Screen Printing / Vector Files / Half Tonight? Helllp! XD

[KaytanaPhoenix]

Hmm… I think this is where this question should be posted, lol 🙂

So, I may have gotten myself a smidgeling over my head!XD I took on a “commission” for a logo design, for my moms dog club (specifically the logo for a breed specific “National” show this fall).. and though I can easily enough design the logo, I’m all sorts of *wtf* with converting a Photoshop file into a Vector, and having a fun ol time trying to figure out half toning for screen printing shirts (Half Toning = Dot Shading) — I can use up to 8 colors for the place we’re going to screen print from, but less is better, since we’ll be charged per color we use…

I was mostly ok, all the way up until my deadline started to sneak up, and the person I was going to have help show me how to do things, we’ve had numerous things get in the way of us getting together (Most specifically, her bf getting the flu last week and now she has it – and I don’t want it! lol) annnnnd my deadline is Sunday, lol >.< *DOH* Sooooo.... Anyone know anything about taking a file from Photoshop (I'm running CS) and making a Vector file out of it? (I have Inkscape) and ANY good advise on doing Half Toning/Dot shading, specifically making it work as a vector would be soooooo helpful! lol 🙂 I fully understand if I am being far too complicated for good advise, I'm slowly figuring things out for what I have to work with, and at worst can get a rough finished file, but I have this funny feeling I might be doing things a whole lot harder than I need to, lol! ***EDIT I've been watching this to try and figure out how to make dot shading from normal shading.. it - sort of - works.. but I haven't tried to get it into converting to a Vector, and something tells me I'm going to mess that part alllllll up, lol... Doesn't help that I don't understand everything the person is doing because her Photoshop isn't English, lol! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ5gDWXLCEM&feature=youtu.be

[Ela_Hara]

An EPS file is a Vector file, and Photoshop can save your file in an EPS format. Any fonts you have will need to be converted into outlines though – I know that for sure.

I’m not sure about the dot patterns. Perhaps one of the ‘half tone’ effects in Photoshop can be utilized? The ‘shading’ will need to happen as smaller dots and larger ones I think.

Unfortunately, I have limited knowledge of Photoshop, but if you have a contact at the company that will produce the screen printing, they may be able to help with questions, and possibly could take your straight EPS file and might have their own art dept to convert it properly for their machinery.

I hope this helps.

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[KaytanaPhoenix]

An EPS file is a Vector file, and Photoshop can save your file in an EPS format. Any fonts you have will need to be converted into outlines though – I know that for sure.

I’m not sure about the dot patterns. Perhaps one of the ‘half tone’ effects in Photoshop can be utilized? The ‘shading’ will need to happen as smaller dots and larger ones I think.

Unfortunately, I have limited knowledge of Photoshop, but if you have a contact at the company that will produce the screen printing, they may be able to help with questions, and possibly could take your straight EPS file and might have their own art dept to convert it properly for their machinery.

I hope this helps.

Ohhh… will play with EPS files 🙂
Majority of my problem is the half toning stuff I’ve tried, every time I try to get Inkscape to convert the dots, it decides that the dots are absolutely senseless… and blotches everything together in one glorious yuck, lol XD

[Rusti]

For a screen printer you could probably get away with a layered tif at the right size, a color on each layer, but it depends on the company. Logos ought to be done with a vector program to start with, because now that’s been made in Photoshop and they want an EPS, you’re going to be pulling your hair out, even if you had Illustrator to Livetrace it with.

Do you have any gradients in your file or is it all solid blocks of color? Can you throw it up on an image share site and link me to it so I can see it?

[KaytanaPhoenix]

For a screen printer you could probably get away with a layered tif at the right size, a color on each layer, but it depends on the company. Logos ought to be done with a vector program to start with, because now that’s been made in Photoshop and they want an EPS, you’re going to be pulling your hair out, even if you had Illustrator to Livetrace it with.

Do you have any gradients in your file or is it all solid blocks of color? Can you throw it up on an image share site and link me to it so I can see it?

Currently it’s been more playing with the features I want in the design (I’ve done stupid looking test pieces) so that I can get a better understanding on how to make the original without making it a PAIN to convert, lol (or more-so of a pain than it already will be) – I want to get to the point that I start in Vectors, but for now I’ve gotten a gist of how to trace into a vector and then tweak that.. I’m planning on getting the design done up in Photoshop in the next couple of days (My deadline thankfully did extend by about a week! *Phew!*) So when I have that part done, I’ll show you 🙂 I’ve just come to the conclusion that I may have to go back and change my original, but I’ll be able to better explain and possibly find the solution with the original already done (I hope that makes sense, lol!)

[Rusti]

OK! I’m surprised the printer isn’t able to make halftones themselves and are asking you to do it for them. There’s a simple way to do it in Photoshop, but each color is going to have to be a separate file, so when you get there, we’ll go through it.

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