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

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

Adobe Creative Suite 5 launches today over 250 new features

Adobe CS5 Master Collection

I’m thrilled about Adobe Creative Suite 5 Launch!.

Today is the day that Adobe launches the biggest and most impressive release of Creative Suite 5 with over 250 new features across the Entire Suite.

Join Adobe online today (Tuesday April 13, 2010 at 9.30 IST) for exclusive Asia pacific launch of Adobe Creative Suite 5

Watch out some of the great features with a welcome speech from Shantanu Narayen, President and CEO of Adobe, one of the world’s largest and most diversified software companies

Also check What’s New in Photoshop CS5

Few new features of Photoshop CS5

Some more features of Photoshop CS5

Adobe Photoshop CS5 – Spot Healing and Fill Tool

Sneak peek of new Adobe Photoshop CS5 technologies

Few new features of Illustrator CS5

Also checkout more information and videos about Abobe CS5

I am eagerly waiting to receive my upgrade copy soon…

Gud Night

Bhargav
1:30 am | 13-4-2010

Screen Printers nightmare – think it over before its too late

The heat is on.

Yes, slowly and steadily, I am getting a feel of it and insecurity that in future the traditional line film which we so call Positives used to expose the image on screen will not be so popular and may also be difficult to procure.

Even if its available maybe it would be as precious and expensive as diamonds, ha ha…

Do anyone today are buying a roll camera or shoots a transparency or also do you find any camera consumable retailers stocks reel/roll???

So what’s the matter with conventional line films…

Let me explain, that from last several years many offset printers are moving towards CTP because of few reasons:

1. Cost of film not involved hence reduces printing cost.
2. Avoids storage of films.
3. Does not require vacuum exposing machine to expose plates.
4. Its economical for short runs.

As offset printers and service providers moves towards CTP technology, its but obvious that the overall consumption will definitely go down keeping in mind that offset printers consumes more conventional line films than screen printers.

Even today screen printing industry’s major share is within industrial segment, which does not consume conventional line films as compared to offset printers because in screen printing many jobs are repeated due to that reason screen printers stores their films.

If one compares offset v/s screen’s film consumption, definitely offset rules over in qty and numbers.

As CTP taking over the market in offset, companies producing films are either forced to stop or reduce their conventional line films production.

In case the manufacturers reduce the production than I am sure the prices of conventional films will shoot up. But if they stop than CTS (Computer to Screen) or Ink Jet Films using Ink Jet printers is the only option left for screen printer. Even if cost of SILVER goes up conventional film becomes costly.

Already many service providers have stop their production and are selling their image setters because of this reason. Many have said that the cost of running the image setter is becoming expensive due to spares they get from manufacturers or market are expensive mainly due to non availability of spares because the quantity of image setters production have gone down and are not a priority product for those producers.

Taking all this into consideration I have installed EPSON 9900 Ink Jet printer from TECHNOVA to make my positives at DMI and I would use TECHNOVA’s POSIJET films and their advance proprietary “POLIRIP” software to output my halftone films.

Actually I have been using it and experimenting their product since couple of months and I can definitely say at DMI we have successfully screen printed up to 100 LPI using complete ink jet system to make positive.

By installing the RIP in house, not only I got full control on my output which was difficult earlier, but I am now able to choose suitable LPI, ANGLES and DOT SHAPE to avoid moire pattern in screen printing.

Installing RIP’s in-house I am able to linearize complete process right from film output to color management.

POLIRIP’s advance features allows me not only to compensate my films dot gain curves with the use of transmission densitometer but it also allows me to compensate my press dot gain curves easily to maintain my color as per proof. Using POLIRIP and EPSON 9900 I am able to achieve good solid density over 3.1 and it is adjustable to suite as per my requirement.

Linearization helps me to get full control on my printed jobs and POLIRIP does not bother me to open my files first in Photoshop etc. to compensate dot gain using curves or convert color profiles. In fact the software is very easy to operate. It allows me to dump any CDR, AI, PDF, EPS, PS, JPEG, TIFF, PSD files directly into POLIRIP.

To linearize my process I just have to make a setup file properly there after POLIRIP’s advance feature automatically compensates film dot gain curve, press dot gain and converts the original files color profile to our DMI’s set color profile suitable for particular ink and substrate and then it output the films considering all these parameters.

I think if the RIP does the color management than we can save lot of time and avoid errors. Thanks to the TECHNOVA’s advance technology POLIRIP.

As an institute we have geared up, as a screen printer have you?

Think it over before its too late…

Take care & good night

Bhargav

Print with Preview in Photoshop

In the Color Settings dialog box select an appropriate RGB working space. If you output to a four-ink inkjet, sRGB is fine. If your inkjet uses six or more inks, use Adobe RGB or (if you have one) your custom monitor profile. Set the RGB color management policy to Convert to Working RGB. Uncheck the mismatch warning dialog boxes.

When you’re ready to print, output with Print with Preview. Click the More Options button. In the Options area, make these selections:
–Color Handling: Let Photoshop Determine Colors
–Printer Profile: choose the profile for the paper on which you’re printing
–Rendering Intent: Relative Colorimetric
–Black Point Compensation: selected

After clicking the Print button, you’ll see the printer’s Print dialog box. Make sure that the printer’s own color management is disabled.

Take care…

Bhargav

Image Resolution

To determine the proper resolution, you need two pieces of information: the final output dimensions and the resolution. (For Web, you need only the pixel dimensions and can ignore resolution.) You determine the resolution based on the image’s output device.

If the image will be printed on an inkjet printer, use an image resolution that’s one-third the printer’s rated resolution. For example, if the printer is listed at 1440×720 resolution, the image should have a resolution of 240 ppi. If the printer has a resolution of 1440×1440, the image resolution can be 480 ppi (although 240 ppi is probably fine.) You almost never need to go over 300 ppi. (Print some test images to determine what your printer is capable of doing.)

If the image will be printed commercially on an offset press through screen printing process, you need to know the line screen frequency of the press, measured in lines per inch (lpi). Multiply that number by 1.5 or 2 to find the appropriate image resolution.

Have a nice time…

Bhargav