User`s manual

129
FastRIP 10.0 User’s Manual
Version 1.1 Revised February, 2009
Ch a P T e r 10
Output Settings
Introduction
is chapter will cover outputting your files to the printer and getting the correct results, such as
line count, dot angle and dot size as well as color correction, adjustments and additional output
features available with FastRIP 10.
Obtaining Photorealistic Prints
Screen printing of hand-drawn art is traditionally performed through the combination of spot
colors, where each color is applied to a specific region of the substrate (i.e., paper, t-shirt, etc.).
Having an overlap between color regions can be useful in achieving a specific visual result, or to
create the appearance of more colors than the number of inks used.
For computer generated art and photographic images, the complexity of the artwork can produce
difficulties in obtaining the desired quality. If the customer expects photorealistic prints, then
using spot colors can risk a print that appears too posterized (e.g., splotchy with abrupt color
shifts).
To produce photorealistic prints, a common technique is to prepare the artwork as a set of
CMYK separations, which are then used to print the artwork on a 4-color press (i.e., spot cyan,
spot magenta, spot yellow, and spot black). Overprinting these spot colors will reproduce the
colors of the original artwork.
The printing of CMYK separations uses halftones, which are a classic printing technology that enables
the printing of detailed images with a minimum of inks. Indeed, each color separation is a halftone.
A halftone is a means of applying gradient dot patterns using a single ink, `
such that the dots form different shades (tints) of the ink.
Where the dots are small, they will appear further apart, which produces `
a light shade of the color that is closer to the substrate color (i.e., a white
or black shirt).
Similarly, larger dots will appear closer together, which produces a darker `
shade that is similar to a solid fill of the ink.