Software For Creating Art For Screen Printing

Anything and everything to do with creating artwork for screen printing. This is where you can discuss graphic software and color separating techniques plus much more.

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Catspit Productions
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Re: Software For Creating Art For Screen Printing

Post by Catspit Productions »

You’re welcome, it’s my pleasure to help out and share information. Check out the Catspit website for a lot more free info on screen printing. ;)
Jonathan Monaco
Catspit Productions, LLC
Learn how to screen print tee shirts!

http://catspitscreenprintsupply.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/CatspitProductions
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ppdlao
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Re: Software For Creating Art For Screen Printing

Post by ppdlao »

:?: Hi there Jon! well buddy, I´ve just found a software that seems to be like heaven, it´s called "quikseps" it seems to me that can do what a RIP software could do, but It also can separate your art depending of your art work, giving you totall control of the final look for your printings, It looks pretty cool, but I don´t know, could you tell us something about it? :idea:


Tnks in advance for any comments buddy, how thing are there in your shop? I know this is your favourite month! because of Halloween! :!: jejeje are you printing some "disguise" t shirts? jejejeje :D
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Catspit Productions
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Re: Software For Creating Art For Screen Printing

Post by Catspit Productions »

Quick Seps is a color separation add on for Photoshop. It does not replace RIP software and you would still need RIP software to produce halftones. But I actually have this software and I contacted the guy who wrote it as I wanted to feature the software and offer him a venue to advertise and help people using his software. But he declined. So email him and tell him he should be advertising with Catspit Productions because it would be a perfect place for him to get exposure and I actually own the software.

Don’t ask me why he turned me down.

The shop is busy and very well.... and very dirty as I have not had much time to clean up. I am at a loss for a Halloween video this year. I am so busy trying to do everything that I may be creatively burned out at the moment. I may do a video sharing the props I will use for the trick or treat activity in my neighborhood and maybe do a video of my set up that night to upload after Halloween.

I don’t know.... I need more help around here but I am not ready to hire anyone yet :(
Jonathan Monaco
Catspit Productions, LLC
Learn how to screen print tee shirts!

http://catspitscreenprintsupply.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/CatspitProductions
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ppdlao
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Joined: Fri Jul 20, 2012 9:18 am
Location: Villahermosa, Tabasco, México.

Re: Software For Creating Art For Screen Printing

Post by ppdlao »

ok, I´ll write him, of course CATSPIT Web it´s the best chance for selling his product, lets see what happens with it, but is this software a helpul art tool for screen printers? man it looks pretty cool, and talking about hiring people, I really wish this could happen soon! I know tha a little bit of help is always needed at the shop, to do the cleanning etc, jajaja common upload a photo of the shop! you must have tons of screens to wahs out! jejeje

see you buddy, always your words are of very good help! that halloween video will be pretty cool I know!!! :)
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Catspit Productions
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Re: Software For Creating Art For Screen Printing

Post by Catspit Productions »

LOL... Thnaks.

Yes, the add on software could be very useful if you take the time to learn how to use it. A basic understanding of Photoshop would help.

I am so busy I don’t know how I’m going to get a Halloween video done but I will try for sure :)
Jonathan Monaco
Catspit Productions, LLC
Learn how to screen print tee shirts!

http://catspitscreenprintsupply.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/CatspitProductions
BoydRiver
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Re: Software For Creating Art For Screen Printing

Post by BoydRiver »

Just so I can things right in my head maybe you could do a video on how to print a photograph, say someone's face having vectorised it.
After youve done the video on how to use a heatpress if you cant afford any other type of flash/dryer
Please? :D
Regards
Boyd River
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Catspit Productions
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Re: Software For Creating Art For Screen Printing

Post by Catspit Productions »

I'm no graphic artist and I could hardly teach that.... LOL. But I do believe my brother will be joining me this fall/winter and he is taking over my printing department. He is an excellent graphic artist that will be able to help me make videos like that. Eventually I will get to as much as I can in every aspect and even produce some DVD’s to sell. But I am still a commercial print shop and creating art and screens only for a video isn't always practical. But if I got a job like that I would ask the customers permission to share it with you all I promise.

I do as many videos as I can while still trying to earn a living and pay my bills. But if we can get my brother on board you can expect some really cool new videos coming your way :)

Please stay tuned...
Jonathan Monaco
Catspit Productions, LLC
Learn how to screen print tee shirts!

http://catspitscreenprintsupply.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/CatspitProductions
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Shamax
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Re: Software For Creating Art For Screen Printing

Post by Shamax »

I would in no way consider myself a graphic artist, but for a free option, I'd add Inkscape to the list as a good vector art program. Just googling "inkscape tutorials" nets some really good walk-throughs. From what experience I've had with it, it's great for 1-color jobs - especially font/word-art type stuff or anything where you need to trace an existing image and clean it up (the auto-trace function works quite well). Inkscape combined with Paint.NET for source image cleanup and other non-vector work have been all I've needed. Both programs are easily extensible with plugins, very powerful, community-driven, and above all FREE!

Inkscape: http://inkscape.org/
Paint.NET: http://www.getpaint.net/
PSD Plugin for Paint.NET (allows you to use Photoshop files): http://psdplugin.codeplex.com/

Googling "Paint.NET tutorials" or "Inkscape tutorials" will net you plenty of great lessons, even video lessons on Youtube!

I've also attached a mock-up of a 1-color design I did using Paint.NET to convert a source photo to black and white and then played with the color palette to reduce the number of colors. The then imported the image into inkscape and auto-traced it. From there I pulled in the band logo, drw a quick (and extremely dirty) banner at the bottom and did cutouts for teh text on it. From there, I exported it as a transparent PNG file, pulled up a multi-layered T-Shirt PSD template I found somewhere and threw it all together in Paint.NET.

Hope it helps someone! :mrgreen:
Attachments
Quick 1-color band shirt mockup using Inkscape & Paint.NET
Quick 1-color band shirt mockup using Inkscape & Paint.NET
Andy Barker
Owner/Operator of Fragile Branch
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BoydRiver
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Re: Software For Creating Art For Screen Printing

Post by BoydRiver »

Thanks, I was with you all the way until we got to the multi layered psd template :D
Regards
Boyd River
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Shamax
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Re: Software For Creating Art For Screen Printing

Post by Shamax »

Sorry - sometimes I'll get in the moment and start throwing out terms if I'm not thinking about it (and on rare occasion they're even accurate ones :mrgreen: ).

As for the "multi-layered template" thing, you can find Adobe Photoshop files here and there on the web that contain everything you need to show what your artwork will look like displayed on a shirt. Here's a couple freebie ones I found:

http://grahamphisherdotcom.deviantart.c ... -141740122
https://www.box.com/shared/4a4oelmgwo (Original link: http://www.coloroverload.com/free-blank ... -template/ )

Once you download those and extract them, you'll have Photoshop files that you can load in Paint.NET using the PSD plugin I linked to above (that site has instructions on how to install it). Once you open one of the template files, you'll see that they contain multiple "layers". You'll usually have one layer for the background, one layer for the base color of the shirt (change this to see what a different color tee would look like), and a layer of "shadows" (this adds shadows, texture, and wrinkles to the shirt to make it look more realistic). You'll want to insert your transparent artwork between the "base color" layer and the "shadow" layer. The easy way to do this in Paint.NET is to go to the menu up top and click on Layers > Import From File. Then you can load-up your transparent art, and it'll appear in the "Layers" window. You can then use the up and down arrows on the Layers window to move your artwork layer so that it sits between the base color and shadow layer.
Andy Barker
Owner/Operator of Fragile Branch
Store: http://fragilebranch.storenvy.com
Site/blog: http://www.fragilebranch.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/FragileBranch
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