Adobe Illustrator CS4 Tip – Layer Groups in Illustrator?

Question:
“In Illustrator, why can’t I combine individual Layers into a Group folder like in Photoshop?

Answer:
“Illustrator’s Layers panel may not have Layer Groups, but you can do something very similar to what you like doing in Photoshop. To give it a try, open a new document (File>New) and click twice on the Create New Layer button at the bottom of the Layers panel, so that you have a total of three Layers. Click on each Layer listing in the panel, one at a time, to draw some objects on that Layer. Now, click on the top Layer listing in the panel and Shift-click on the bottom Layer to select all three. Look under the Options menu of the Layers panel and choose ‘Collect in New Layer.” All of the Layers will be collected into a new Layer. This is really quite similar to a Photoshop Layer Group.”

Let’s group…

Bhargav

Convert an ordinary job into extraordinary piece of creativity thru screen printing

DMI's Creative Folder

First the impression what one gets by looking at this folder is innovation. That is how I use special effect techniques by using screen printing process.

This folder is designed and printed jointly by me and my 6th batch of students as their project work. It was printed on laminated foil with 16 special effects UV inks and varnish including process color CMYK screen printing. I used 100 LPI screen to print very fine halftones.

Practically and commercially this may be not economical as a regular job unless some premium customers demand for it and ready to pay the price. But my point was to show how speciality inks can makes a normal product to an extraordinary piece of creativity folder. I am sure there is a market for high end corporates who wants to use it for their conferences etc.

I started first operation using Matt varnish which was to be printed below CMYK flower image.  The reason we printed on Matt Varnish to is give a soft metallic effect which reflects from the foil.

There after I printed CMYK process color UV inks. The image was also over printed with a gloss varnish to give a SPOT UV effect only on the flower.

Then I printed solid black leaving some fonts reverse to give a foil stamping effect. On the solid black and some part of silver foil was printed with 3 different micro embossing effects using only one screen at one time. Also some parts of black was overprinted with transparent ink with rainbow color glitters to get some sparkling effect.

Some portion of black was also overprinted with wrinkle varnish to give a leather like effect. There was also the title of the folder “INNOVATION” was printed with thick varnish using 150 micron stencil on a 24T polyester mesh to give an embossing effect which we always call as ticky in Indian language.

The logo of Grafica and DMI was printed with special metallic orange for giving a vibrant look of the logo.

Since the folder had one side foil laminated so to add dramatic effect on the other side I printed solvent based pearl two tone ink overprinted with light yellow UV ink to add some sort of soft designing which can also be called as water mark.

I am sure its very difficult to get the same effect by offset or any other printing process considering the richness of multiple effects.

The advantage of screen printing process is that you can convert an ordinary product to an extraordinary high value product with the availability of speciality inks and varnish thus you can also produce jobs in small quantities with very high profit margins.

This is an classic example what I produced in making this folder but such effect and design can be implemented in packaging in a very effective and large scale using fully automatic screen printing lines where you can also achieve higher speeds.

DMI's Creative Folder

Digital Printing & Proofing Tips

After returning from FESPA, Munich I just had couple of days left to prepare for my workshop at DMI. There after I had to finish my long new presentation for our unique road shows. These shows are organized by us (GRAFICA FLEXTRONICA) to launch our unique NANO PREMIER LEAGUE series in various every cities of India.

Till now with my team I completed 6 road shows, 3 in Maharashtra (Nashik, Aurangabad & Pune) & 3 in Gujarat (Surat, Ahmedabad & Rajkot). All shows were jam packed and very much interesting and had many uniqueness. I shall post full report with photos of my workshop and these road shows soon. Just to give an idea every city we had over 100 to 150 printers but Ahmedabad had a rocking figure 275 printers. Isn’t it amazing. Every where for me and for printer it was a WOW feeling.

In the mean time just enjoy this video tutorial from Dr. Russell Brown who is one of the chief engineer and scientist of ADOBE. In this tutorial he has cleared all doubts about digital printing and proofing.

Printers today gets digital proof either from their customer or they do it in-house using EPSON or HP digital printers for matching our screen prints.

So its important to understand the color management issues using analog vs digital technology.

Download these 2 videos which shall help you to generate correct proof using accurate printing parameters.

Printing to the Epson Stylus Pro 3800

Printing to the HP Photosmart Pro 9180

If you are on our database you shall soon receive our e-news. If you are not getting it regularly every month than make sure you register thru our website.

Have a cheerful and informative week.

Bhargav
00:50, 19th July 2010

Adobe Illustrator CS4 Tips

Question: 1
Is there a quick way to find the center of your Artboard in Illustrator?” and the answer is, Yes!

You can actually mark the center of your Artboard, by double-clicking on the Artboard tool. In the Options window that opens, check the Show Center Mark option in the Display section, and press OK. This creates cross hairs to mark the center of your Artboard. If you change the size of your Artboard, the cross hairs will automatically recenter themselves.”

Question 2:
Is there a Quick Way to Draw a Diamond Shape?

Yes, you can draw a square by holding down the Shift key while clicking and dragging with the Rectangle tool (M). Is this a way to draw a diamond shape with 90° corners? You know, kind of like a square that’s been rotated 45°.

Give this a try. Select the Ellipse tool (L), then click and drag while holding down the Shift key to draw a circle. Then press Shift+C to access the Convert Anchor Point tool and click on each of the four anchor points in the circle to convert them to corner points. This will convert your circle into a diamond with equal corner angles of 90°.

Hope this tip may help you somewhere.

Have a knowledgeable day.

Bhargav
11:50 pm

Lights Camera Action and the training begins

Meet my 6th batch of students starting their new journey in screen printing getting advance training on modern machines at DMI.

Twelve students from Don Bosco School of Printing, New Delhi and one student from GIPT, Mumbai are currently undergoing one month’s rigorous training in advanced screen printing process at DMI under my guidance. This fresh batch began their journey from 12th May 2010.

Principal of Don Bosco, Fr. Noble George, manager Fr. Reji Tom Antony and placement officer Mr. Michael were all instrumental and supportive behind them to take an advance study on screen printing process under my guidance in my institute DMI.

All the students from Don Bosco have few things in common to share here. They have just completed their ITI in printing technology. Most of them come from a average family background.

It is really hard to believe that these students got convinced to join DMI even before seeing the roofs of my institution. That indicates the growing popularity of DMI which has today successfully completed over 3 years and 6 months in teaching advance screen printing in various applications. Till now thru DMI I have trained more than 1200 professionals and 90 students including this batch.

To their great surprise, these students got a unique experience to participate in DMI’s workshop which was held on 13 to 15 May 2010. This 3 days of workshop at the beginning of our course really helped them in getting insights about screen printing. They also got chance to exchange ideas with many printing professionals who participated in this workshop.

Let me introduce all these upcoming heroes to you one by one. Their names and other details are mentioned in the caption of each photos.

Rishu Patrick (21), Josephnagar Village, UP

Sunil Kumar Bhatti (22), Rampur dist, UP

Rinku Singh (21), Behrampur-Buzurg, UP

Sibin David (21), Born in Kerala, settled in Faridabad

Samuel Mattu (25), Amritsar

Nelson Kujur (25), Chhattisgarh

Simon Masih (21), Haryana

Babychen Sebastian (28), Varnapura, Kerala

Sagar Hembron (19), Meerut, UP

Pranav Nitesh (21), Muradabad, UP

Albert D’Costa (23), New Delhi

Thomas Pal (19), Ludhiana

Nitin Kamble (36), GIPT Student, Mumbai

DMI also helps these students to get good offers, so if any one wishes to recruit these highly trained technicians under my guidance than please let me know. We shall make sure to send them once they complete their training.

Finally, may I request you to please send them encouraging wishes so that they are charged up till they complete their training at DMI.

Have a encouraging week.

Regards,

Bhargav

I happy to know DMI’s growing popularity globally

DMI_Workshop_13to15May10

This time I had participants from Bahrain which indicated the growing popularity of DMI all over the world. I was happy to receive Philip Eapen K and his colleague P. Madhusoodan Prabhu from Dar Akhbar Al Khaleej, Bahrain.

This time I printed a calendar on a transparent plastic sheet which I called it as a falling calendar. The design was such that as you turn from Jan till Dec it complete the whole fish aquarium because each month we printed some elements with special effect and metallic inks. Due to transperancy of plastic one could easily see the prints underneath which clears my concept of falling calendar.

In process color screen printing we printed a image of Santa Claus with 100 LPI which you will see in my workshop photo gallery as few participants holding it to see the uniqueness of CMYK screen printing.

Santa Claus screen printed during DMI workshop in 100 LPI

Some participants expressed their unfading contentment after attending DMI’s novel workshop and said to me that for the last seven years he was into screen printing and only doing simple jobs due to lack of knowledge but after my workshop he vowed to change his attitude and I liked his spirit.

He also informed me that he will start experimenting on critical jobs because he has learnt many difficult techniques in a very simple manner from me in my workshop.

More than half of the workshop participants stayed back on the last day till late evening for the launching ceremony of world’s first 5-in-1 NANO-SCREEN MAKER, NANO-Sharpener and a presentation on Grafica’s super saver combination package NANO PREMIER LEAGUE (NPL), a complete in-house screen printing solution offered by my company Grafica. The presentation was made by me which compelled some participant to book the package even though they did not come with such planning to purchase any equipment.

My company managed to book 27 Nano-Premier League package on the spot.

DMI’s next workshop is scheduled from 1st to 3rd June 2010. This time we are going to print folders with special effect. This effect are very useful for printers who are into wedding cards business. Even industrial screen printer would enjoy this coming session because I have completely revamped my presentation with more video illustrations with many new topics which will help them to screen print better.

Have an enriching day.

Bhargav

Adobe Illustrator CS4 Tip – See Your Separations Right In Illustrator

I was training a group of advanced computer graphic artists, who were new to Illustrator. In a discussion about print production, one artist said, “In Photoshop, I can turn off or on various combinations the CMYK ‘plates’ in the Channels panel. I find it useful in seeing how much of a particular color is being used. I know there’s no Channels panel in Illustrator, but is there a way to turn plates on or off?”

“Yes, I answered, in CS4, there’s a new panel called Separations Preview (Window>Separation Preview), which allows you to do just that. It’s also a great way to avoid mistakes and surprises in your Illustrator art. Just recently, I found a CMYK object in a 1-color logo that I designed. When I turned off the CMYK plates in the panel, part of my logo disappeared when viewing just the PMS Spot Color. Even if I looked at a proof, this probably would have slipped by totally unnoticed.”

Adobe CS4 - Illustrator - Separation Preview

Abobe CS4 - Illustrator - Separation Preview

Abobe CS4 - Illustrator - Separation Preview - CYAN

Abobe CS4 - Illustrator - Separation Preview - MAGENTA

Abobe CS4 - Illustrator - Separation Preview - YELLOW

Abobe CS4 - Illustrator - Separation Preview - BLACK

I hope you will like this short tip.

Good Night…

Bhargav
11.47 pm