Generate halftones for screen printing within Adobe Photoshop®. Convert a cmyk or multichannel document with up to 8 channels to a high resolution file with printable halftones. The resulting color channels can be printed directly from Adobe Photoshop onto film using a standard inkjet printer. Free Download!
SimRip 254.06 KB
Introduction to SimRip
SimRip is a simple alternative for creating halftones within Adobe Photoshop. SimRip automates the ®Adobe Photoshop bitmap function to create a composite halftone document from your cmyk or multichannel separation. SimRip8c will convert a separation with up to 8 channels. To use SimRip you must have ® Adobe Photoshop 7 or later installed. SimRip is a Free download.
Installation
Download and unzip the SimRip package. Drag the SimRip folder to a convenient location, such as your desktop.
Mac: Launch Adobe Photoshop® and locate its icon in the dock, drag the SimRip .exe files onto the dock icon or the application icon to activate. The SimRip .exe files icon will change to an Adobe Photoshop droplet icon. PC/Vista: Droplets need to run at the same User Account Control level as your Adobe Photoshop application. If the application is running as administrator, the droplet will also need to be running as administrator. Right-click on the droplet and choose properties. Go to the “compatibility” tab and check “run as administrator”.
For more information see the Adobe Read Me
SimRip8c – Straight bitmap conversion, No tonal adjustments SimRip8c_E3000 – Built in curve adjustment for dot gain compensation, based on an epson 3000 inkjet printer tonal curve. SimRip8c_Manual – Bitmap conversion options dialog allows for variable dot size, angle and type as well as output resolution.
Running the Script: To run a droplet script, drag and drop an image file onto the droplets icon.
ALWAYS make a backup copy of your original file and close before running any script.
Close all open files and create a copy of the file you want to process. Drag and drop a closed multi channel or CMYKÂ file onto the SimRip icon. The script will launch Adobe Photoshop and create a new document that will remain open, your original file will be closed and will not be modified.
A dialog may ask if you want to save your original file before closing (This will happen if the original file was open and has unsaved changes) Let the script run and use the Enter (pc) or the Return (mac) keys to advance through the dialogs, Be careful not to click on a window, as Selecting another document will confuse the script as to what it is processing.
Important: When you first run SimRip it may ask you if you want to “Discard Channels”. There will also be an option that says “Do not show again”. Select “Do not show again” to keep this dialog from appearing and click “continue”.
Finishing
When the script is finished a single new document will remain open named SimRip8c. This document contains the original color channels converted into bitmapped halftones at 720 ppi. Be sure to not resample this file or change its size or resolution if it is intended for film output. Always make changes to the original document, and re-run the channels through the script to output. For separations with less then 8 channels SimRip will create blank Spacer channels that can be deleted after the script finishes. To process additional files, save this document with another name (“Filename_output.psd” for example) and close before starting again.
Output
Use a quality, transparent polyester film coated for high density inkjet printing. Use a printer with resolutions of 1440 or higher and a quality ink such as ®Epson Black. In Adobe Photoshop, set the color management settings to Separations and set the output settings to print registration marks, labels and center marks if desired.If you have the option, set your printer for Transparencies or Film. (Epson 3000)
Set the Printer Driver to print high quality transparent film, use the following settings where available:
1440 dpi (or higher)
Transparencies, Film or Gloss Photo
Black ink
Line Art
Microweave On
Highest Quality
100% size
Printer drivers vary widely in the options provided. Some experimentation may be required to find the best settings for your particular printer.
To ensure output quality, never modify your halftone file or change the image size or resolution.
Dot Gain and Resolution
Adobe Photoshop® can be used to create professional quality films, with a few exceptions.
• Although the resolution of the files created by SimRip is high, (720 ppi) a higher resolution would produce superior results. 720 ppi is the minimum resolution for a quality print with minimal banding. To increase the output resolution, change the values in the Bitmap output dialog while running the script. Be sure to change them all to the same value.
• SimRip may not accurately account for your inkjet printers dot gain. As with a Rip, a proper calibration curve must be determined for any particular output device to get perfect results. The SimRip8c_E3000 script applies a tonal curve automatically to each channel prior to processing. This curve compensates for dot gain from the inkjet printer only.
To use a custom dot gain adjustment, create the desired curve and save, apply the saved curve setting to each channel before running the script. Use the SimRip8c or SimRip8c_Manual droplets when applying a custom curve. For most situations the generic E3000 adjustment version should work fine.
Advantages Although there are a few compromises in creating output halftones within Adobe Photoshop, in many ways it is an appealing option due to its simplicity. Another benefit is the ability to see the actual halftone dot placement, edit and preview the image as it will look when printed.
When viewing a processed separation, the effect of the Spot Color Dot Gain settings will not be visible at the normal size, giving the image a washed out appearance. To view the image with the dot gain settings in effect, zoom out to about 6%, to view the actual dots as they will be printed zoom in to 100% (actual pixels).
See the Film Output tutorial for more information on the printing process.
Color Separation is the process of converting an image into a set of colors that can be printed. Color separations for screen printing can be made using Adobe Photoshopâ„¢ Read More
The individual colors from a color separation are output onto sheets of transparent film. Read More
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SimRip
Generate halftones for screen printing within Adobe Photoshop®. Convert a cmyk or multichannel document with up to 8 channels to a high resolution file with printable halftones. The resulting color channels can be printed directly from Adobe Photoshop onto film using a standard inkjet printer. Free Download!
SimRip
254.06 KB
Introduction to SimRip
SimRip is a simple alternative for creating halftones within Adobe Photoshop. SimRip automates the ®Adobe Photoshop bitmap function to create a composite halftone document from your cmyk or multichannel separation. SimRip8c will convert a separation with up to 8 channels. To use SimRip you must have ® Adobe Photoshop 7 or later installed. SimRip is a Free download.
Installation
Download and unzip the SimRip package. Drag the SimRip folder to a convenient location, such as your desktop.
Mac: Launch Adobe Photoshop® and locate its icon in the dock, drag the SimRip .exe files onto the dock icon or the application icon to activate. The SimRip .exe files icon will change to an Adobe Photoshop droplet icon.
PC/Vista: Droplets need to run at the same User Account Control level as your Adobe Photoshop application. If the application is running as administrator, the droplet will also need to be running as administrator. Right-click on the droplet and choose properties. Go to the “compatibility” tab and check “run as administrator”.
For more information see the Adobe Read Me
SimRip8c – Straight bitmap conversion, No tonal adjustments
SimRip8c_E3000 – Built in curve adjustment for dot gain compensation, based on an epson 3000 inkjet printer tonal curve.
SimRip8c_Manual – Bitmap conversion options dialog allows for variable dot size, angle and type as well as output resolution.
Running the Script:
To run a droplet script, drag and drop an image file onto the droplets icon.
ALWAYS make a backup copy of your original file and close before running any script.
Close all open files and create a copy of the file you want to process. Drag and drop a closed multi channel or CMYKÂ file onto the SimRip icon. The script will launch Adobe Photoshop and create a new document that will remain open, your original file will be closed and will not be modified.
A dialog may ask if you want to save your original file before closing (This will happen if the original file was open and has unsaved changes) Let the script run and use the Enter (pc) or the Return (mac) keys to advance through the dialogs, Be careful not to click on a window, as Selecting another document will confuse the script as to what it is processing.
Important: When you first run SimRip it may ask you if you want to “Discard Channels”. There will also be an option that says “Do not show again”. Select “Do not show again” to keep this dialog from appearing and click “continue”.
Finishing
When the script is finished a single new document will remain open named SimRip8c. This document contains the original color channels converted into bitmapped halftones at 720 ppi. Be sure to not resample this file or change its size or resolution if it is intended for film output. Always make changes to the original document, and re-run the channels through the script to output. For separations with less then 8 channels SimRip will create blank Spacer channels that can be deleted after the script finishes. To process additional files, save this document with another name (“Filename_output.psd” for example) and close before starting again.
Output
Use a quality, transparent polyester film coated for high density inkjet printing. Use a printer with resolutions of 1440 or higher and a quality ink such as ®Epson Black. In Adobe Photoshop, set the color management settings to Separations and set the output settings to print registration marks, labels and center marks if desired.If you have the option, set your printer for Transparencies or Film. (Epson 3000)
Set the Printer Driver to print high quality transparent film, use the following settings where available:
1440 dpi (or higher)
Transparencies, Film or Gloss Photo
Black ink
Line Art
Microweave On
Highest Quality
100% size
Printer drivers vary widely in the options provided. Some experimentation may be required to find the best settings for your particular printer.
To ensure output quality, never modify your halftone file or change the image size or resolution.
Dot Gain and Resolution
Adobe Photoshop® can be used to create professional quality films, with a few exceptions.
• Although the resolution of the files created by SimRip is high, (720 ppi) a higher resolution would produce superior results. 720 ppi is the minimum resolution for a quality print with minimal banding. To increase the output resolution, change the values in the Bitmap output dialog while running the script. Be sure to change them all to the same value.
• SimRip may not accurately account for your inkjet printers dot gain. As with a Rip, a proper calibration curve must be determined for any particular output device to get perfect results. The SimRip8c_E3000 script applies a tonal curve automatically to each channel prior to processing. This curve compensates for dot gain from the inkjet printer only.
To use a custom dot gain adjustment, create the desired curve and save, apply the saved curve setting to each channel before running the script. Use the SimRip8c or SimRip8c_Manual droplets when applying a custom curve. For most situations the generic E3000 adjustment version should work fine.
Advantages
Although there are a few compromises in creating output halftones within Adobe Photoshop, in many ways it is an appealing option due to its simplicity. Another benefit is the ability to see the actual halftone dot placement, edit and preview the image as it will look when printed.
When viewing a processed separation, the effect of the Spot Color Dot Gain settings will not be visible at the normal size, giving the image a washed out appearance. To view the image with the dot gain settings in effect, zoom out to about 6%, to view the actual dots as they will be printed zoom in to 100% (actual pixels).
See the Film Output tutorial for more information on the printing process.