Session 1 IllustratorThese workshops will help us prepare our files on adobe programs so they are ready for print and print for mass production.
CMYK always for print
RGB always for screen
Using the colour pallet in Illustrator is the best and easiest way to use and organise colours.
You can create your own colour swatch pallet which is more useful when designing.
Registration (little cross hair in the swatch) are used to make sure that different printing plates are lined up. Registration colour is 100% C Y M and K which means that they appear on the different printing plates
CMYK are known as Process colours.
When a swatch has 'Global' ticked once you change a colour all the colours that had the original colour will change within the art work. Useful if you need to change a colour all at once. Little grey box means that global has been turned on.
Spot colours are pre made colours that cant be made with mixtures of CMYK
Spot colour can be used cheaper, if your only using 2 colours using two spot colours would be cheaper than using processed colours (CMYK)
Spot colours give you accuracy and consistency.
Looking at the swatch library you can see Pantone Libraries and the 'Pantone solid to process' will show you colours that will be available when using CMYK
To show areas where varnish, flocking or embossing, debossing would appear you can choose a spot colour that doesn't appear anywhere else in the design and let the printer know not to printer the actual colour
When saving colour swatch libraries you can save them in two different ways
ASE - to use in other pieces of software
and
AI- Which can only be used in Illustrator
Session 2 Photoshop
Bitmap means there is only black and white pixels. no grey.
Photoshop uses RGB as a default. It works out all the colours through RGB. Some filters and other tools cant be used on CMYK.
Gamut means a range. The range of colours in RGB is greater than CYMK.
Take down the saturation in hue/saturation box to make the gamut go down.
Replace colour does the same thing to hue/saturation but you can select parts of the image.
Proof colour (command Y) this shows how the RGB image will be printed. So you cant be miss lead.
For spot colours get up the pantone library in swatches box.
For Duo and Mono tones open up a grey scale picture then mode>due tone
choose a pantone colour for the colours
Using the Channels(next to layers) you can select part of the picture and give the black and white picture a colour. You can use normal photo shop tools to change the shape of the spot colour channel selection
Session 3 Indesign
Is the best program for multiple pages.
Columns and margins help you line things up and they will not print.
Bleed margins give you leeway when inaccuracies occur in the trimming process. Standard amount of bleed is 3 mm. But a dialogue with the printer could change this depending on what they would prefer.
Facing page will give you 2 pages next to each other.
Add swatches the same as photoshop and illustrator. Select colour tab to change tints. Using colour in boxes
In menu in swatches there is a button for tint swatch. This gives you the option to have different tints to your colour.
You can save your swatch folder but you need to be on a colour to save not none or black!
With a greyscale tiff file you can change the colours of the black and white by selecting the picture both ways and selecting different swatches.
dont shrink photos down or up in size in InDesign, allways import the file as the size you want it.
When putting photoshop files into InDesign you need to remember some things
- Resolution 300 DPI
- CMYK or grey scale or duotone
- File format PSD or TIFF
- ACTUAL SIZE
When putting Illustrator files into InDesign you need to remember some things
- CMYK
- File format AI or you can copy and paste from illustrator to Indesign
A good way to work with Indesign is to create a folder that has all the images that you use with the indesign file.
To check that you have the original image you look at the links tab and make sure there isn't a warning sign. Because once it prints it will only be the preview and not the actual file.
To view the different colours, for screen printing , you go to window> output > seperation preview.
When printing colour separations you should put it in the centre and crop and registration marks and page information so you can tell which ones are which.
If you are going to print separations go to the output option and then to colour option and change it to 'separations'
Knockout colour means that black will always over print on the other colours but blue wont go over yellow.
To make it so the colours blend and don't separate you go to windows>output>attributes>overprint fill
Trapping - Only effects spot colours. Usually for screen printing, some times miss registration gives you a white space where the two screens didn't fit.
first you look for the lightest colour. Select the text and add a stroke of the light colour. Then go to attributes and select stoke overlay.
Session 4
Its has some spot UV inside the box which you can just see on the purple part on the left. The target would be music fans, maybe of a later generation because the original LP was released in the 1970's. Because i think there are alot of George Harrison fans and they look like they have taken care in the quality packaging it would be in a higher budget bracket.
