 1 yellow, 1 blue and 1 black. Each bit of color is separated out in shape and percentage and when the 4 screens are printed they combine and blend to make the image. Do a image mode CMYK in Photoshop or whatever you use then look at the channels and you'll see each separate piece.
For Al he's wanting ro convert a 1 color rendering to tones so he can get film and print. That's what I'm gonna show.
http://www.58vw.com/af/tire1.jpg
base image (tire from that squareback - station wagon I'm doin)
http://www.58vw.com/af/tire2.jpg
image-mode-bitmap
http://www.58vw.com/af/tire3.jpg
select output resolution (actually for most of my films for fine screens I select 300) and select halftone screen
http://www.58vw.com/af/tire4.jpg
when the next dialog box pops up select your lines per inch and angle. For manual separators like me and people like Jeri this is the tricky part. Your lines per inch for a design may be affected by the mesh count of the screens your printer is going to use. For a fine mesh use a a finer lines per inch 55 lines per inch is pretty good on a 230 mesh screen. I believe Jeri uses 55 lines per inch and 25 degree angle with an elliptical dot on a 230 mesh. I think she uses a 47 line and something like 15 angle for coarser mesh counts. Check with your printer Al.
http://www.58vw.com/af/tire5.jpg
Photoshop makes a bitmap file of the image. This is a file that only contains black and white information. Your film guy would print this out on film and your printer can burn it on the screen. This type of thing is a lot like TV...if you look really really close you will see that the image on the screen is comprised of tiny dots of color next to each other. I believe it was Seurat the post impressionist who illustrated it best in his style of pointilistic painting. anyway there's the dots.
http://www.58vw.com/af/tire6.jpg
Here's the halftoned image in photoshop.
Now.....
This is all unnecessary if your film guy has RIP capabilities (which most do) Just take your greyscale image in at 300 dpi and tell him you want it ripped out on film positive at 55 lines per 25 degrees. The Fiery RIP systems will do the halftoning for you and they will also calculate the solid black lines so you don't get any stray tone bits on the edge of your line.
I realize that's a lot to digest but print it out and try it and it will make sense.
As far as screenprinting goes there are many methods to doing it. I have my preferences for whatever reasons as do many others. Ultimately you being happy with your print is the main goal. If you achieve that then what you did was good.
-Lemorris
simdel1
07-15-2005, 10:33 AM
very interesting.
Blip
07-16-2005, 01:10 PM
lemorris. thanks for the lesson...
...got to see if I can do that in Acrylic.
...got to see if I can do that in Acrylic.
lemorris
07-16-2005, 03:10 PM
In Acrylic you may have to duplicate a layer to a new file then convert that file to greyscale then convert to bitmap.
One thing I forgot to mention before was to save your bitmap file as a tiff file then you are all set.
Acrylic is a very capable program.
You should post that link again. It's not often that a program that compares to Illustrator is offered free.
I would advise most of you to get it just because. It's a steal right now.
-Lemorris
One thing I forgot to mention before was to save your bitmap file as a tiff file then you are all set.
Acrylic is a very capable program.
You should post that link again. It's not often that a program that compares to Illustrator is offered free.
I would advise most of you to get it just because. It's a steal right now.
-Lemorris
asaenz
07-18-2005, 07:29 PM
Lemorris,
I really appreciate this.
I know you and Jeri have tried to help me do some separations; I have been working on one but I just haven’t had time to finish it. I am in a bit of a slump as I try to figure out what I want to do with my life.
I don't want you and Jeri to think I am ungrateful.
I do appreciate you guys sharing your knowledge.
Al
I really appreciate this.
I know you and Jeri have tried to help me do some separations; I have been working on one but I just haven’t had time to finish it. I am in a bit of a slump as I try to figure out what I want to do with my life.
I don't want you and Jeri to think I am ungrateful.
I do appreciate you guys sharing your knowledge.
Al
lemorris
07-18-2005, 08:34 PM
lol
You're great!
You do more for my art than I do for yours.
Just take your time. Your car art will always be there. I've been trying to decide if I should try to learn how to draw cars for 18 years, and I still suck.
lol
You're my partner and I shouldn't have let you or these other knuckleheads down. I just got buried in my own BS.
When in doubt...sketch.
-Lemorris
You're great!
You do more for my art than I do for yours.
Just take your time. Your car art will always be there. I've been trying to decide if I should try to learn how to draw cars for 18 years, and I still suck.
lol
You're my partner and I shouldn't have let you or these other knuckleheads down. I just got buried in my own BS.
When in doubt...sketch.
-Lemorris
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