Wilflex EasyArt
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Simulated Process Separation
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This routine will separate an Image that can be printed onto any color of shirt.
To do this the background of the image (i.e. the areas that will be the shirt color) must be transparent. This is important to remember when creating your designs.
 
If your design is only being printed onto black or white shirts you can simply use those individual separation routines that just require a black or white background.

After separation, this design will be ready to print on to any colored shirt, black, white, green, yellow, whatever you like.

If you want to separate an image that has a black background and it is going onto a black shirt you can just use the "Separate for Black shirts" routine which does not require you to remove the background.

In Photoshop® navigate your way to the Tutorials folder on the EasyArt® CD and double click the image file "Classic Car.psd" to open it.
You will first notice this image has a blue background, that's the color of the shirt this design is being printed on to. When creating an image it's always a good idea to have the background layer in the color of the shirt, so you can get a good idea how the final design will look.

Go to the layers list (Window > Show Layers) you can see this image has been created on four different layers. The background layer, car layer, logo layer and the 21st Century type layer.
Before separating this image you must first delete the blue background layer. ( if not deleted this will also separate as part of the image).
To do this select the blue background layer and drag it down to the bin icon at the bottom of the layers list.

EasyArt® can only separate one layer so the remaining three layers must be merged into one.
To do this, click on the small arrow head in the top right hand corner of the layers, scroll down and click "merge visible". This will combine all three layers together keeping the background area transparent.

Note: Do not use the "Flatten Image" command as this will flatten your image onto a white background.
Save this image to your hard drive as a Photoshop file (.psd) to preserve the transparency, give it the name "classic car flat".
The image is now ready for some adjustment, to improve the overall color and sharpness, to produce the best possible separations.
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Tip: It is important to remember good "preparation" = good "separation". A flat dull image will produce flat dull separations.
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Step 1 Preparation
(yellow buttons)

Go to the Actions list (Window > Show Actions) and scroll down and click on  the yellow EasyArt® button "Improve Image RGB". This will automatically intensify and sharpen the image.
That is all the improvement needed for this design.
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Note: Each individual image will require different adjustments depending on the image source and quality.
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Step 2 Separation
(blue buttons)

To separate scroll down to the blue EasyArt® button "Separate for colored shirts" and click.
This will run the main simulated process color separation routine that will automatically separate the image into 11 spot color channels including two whites.
The speed of the routine will depend on the speed of your computer, a message "Routine Complete" will appear when it has finished. Click continue.

With the separation routine complete the separated image appears on a gray background, this is the default shirt color for this routine.

Before inspecting the separations, change the default shirt color back to the blue the original image was on, so it will give a better visual representation.

To do this, scroll down to the blue EasyArt® action button "Change shirt color" and click.
In the window that appears click on the blue box next to the word "color".
In the color picker window that appears go to the RGB section and type in these values.
R = 75
G = 106
B = 157
then click OK.
The separated image now appears on the same blue background as the original RGB image.

To inspect the separations go to the channels list, you can see EasyArt® has created 11 spot color channels including a white base and a highlight white.
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Note: All of your images are separated into 11 colors including 2 whites, but almost all images can be reduced down to only 5, 6 or 7 colors.
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Step 3 Adjustment
(green buttons)

To produce this image as an 8 color print, go to the channels list and turn off the Magenta, Green, and Grey channels this will leave us with the 8 channels we need.

To produce this design as a 6 color print go back to the Actions list and click the green button "combine brown channel" this will automatically create a simulated brown using the Red, Yellow and Light blue channels.
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Tip: You can produce simulated versions of the green, blue, brown and gray channels, but you must include in your separations the colors that are used to produce the third simulated color. For example if you want to use a simulated green you must include in your separations a yellow and a blue channel as these are the colors used to create the simulated green. 

Go back to the channels list and turn off the Magenta, Green, Dark Brown, Grey and highlight white channels, leaving you with a 6 color print.

What you are trying to do is eliminate having to print the brown channel, but instead of just leaving it  out (then gaps may appear) you are making a simulated version of the brown, so that you get the same or similar effect without having to print a dedicated color.

Printing out separations

Printing instructions only apply to those printers that are able to print out Halftone dots

Before printing out the separations turn off the top 5 channels in the channels list, RGB, Red, Green, Blue and shirt color. (you don't need to print these) The printer will only print out channels that are turned on. (the eye showing).
On the menu bar at the top of your screen click "File > Print with Preview”.
In the Print window click the "Screen” button.

In the Half tone screens window that appears click the "Load" button,
Navigate your way on your computer to the location where you installed  Wilflex EasyArt 1.5, double click the folder "Printer settings" to open.

Double click the file "halftone-screens" to load.
This will load the EasyArt® default settings. Click OK to continue.

Back in the "Print” window click the "Registration Marks" Box and the "Labels" box. Orientation should be Portrait for this design. Press “Print”.

This will print out all of the channels that you have turned on.
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Wilflex EasyArt
www.wilflexeasyart.com