Your software, emulsion, and exposure unit manufacturers provide info and support for the use of their products.
We will cover how to determine proper film density in a future post. Your exposure unit is very strong, you exposed the screen too long or your films are not dense enough. The emulsion exposed rock hard, but you lost a lot of lower to mid range halftones. For example, did the emulsion not harden properly and too much washed away down the drain along with detail (emulsion colored water)? That would be a sign of under exposing your screen because of not enough time or a weak light source. If the results are less than quality determine what part of the process shows the breakdown in quality. Using the single color screen print black ink to a white garment.
If you do need great force then you probably over exposed the screen. Emulsion protected from the light by the film is still water soluble. Don’t use the same pressure used to “reclaim a screen”. Too much time and light will over expose the screen, causing you to lose the lower end halftone tones. White causes a lot of light reflection and refraction.Įxpose the screen at the manufacturers recommended settings based on your exposure unit style and intensity. Any other position will hurt the exposure process, creating issues holding the halftones. Screens must be dried in the same position they are used on press. Emulsion and dry the screen with with “print side down” helping the emulsion settle to the print side of the mesh. Select the equal or next higher mesh count number such as 230, never a lower number. The mesh count should be 5x the selected halftone line screen (eg. You can even use AccuRIP’s halftone test print (Open AccuRIP, from the File menu choose Test print).
Set your RIP software to produce an industry standard 45 line screen halftone at an angle of 22.5 degrees. There are proven steps and great solutions to eliminate the fear. Here’s how you too can learn to understand, manage, and enjoy the use of halftones. That is a concern to all screen printers, but it should not be a fear or a reason to avoid their use. Screen printers worry about their ability to expose (capture) the smaller halftones. Why the fear? It could be a lack of confidence in screen making. AccuRIP takes all the worry out of achieving properly dense halftones on film.
It delivers a full set of tonal image separations as solid and halftone spot colors. Spot Process Sep Studio is a shining example of a powerful, but easy to manage halftone separation software. It’s extremely easy to separate them too from all main stream software such as Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw. It’s simple to create a tint, gradient or blend in an any modern art file. Sometimes, clients want designs beyond basic black outline and solid spot color fills.
Look at prints produced between the late 1800s and early 1900s (reference Currier and Ives).įearing halftones will limit your business, professional enjoyment, and possibilities. Images required very large amounts of separations (generally 16 colors for more), the style of printing was very limited. Chromolithography which was basically “indexing” was the popular method. Before the halftone, printing was very limited.
The invention of the halftone sent positive shock waves through the print industry, enhancing it forever. Professional printers understand, control, and embrace the use of halftones. Don’t fear the halftone, it is possibly the single greatest invention in the print industry.