Screenprinting Film Output Help Needed with Illustrator CS3

[Robyn]

Can anyone out there tell me how to output a "screened" back image in Illustrator CS3. Is it even possible?

My design is printing as a grey, solid line and not as "dots".

Please call or email if you can help, thanks!

Robyn
[email protected]
623-551-2344

[Gabi Kat]

Your printer has to have a "rip" program. Most lazer printer will print a tint (gray) as dots.
to have more control on the out put if you save the file as a PDF and print it from Acrobat with more control on the "size" of the dots.
A Jet printer will print a screen (gray) as a "dither" patern

Gabi
In Tuscon
[email protected]

[signman]

Don't know what happened to my answer-I know I sent one...(well, with my brain damage...maybe I 'thought' I did...)
Gabi has the 'geek' squad version of an answer, but I use Freehand (similar to illustrator) and I can use a 'dot fill' (premade fill pattern) and assign dot sizes, or make a solid fill that is a 'percentage' of black, which will make the 'dot' pattern Gabi talks about. Then with that area 'highlighted' or 'clicked', find your 'set halftone' box-and you can assign the 'size' of the halftone dots. For example-my printer will go up to 2000 dpi-so it can take a 'fill' set to and dpi up to that-the higher number, the smaller and closer the dots. For printing a 'dot' pattern to simulate a shadow in the same color for screenprinting-I set that fill to around 45 lpi, makes a large, spaced out dot you can 'see' easily. Burned with the image for screenprinting, it makes the 'shadow' look like gray (using black ink) because your optic nerves can't see and focus on 'little black dots' and 'blends' them to produce what you think is gray.
So if you can't find the 'pattern' menu, look for 'set halftone'. (try the 'help' menu)
Roland

[Gabi Kat]

Roland - Just for the record. I'm not from the "geek scuad"
I'm a graphic designer/artist. (Graphic art production design and out-put for all types of printing.) As the set-ups all vary to get the finish pieces to apear the same. For screen printing you want to specify a maximum of 65 line. Any finer your dots get lost in the fabric. But if your printing on a hard surface that doesn't bleed then you would want 300 line or better. Newspaper bleeds, so 65 line is the screen of choice.
So to keep life simple and fast. cause fast is the profit margin in graphic art you want to create 1 master piece of art - to be out put to different printing processes a PDF would be my "keep it fast and simple" answer.
Have a great and profitable day.
Gabi

[JustinMelco]

In addition to the previous comments, it's also important to keep in mind that Illustrator is a vector output application. It works with mathematically based vector lines, not dots, to create images that are resolution independent.
I recommend saving or exporting your .ai or .eps file as a .jpg or .pdf. This will enable you to open the file in a raster based program, such as Photoshop, where you can adjust the resolution (dots per inch) for screen printing.

-Justin

[signman]

Both illustrator and freehand are vector based artwork-BUT both have the ability to include any type of 'fill' pattern-and print that perfectly. Not only 'patterns' but simulated gold leaf, granite, marble, digital images, photoshop images...I do it all day long for digital printing and diecutting for signs, banners, etc.
Combine the lettering and shapes as vector lineart with digital (tiff,jpg,psd, etc.) fills and you have crystal clear lettering and shapes with Kodak quality photos, etc.
Dot pattern fills are included in freehand that print as perfect, sharp 'dots' instead of 'pixelated' edges (jagged) that result from trying to enlarge bitmap images.
Jpg is not a 'file' image-it is a 'compression' file-everytime you open a jpg image and make changes, then 'save' it again-the file deletes some of the detail because it has to compress it. Do it a couple times-and you can see the quality deteriorate in a digital print.
Having owned and operated our graphic shop over 28 years now, and working hand-in-hand with a 'desktop publishing' printer, we have learned that PDF is NOT always universal. If you don't have the SAME fonts on your system, there is chance that fonts will substitute (sometimes horribly). JPG is used only to transfer files back and forth for proofing-never for printing.
EPS is used by many 'print' shops for printing, but again, EPS is narrowly limited to certain programs for interchange-and is 'version proprietary'...any program developed BEFORE illustrator CS series will not open any CS file. Period. And CS 1 and 2 cannot open a CS 3 file.
99% of the ad and art agencies I deal with have no clue how to save a CS 3 file as an older version. They just don't know how!
(off the web)
Definition: JPG is the file extension, but it is properly referred to as JPEG, short for Joint Photographics Experts Group- this is the committee that created the JPEG standard. Unlike the GIF format, which uses a lossless compression method, the JPEG format is LOSSY according to a quality value which ranges from 100 which is the highest quality but alos the largest file size down to 1 which is very poor quality but very small files.
Definition: Portable Document Format or PDF is a file format created by Adobe Systems, Inc. PDF uses the PostScript printer description language and is highly portable across computer platforms. PDF documents have a .pdf file extension (myfile.pdf)

A de facto standard file format, use PDF to:

* Share files with others who don't have the same software
* Share files with others who use a different platform (Mac, Windows, Linux, etc.)
* Share files that will look the same (layout, fonts) on multiple computer systems
* Share files that can be protected from unauthorized viewing, printing, copying, or editing
* Publish electronic documents, ebooks, etc.
* Print files to many different types of printers, and all look essentially the same